L’Equipe, the largest sports daily in France, and possibly Europe, included a full-page profile of David Millar as part of their Paris-Nice preview. The profile talks to David about his hopes for Paris-Nice, his role with Slipstream/Chipotle and his dreams for a clean sport.

David says: “We [the sport of cycling] are on the forefront of the anti-doping movement. I want to believe that by 2012, cycling will be the flag-bearer for anti-doping.”

Download article here. Note that it is in French.

Tom Peterson (left) goes for a morning spin pre-prologue in Amilly.

Here are the start times for your favorite Slipstream/Chipotle riders:

186. Danny Pate 12:11:00
185. Trent Lowe 12:31:00
182. Lucas Euser 12:51:00
183. Tyler Farrar 13:11:00
184. Christophe Laurent 13:31:00
187. Tom Peterson 13:51:00
188. Christian Vande Velde 14:11:00
181. David Millar 14:31:00

Getting to know the ‘géant de Provence’
March 8, 2008:

We’ve all made it to Paris-Nice healthy, fit and ready to race. Nigh a miracle considering the time of year and the rough weather and illness that was going around California. Not to mention the usual shenanigans between ASO and UCI. I don’t even see there being much point in me commenting on that. I mean what is there to say which isn’t obvious and hasn’t already been said? It’s bollocks is what it is.

The whole team got here Friday. It’s given us a chance to settle in and rest up rather than chasing planes and trains. Of course when I say settle in I mean try and physically fit myself and Christian and our bags into a mouse-size room. At first, we stood around in absolute amazement that a hotel room so small could possibly exist. Then we came up with a new furniture arrangement that made it possible for us to simply open our cases while in the room at the same time (we don’t ask for much).

I needed the rest when I got here as I’d spent the day before on a recon trip in Provence to do some research of the legendary Mont Ventoux. We have a stage finish at Mont Serein, which is three quarters of the way up on the north side of the Ventoux. Normally, races go all the way to the top of the south side which most bike fans are familiar with because of the lunar landscape, Tommy Simpson Memorial and legendary Tour de France battles that have taken place on that side.

The north side is not quite as well known. I’ve only raced up there once and that was in the 2001 Dauphine. I climbed well that day, crossing the top with Christophe Moreau (who went on to win the race overall) and then doing the fastest, most crazy descent of my life to catch up to the climbers. I decided that this was not a week to be relying on such rose-tinted memories and that I had better climb it again and remove any complacency that may have existed. And there’s the fact everybody says the north side is easier than the south, something I wanted to confirm for myself.

Nicole, Zorro and I hit the road on Thursday late afternoon and had a turbulent drive from Girona to Malaucène (the village at the very foot of the north side and from now on to be referred to as base camp). It was turbulent because the Mistral was blowing strong. It was so strong in fact that when I perused L’Equipe on Friday, I saw that the windsurfing world speed record was broken! Some mad man near Marseille got up to 90 km/hr. I dunno man, that seems like crazy talk to me. Anyway, the wind was stupid strong.

By a freakish twist of fate, the Gutowskys who work at Slipstream and have become friends these few last months, have a house at base camp, making the whole recon plan all the more feasible. So Thursday lunch time I set off from base camp with illusions of doing a two-hour loop then climbing the ‘géant’ twice, first time easy, second time hard. Oh how foolish I was! The first time up, I realised it wasn’t possible to reach the top easily. But fortunately Goot was there so when I reached the top frozen and semi-demoralized, he could pile me into the car and return me to base camp.

I wasn’t happy. So after showering, eating and snoozing I decided I was going to have to give it another go. I stumbled out of the bedroom at 4:30 pm declaring this to the rest of the recon party. I suppose this is where the newly crowned windsurfing world speed record holder would call my actions crazy talk. I still felt average and the wind was blowing and the temperature dropping, but I was determined to conquer the beast. I set off at 5 pm with instructions to Nicole and Kathy to meet me at the top at 6 pm–and to bring Zorro, he’d like the snow.

Twenty minutes later I realized what a stupid man I was. But my stupidity did not exceed my stubbornness and so onwards and upwards I plodded. Any ideas of going race pace up there by this point were laying on the pillow at base camp where they should have stayed. Anyway, I was no longer doing this just for myself. Zorro would love the snow and Nicole must see the view. So to make a slow story fast, everybody got to the top, and I now know the north side of Mont Ventoux intimately. The rose tinted glasses have fallen off and are laying smashed somewhere in Malaucène.

Today is the prologue of Paris-Nice, my principal objective for the start of this year. I feel good, relaxed and strong. Our team is giving off an aura of relaxed strength as well. All is well for now.

On the eve of the 66th running of Paris-Nice, Director Sportif Johnny Weltz said Slipstream/Chipotle is ready to race to the sun:

“All our riders are signed in, all of them healthy. As usual, we don’t really start in Paris, but about 100 km south of Paris in a small town called Amilly that used to be on the road to Nice,” said Weltz.

“We previewed the 4.6 km prologue this morning and everyone is happy with the short course,” he continued. “Danny Pate will go off first at 12:11 and David Millar will go last at 14:31.”

Slipstream Paris-Nice Squad
Lucas Euser
Tyler Farrar
Christophe Laurent
Trent Lowe
Dave Millar
Danny Pate
Tom Peterson
Christian Vande Velde

Canadian Ryder Hesjedal in main break all day and finishes 10th
Martijn Maaskant finishes 4th

Riding in a race that gets its name from the Italian word for heroic, Ryder Hesjedal put in a brave effort today that saw him pushing the pace at the front for most of the 180 km event.

He joined and stayed with an early break that slowly deteriorated as the riders tackled the “sterrati” or gravel roads and climbs. “It was hard and I think a lot of the riders didn’t expect it to be so hilly,” said Ryder. “For me, it was one of the best races I have ever done. Those five hours went by so fast.”

Ryder said that his training back home in Victoria, Canada prepared him for seven sectors of sterrati. “I know how to handle a bike in these conditions. And in Vittoria, I do train on gravel roads like the ones in today’s race.”

With 25 km to go, Ryder put it all on the line and broke away solo from the group. He managed to hold off for 20 km and had a gap of 40″ at one point. But coming up to the final climb, Fabian Cancellara and Alessandro Ballan joined Ryder and then cranked it up for the finish. Knowing Martijn was in the chase group, Ryder held up to assist his teammate for the sprint finish. Martijn finished a strong 4th and Ryder 10th.

“Two Slipstream/Chipotle riders in the top ten in a race like this? You can’t be anything but happy about that,” said Ryder. “Though I was completely envisioning winning solo and I was going for it, was almost there. Today is about as good as it gets.”

Slipstream Results
1. Fabian Cancellara 4:34′41

4. Martijn Maaskant 4:34′56
10. Ryder Hesjedal 4:35′19
16. Steven Cozza 4:35′51
35. Chris Sutton 4:36′31
50. Kilian Patour 4:40′01
61. Will Frischkorn 4:44′11

We are lucky for the second weekend in a row! The rain was positively bucketing yesterday during prep and now, here it is race day, and the skies are relatively clear. Bike setup is pretty much the same as it was for Het Volk and Kuurne. The awesome Vittoria pavé tires (Did I mention we had only 1 puncture last weekend during Cobble Camp?!) are getting another outing to cope with the 57 km of gravel sections and we have about 115 psi in them today. An extra layer Pedros Chainj on the chains and we are all set to go.

There should be some great photos today, the gravel roads should be good watching!

-Kris

It’s 10:19 pm and I’m in the team camper after being picked up from the airport in Pisa, Italy. We are on our way to race Eroica, a relatively new one-day event in Italy. I just came from northern France where Maggy, Farrar, Maaskant, and I had a recon of the Paris-Roubaix (PR) course. Our adventure was dubbed “Cobble Camp.”

Camp lasted two days and our goals were to: 1) experience the stones\sections first-hand (pavé photo left) and see what “tough” really is; 2) learn from the 2004 PR champ, taking whatever advice was thrown our way; and 3) test various Zipp wheels (202 or 404) and various size Vitoria pavé tires (24 or 27 mm).

Het Volk had about 16 km of cobbles; in these two brutal days we covered 50 km. It was sunny on one section, hailing on the next, then dry everywhere else, except the cobbles. At times it was muddy, dusty, smooth, bumpy, and so rough you couldn’t hang on to the bars, cold, hot, and eventually JUST RIGHT!

It was a rude awakening the first few sections. At first you can’t see anything because the bloody shaking is surreal. Bones, arms, fingers, joints, backs, necks, heads, saddle regions, legs, knees, and feet ache and hurt. I quickly realized that I couldn’t ride the hoods the way I did during Het.

It’s not that the Het cobbles aren’t freaking hard, because they are. It’s that they are more rectangular shaped and laid in a “smoother” pattern. The PR cobbles are more pentagonal, and in some areas are actually laid in a pattern. In others though, it’s as if a truck drove through a muddy field and pushed the stones out letting them lay where they landed.

Riding the gaps in between the stones is like riding between railroad tracks when the tracks aren’t exactly parallel. Don’t get me wrong, there are “smoother” sections. But it’s like driving in NYC. You point the front end where you want to go and floor it.

Ultimately, these two days were spectacular! They were very useful and I learned and experienced a lot. While this will be my first Roubaix, I have no doubt what I went through here will carry me further and longer in the actual race.

My job is to help Maggy and that is what I intend to do until either I crash so badly I can’t continue or that I physically can’t go on.

-Meatball

P.S. My poor license plate fell off!

Dutch coach Adrie van Diemen will be following Paris-Nice very closely next week, hoping to see the results of his intense training efforts with Slipstream/Chipotle cyclists David Millar and Christian Vande Velde.

“After giving a presentation on my training approach at the Boulder event in November, David and Christian asked me to take on their training,” said Adrie, who was already training Dutch cyclists Martijn Maaskant and Huub Duyn and French cyclists Kilian Patour and Christophe Laurent. One of the top in the profession, Adrie has 25-years of experience that includes working with Vaughters, Greg Lemond, Danny Nelissen, and the Rabobank Cycling Teams.

Since November, Adrie has been working closely with the riders to make their training as personal as possible, relying on daily interaction with these motivated cyclists.

“I interact with David nearly every day on how things went, how he feels. That information allows me to adjust the plan accordingly and help him get more out of the structure,” he said. “The more and better feedback I have, the more I know about what is going on with a rider’s legs and head.”

Speaking to David, it is easy to understand that he and Adrie have a lot of confidence in each other. “Adrie for me is a coach who strikes the right balance between science and racing. He explains everything to me, but doesn’t bamboozle me with his knowledge,” said David. “I have enough faith in Adrie to know that I won’t understand all his reasoning, but that in order for him to make me a better cyclist, he needs to know everything I feel.”

Adrie believes Slipstream/Chipotle’s strong showing in Qatar and the overall success in California bode well for a good Paris-Nice, which ultimately spells a better shot at the Tour de France. This impressive start to the season was, after all, always planned!