A conversation with Steve Larsen

A new gig and maybe a new outlook

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There’s a new Steve Larsen these days and he seems a heck of a lot happier than the old one.

Despite a race résumé that dates back to the ‘80s, includes a three-year stint on the old Motorola team, a couple of Giri d’Italia and a stellar career as America’s top male mountain-bike racer, Larsen seems almost permanently saddled by the image of his 2000 season, the one that saw him barely miss a spot on the U.S. Olympic squad. The image of that shaved head, that bloodied angry face at the NORBA NCS event in Deer Valley, Utah, was enough to make one forget that Larsen was well on his way to locking up the national title that day.

Larsen said he was ready to go for a repeat this season, when fate or luck intervened last May and he entered the Wildflower half-Ironman triathlon in California “on a whim.” Larsen surprised many by surviving the swim, moving into third after turning in the day’s fastest bike split and then holding on for fourth and this against a field that included some of the sport’s best.

It was all he needed. Larsen shifted his attention from the mountain bike, racing part time on the road for the Prime Alliance squad and planning to take on the 2001 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. Of course, he first had to qualify. Not a problem.

Despite never having entered a full Ironman-distance event, let alone never having run a marathon, Larsen went on to win the Isuzu Ironman USA Lake Placid triathlon on July 29, largely on the strength of (what else?) a phenomenal bike leg.

His ninth-place finish in this October’s Ironman event in Hawaii doesn’t do justice to the impact he had on the event. Larsen, out of the water nearly 12 minutes behind the leaders, blazed through the 112-mile bike leg and completely changing the dynamic of the race. While he eventually faded to ninth, he finished with the satisfaction of “knowing exactly where I can improve for next year.”

Just after a visit with his new major sponsor, Pearl Izumi, Larsen stopped by VeloNews’s offices in Boulder, Colorado, on November 15. We used the opportunity to ask last year’s NORBA national champion about his new gig and his plans for next year.

VeloNews: So, have you completely made the transition – no pun intended – to triathlon at this point? Do you expect to be racing mountain bikes or road bikes any more?

Steve Larsen: I’m definitely in a transitional mode. This next year I am going to pursue triathlon as my main focus. I’ll see what I can fit in. For me the sport is so new I really don’t know how the schedule will play out. Obviously, I’ve known the road schedule for decades and I know when the important NORBA races are, but I’m just getting into this, so it’ll take a while before a get a feel for the normal ebbs and flows of the triathlon season.

I’ll always be a guy who is into a lot of different things. For one thing, I’ll continue to race on the road. I think the road thing will be very advantageous for me in triathlon. That’s obviously my strength in triathlon and I don’t want to lose that. It’s my strength, but I am going to have to dedicate more time to the swimming and running if I want to be at that level, particularly in a race like Hawaii. Like the Tour, it is the one important race of the year and one in which I want to perform at a really high level. To do that, my cycling at some point may have to take something of a back seat, but I am not going to give up what is my strength.

I don’t know if I’ll do any mountain biking at all next year. I just saw the NORBA schedule released last week. To be honest, it isn’t that high of a priority any more. You know this year, I had hoped to regain my national title, but I was already making the switch to triathlon. I feel really lucky that I discovered triathlon. It’s been awesome. I’ve met great people, I’ve had great results and I am having fun.

VN: What are you enjoying the most?

SL: There is an excitement to taking on two new sports. In fact, even the cycling, in the context of triathlon, is different. So, it’s been a process of learning all over again.

My sponsors have sure stepped up in a big way. A lot of them have offered additional support so that I could prepare, so that’s definitely the way I’m headed.

So, back to the earlier question, I don’t think mountain biking will fit in too much, but if I have a spare weekend, I might give it a shot. I went to Wildflower (a half Ironman in California) on a whim, so maybe if I’m riding well and feeling good, maybe I’ll go to Mammoth, or wherever they’re going. It’s never out of the question.

I will try to do the Zinger (the 139-mile Saturn Classic road race from Boulder to Breckenridge, Colorado). I want to be healthy for that. I want to do San Francisco again.

VN: You mentioned sponsorship. Has triathlon proven to be more lucrative than racing mountain bikes?

SL: I’m still not sure how it will end up. I can tell you that I am not doing this just for the money. As a professional athlete, that’s certainly a big component. You have to make a living, but I was doing fine as a mountain biker, but I wasn’t having any fun doing it. I wasn’t performing at a level that I was accustomed to and I thought it was time to make a change.

My sponsors have been really enthusiastic supporting me in this new endeavor. Pearl Izumi is ready to go full on with me on this and they seem ready to offer me the level of support that will allow me to do my job the right way and be fully prepared going into Hawaii next year. But it would be a mistake to say that I made the change for the money. You can’t use that as the motivation. I mean even Lance, who makes a considerable sum of money, can’t look to that when he’s grinding his way up whatever climb in April and it’s pouring down rain. At that point, it can’t be for the money. It has to be the challenge and that’s what it is for me. I mean, in triathlon I have been happy to have good results – winning the first Ironman distance event I entered – but the challenge is knowing just how much farther I have to go, how much more I need to do to improve. That’s what’s motivating me right now.

The other thing that is really driving me now, too, is taking on the retail store that we just bought. That’s been real invigorating for me because I could get back to where I started. It’s literally the shop I got my start in. I’ve had the pleasure of resurrecting a lot of the group rides I had the luxury of riding when I was 14-years-old. It’s a good chance to give back to people, both cyclists and triathletes alike. That’s been real exciting. I think that’s an area where after crossing the finish line in either first place or 50th, I can still be of real value to my sponsors.

VN: When did you buy the shop?

SL: Just back in April. It’s “Steve Larsen’s Wheelworks” in Davis, California. It was originally the Wheelworks and has been under the same ownership since the beginning and the original owner sold it to me. He’d approached numerous times, but he was reluctant to sell it to just any one.

Coincidentally, it was a shop I almost bought when I came back from road racing. I was going to come back to school at the time and figured that I needed something to support me as I worked my way through college… but then the mountain-bike thing took off. That was something elsethat I did just on a whim.

The shop has been good for all of us. My wife is really enjoying running the shop and she’s gotten to where she really enjoys leading group rides. We have two kids and it’s been really important for me to be able to spend more time at home, too.

VN: I imagine with triathlon, you are able to spend more time at home than you were as a mountain-bike racer.

SL: That is one of the great things, too, about triathlon. There is certainly much more pressure on each event because they are fewer and farther between – only a few big ones on everyone’s radar screen, Hawaii being the most prominent. Conceivably, you could do two, three or four races a year and, if you do well at them, you’ve had a great year and that’s all that’s expected of you. I’ll probably do more than that, because I need the experience at this point.

I also had the opportunity to do full-time road racing with the Prime Alliance team, a team I thin will be in a position to be one of the best, if not the best, next season. But I’d been down that road with Motorola and spending 150 or 200 days a year on the road is not something I want to do. I was happy to do it when I was 23 and we didn’t have kids yet. Now I’m 31 and we have two kids. The focus is different.

Right now I have the right balance. I have the support I need to be able to compete and to do so in a comfortable environment.

VN: Davis is ideal for that.

SL: Yes it’s great for riding, the swim program is strong here and I am working with (former Motorola and 7-Eleven team doctor) Massimo Testa. They (Testa and former 7-Eleven pro Eric Heiden, now an orthopedic surgeon) have their sports medicine clinic right here in Davis.

VN: If, as you say, you might be doing some road racing, would you be doing that with Roy Knickman’s team (Prime Alliance)?

SL: It’s something we’ve talked about. It worked out well this year. They were a new team and they needed some horsepower and I think I offered that on a couple of occasions… Core States (the First Union USPRO championship in Philadelphia) and San Francisco. I think on those days I was an asset to the team. Next year, they have a much stronger program, better riders and I have a much bigger program with my sponsors – we just have to find a balance. If not them, maybe with another team.

VN: In terms of your new sport, I think the biggest surprise that came out of Lake Placid is the strength you exhibited on the run. In Hawaii, you managed to hold them off for a while. How are those two new disciplines – swimming and running – working out for you?

SL: The swim is definitely the biggest challenge for me. I mean even when I talk about the excitement of new challenges, when I go swimming, it’s work. It’s a lot of work for me, because it’s not something that comes naturally to me.

You know, I think I have the engine (patting himself lightly on the chest) but I have to master the technique. It’s a very, very technical sport. But in Davis, there are some good resources. There are phenomenal swimmers in town. There is a good master’s program, but it’s challenging. It’s tough to learn how to swim at age 30.

The running… I’ve always loved running. I never did it because I was a cyclist and rule number one was to avoid running or even walking a lot. Running comes relatively naturally to me.

VN: Were you satisfied with your run in Hawaii?

SL: In Hawaii, I was right on track for the kind of run I wanted to do, but there were a lot of other factors that came into play that day and made it tough for everybody. I want to get to the point where next year I can look to my run as a strength and not a liability. In Hawaii, I wasn’t able to run as comfortably as I did at Lake Placid, but the pace was much higher, too.

VN: Nonetheless, you were certainly a huge factor in that race. (Winner) Tim DeBoom was here a while back and said your presence alone changed the race. Certainly the Germans seemed to focus on you, even specifically mentioning at a press conference that they weren’t worried about you on the bike – probably a sure sign that they were worried. I think some of the more established pros were joking about making the swim rough for you… knocking you around and such. How did all that go?

SL: I’d heard that, too. I was a little nervous going into it. I got knocked around plenty in the swim, but I don’t think there was anything with malicious intent, but I’d heard stories and I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never raced with any of those guys, so I didn’t know how they were going to be.

But I have to say, that the Germans were great. They were talking a pretty big game before the race, but they were by far the classiest and most gracious athletes at the race after the fact. You know a number of them went on to blow right by me toward the end of the marathon, but they were all very gracious and respected the effort I put out on the bike and they respected the fact that in a lot of ways I was the main impact on the race – before, during and even after. I blew that race apart and they respected that and I respect them for that.

They could have easily rubbed my nose in it after the run, but they came and congratulated me on the ride, because that was the kind of heroic effort on the bike that the Germans dream of doing. They especially put a lot of importance on the bike, whereas Americans tend to view it more as a running race.

VN: How do you view it?

SL: Well, there is no question that you have to be able to run, but I think you can win that race from the bike and I’ll show people that you can do that.

VN: Well, that’s certainly what you did in Lake Placid… counting the deficit after the swim and the mechanical, you turned in a bike split that was nearly half-an-hour faster than anyone else.

SL: Yeah, Lake Placid was an example, but it is what Natasha Badmann does every year. She doesn’t have to run at her absolute limit, because she just destroys everyone on the bike.

VN: Yeah and she usually still has enough of a margin to wave and smile at everyone as she’s doing it.

SL: It’s easy for her. Years ago, John Howard won that because he was such a cyclist and then it eventually gravitated to becoming a runner’s race. Mark Allen was obviously an awesome runner. Tim (DeBoom) has clearly stepped up his running. If I had run at a level I thought I was capable of, he would have a tough time of it, because he lost so much time to me on the bike.

It’ll be interesting. I have another year to get ready and so do they. They will obviously be focusing on their bike and I need to work on my swim and my run. It’ll be interesting to see who achieves the correct balance.

VN: You’re obviously enjoying yourself. How long do you expect to stay in the sport?

SL: I have no idea. I think it’s the kind of sport where guys my age are just coming into their prime. I think I’ve made the transitions at the right times into sports that suit my age a little bit better. I am making this move into a sport that depends on the aerobic engine, the endurance aspect and I am at a good point for that. I’ve had nearly 20 years of getting the engine ready. Now I get to work on technique.

You look at Mark Allen and Dave Scott and they really achieved their best between the ages of 30 to 37. The potential is there, but right now I’ll just take it a year at a time. I sure don’t have a magic number where I would declare that I’ll do this for seven years and then stop.

VN: The Olympic mountain-bike race was a big goal for you in 2000. Missing the team, that was something of a disappointment for you, though. Do you see the Olympic triathlon as a goal for 2004?

SL: It’s a little premature to think of Olympics. I’m not nearly a good enough swimmer to even to be a factor in races of that distance. I mean it’s still a couple of years away and there are a few questions about whether triathlon will even be in the next Olympics, given the questions about the governing body and all.

Really, for me, the focus has always been Ironman. It’s always intrigued me, growing up in Davis, the hometown of Dave Scott. I’d watch the most mythical and legendary athlete in the sport day in and day out. Hawaii is always the one that intrigued me. There are always a lot of races to conquer along the way, and maybe some of those will be Olympic or ITU races, but Hawaii is really what drives me in this sport right now.

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