THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Georgia on his mind: A chat with Tom Danielson
When Tom Danielson joined VeloNews for a cup of coffee in an Athens java shop on the Monday following the Tour de Georgia’s final stage, it was evident that he felt a touch of remorse over failing to repeat his 2005 victory.
“I love Tour de Georgia and I love Georgia. Every time I come here I tell my wife, Kristen, ‘Man, we should get a house up here in the Brasstown area.’ It’s just so beautiful and the climbs are amazing and the pavement is nice,” said the 29-year-old Discovery Channel rider, who was in town for a fun ride out of The Hub bicycle shop.
“I love to fish and I see these lakes that I could potentially go fishing in. So I love it here. Maybe that’s why halfway through the race, when that breakaway went, a piece of me kind of left with that breakaway. I kind of lost my motivation a little bit, because for me … I want to win this race. And if I can’t win this race, then I want to help my teammate win this race. But it’s hard for me to take scraps along the way. I can either do 100 percent one (way) or 100 percent the other.”
The breakaway Danielson referred to, in stage 3, saw a group of 13 seize a staggering 29-minute advantage on the main field, effectively dashing several GC contenders’ hopes midway through the race.
“It kind of looked like a lot of people were racing against Levi (Leipheimer) and I was saying, ‘Hey, look, man, there goes your race. Bummer! You came here and you wanted to win it and now it’s up the road.’ And they were kind of laughing at us, and actually we had the last laugh.
“In Europe, in a ProTour-level race, you would not see this. Every team has a vested interest, and it looks incredibly silly to see this happen … for the sponsor and just out of respect (for) the race. For us, we were a winner. We won the stage and we won the race overall, with Gianne (Meersman) and Janez (Brajkovic). So it was a great day.”
With the race behind him, Danielson now gets to focus on the next phase of his program. He’ll be looking at both the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, which is near his home in Spain, and the Dauphiné Libéré. Then he’ll hope to land a berth with Discovery’s Tour de France squad.
But next year, if the Tour de Georgia shakes off its financial woes and returns to the American racing calendar, Danielson will be back in the Peach State.
“That’s precisely why I started my coffee company.” he said with a smile. “If AT&T pulls out, then I can sponsor the race!”
