VeloNews talks to Canadian rider Ryder Hesjedal about his form and hopes for his debut at the 2008 Tour de France.

Said Ryder: “It’s my first Tour, so day by day, and we’ll see how the condition comes. It’s all new to me. After having the Giro in my legs and with the preparation we did; the training best we could for a month without racing, and coming here with the best possible condition.”

Well, this has certainly been the Year of Absolute Craziness. From the spring classics to the various track events that all hold unique qualifications for the Olympic Games. If there is one thing this sport certainly teaches its athletes, it’s how to get back up when you are down. How to look to the brighter side of things when you are completely wiped out and beaten down…Who am I kidding! It was more stressful then anything else I have ever done! I’ve had highs and lows. I was overjoyed at times, and in tears others. The Olympics have been a dream of mine since I was a child.

For this dream to come true now, at a time in my life when I have put everything else on hold, is truly an amazing feeling.

The best part so far for me has been telling friends and family who have been part of this journey for so long. To hear their individual gasps of relief and joy has been the greatest feeling. At this point, it’s not only for me. I’m not riding for that paycheck. I’m riding for my country, the people who stand behind me, those that believed and didn’t believe. This was a group effort and triumph as well as an individual one, and that will not go overlooked.

Right now I’m in Italy for the 6 Days of Fiorenzuola before I head back to Colorado to resume training. On the 21st, I will be in DC where I will be sharing a day in the Rose Garden and dinner with the President as one of 16 athletes as part of an “Official Send Off”. Needless to say, I’m very excited about it.

Come early August, I will be preparing to leave for the Opening Ceromonies!

The feed zone. What is it and why have one?

The feed zone is a designated point at about midway through the race. Normally two soigneurs wear a team long sleeve jersey or a vest so the riders recognize us. We hand off a mussette to each one with the following inside:

2 bottles of Clif electrolyte mix or one water and one mix on hot days
1 Clif bar
1 Mojo/Luna/Z bar
1 Clif block
1 Clif gel with and one without caffeine,
1 little sandwich made with ham and Philadelphia cream cheese, for example
1 special rice cake made with egg and rice!
1 tiny can of Coke.

We also prepare extra bottles for the directors’ cars on hot days and have extra ice on the ready to keep bottles cool.

During the Tour we leave before the riders to get to the feed station called the ‘ravitaillement’. It’s nice as all the roads are closed…no stress! After the riders have all taken their feed bags, then it gets stressful. We are behind the race and the roads are no longer closed for us so we have to find an alternative route to the finish. But we still have to follow all the traffic rules and enter in the same route as the riders but at a designated point. With so many roads blocked with barriers and so many fans it’s nice to know that once we arrive near the finish, we can reach the bus before the riders. Again, it’s well organized.

Yesterday we had 9 riders so I took 5 mussettes and walked 100m behind Josep who carried 4 mussettes. The director announces over the radio 5 km from the feed where we are located - e.g start or finish of feed zone - so the riders have time to move over to the right hand side and grab their bag! We stand apart so riders who miss the first one of us have have an opportunity to do so. Or if all 9 riders are in a long line, it’s not easy for us to hand them all off that quickly if it’s at a high speed!

Stay tuned for more, Sandra

Pictured above in the older team apparel is soigneur Alyssa at a feed zone during the Giro d’Italia.

ESPN.com’s Bonnie Ford is providing daily Tour de France updates and stage summaries on Team Garmin-Chipotle and Team Columbia. Ford will also be writing columns on key stage days as well, beginning with Tuesday’s individual time trial.

Despite being nervous and windy, today’s short 164.5 km stage delivered few surprises. The final was a fast uphill mass sprint and most of the Garmin-Chipotle crew finished in on the same time as stage winner Thor Hushovd. Young Martijn Maaskant was the highest finisher at 14th and David Millar’s finish moved him up to 7th in the overall standings.

Tour debutant Danny Pate (above) kicked the day off in style by being the first rider to attack. Going off from the gun, he was quickly joined by a handful of others. But the break was short lived as Bouygues Telecom was having none of it.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O as a group is ranked fourth in the overall team classification. Stage 2 photos from our brilliant photographers Graham Watson and Casey Gibson coming soon!

Team Garmin-Chipotle H30 stage 2 results
1. Thor Hushovd 3h45′13″

14. Martijn Maaskant +00″
26. David Millar +00″
31. Christian Vande Velde +00″
71. Ryder Hesjedal +00″
73. Trent Lowe +00″
95. Will Frischkorn +00″
134. Magnus Backstedt +2′10″
159. Danny Pate +2′30″
172. Julian Dean +00″ *

*In the final K, Julian got tangled up in a crash but is fine and received the same time as his group.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H30 GC
1. Alejandro Valverde 8h21′20″

7. David Millar +1″
21. Christian Vande Velde +7″
41. Trent Lowe +7″
42. Ryder Hesjedal +7″
77. Julian Dean +52″
81. Martijn Maaskant +1′01″
122. Will Frischkorn +2′
138. Danny Pate +3′42″
174. Magnus Backstedt +7′06″

Team GC
1. Caisse D’Epargne 25h04′08″
2. Team Columbia +7″
3. Team CSC Saxo Bank +7″
4. Team Garmin-Chipotle +7″

Location:
Brittany, France

Overview:
Team Garmin-Chipotle riders are recording the stages of the 2008 Tour de France with their Garmin Edge 705s for you data hungry fans out there. Each day, we will feature one rider and his data.

At 164.5 km, stage 2 is one of the shorter road stages. It is flat to rolling as it winds north to the ocean through the hills of Brittany. The climbs are small but mean and include three category 4 climbs and one category 3 climb, the Mur-de-Bretagne (282m). The finish is slightly uphill into the center of Saint-Brieuc.

Follow Martijn Maaskant on as manages to mix it up in the final mass sprint and finish 14th on the stage.

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Distance: 73.09 miles

Total Elevation Gain: 5,226 ft.

Google Earth:   View on Google Earth

MotionBased:   View on MotionBased

Download Ride Data:   GPS Device   GPX   HST   CRS

Stage one done. That was a weird way to start the Tour de France. It’s been over forty years since the race wasn’t launched with a prologue. I think it was missed, and that’s not because I can sometimes go fast in them, but because I think it creates a buzz and more of a spectacle. I can understand the desire of the organization to make it a little different though and it did end up getting quite spectacular those last 1.7 km. It’s a pity we needed 195 km beforehand to make it spectacular!

I can’t really remember seeing much. I had decided Cunego was my man. The two of us were moving up, then all hell starting breaking loose and I lost valuable seconds before I realized Cunego was blowing up. Then it became a chase to the line. I thought I was going to get caught in a split but Peirero came round me in the last 50 meters and filled the gap between myself and Friere (my big tip for the win yesterday).

Afterwards, I had a random doping control and on the drive back down the emptying hill, as they were taking the barriers down, I had to ask Prentice if there had been many people watching on the side of the road. I had not seen or heard anything! Proper tunnel vision. Valverde is one hell of a bike rider. Devastating when he is at 100% and he has one of the best teams in the world. So I’m glad they’ll be controlling the race the next couple of days. They know how.

It was a typically nervous TdF day. It’s such a different race to the Giro. The Giro has a fairly stress free peloton and laissez-faire attitude (it’s the pre-post race shenanigans that stress the Giro out). The race orientates around clearly defined moments, normally dictated by terrain (hills), and it’s always the rider’s choice to make it stressful or not. You have options at the Giro.

The Tour is different. There is so much energy present, it buzzes, you can feel it all around you. There is a constant background noise and you know that if you disengage from it for a moment, you can lose everything. This energy depletes as the race goes on, but this first week is electric. T-Bag (Trent Lowe) said after the race that he was already shitting himself in the neutral. It was about as sketchy and nervous as the final of any other bike race, which puts it into perspective.

T-Bag amazes me though. He’s a real climber in stature, but he races at the front of the bunch with the best of the them. Makes me proud he does. I’ll never forget seeing him at Paris-Nice holding his own in one of the most horrific crosswind days I’ve ever experienced. Although he does say that day has scarred him for life. He’s not alone. I think Christian had his most shameful day on a bike that day which he will readily admit. He can tell that story though.

So into stage two. I’m in a good position and now need to protect it till Tuesday where Christian and I shall be cut loose. We’re looking forward to it and it’s going to be a fun day. In the mean time, I shall try and observe odd little goings on to report in my diary entries. I’m very focused this year, so it is a little harder for me to channel it into writing, but I will try my best.

I do have one funny little anecdote though from yesterday:

I found myself next to Robbie McEwen for a minute in the bunch. We exchanged pleasantries and that obviously led to the weather, which was incredibly windy and storm like.

RM: ‘I bet there isn’t one guy racing today who woke up and looked out the window and thought, “YES, YOU BEAUTY!”’
ME: ‘Yep, this is shit…’
We both pause.
RM: laughing ‘Well actually, Jens probably did.’
Then we both start laughing and say at exactly the same time,
RM + ME: ‘YEAH, HE DOES THAT EVERY DAY!’
RM: laughing ‘Animal.’
ME: laughing ‘Freak.’
That had us chuckling for a few more minutes and says so much about the man, the machine that is Jens Voigt.

The Charleston Gazette features Charleston, West Virginia native Will Frischkorn and his debut at the 2008 Tour de France with Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O.

From the article: “The 27-year-old Frischkorn is just one of four Americans competing in this year’s Tour and is believed to be the first West Virginian to compete in the event. ‘It’s a true honor to line up alongside the other three Americans in this year’s event in what’s arguably the largest sporting event in the world,’ he said. ‘Representing the U.S. and the Garmin-Chipotle team is a dream come true.’ ”