A conversation with Ryder Hesjedal

By Andrew Hood

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Chipotle) is the first Canadian riding the Tour de France since Gord Fraser rode in 1997 with the small French team, La Mutuelle de Seine et Marne.

The former mountain biker is the fourth Canadian to start the Tour. Along with Fraser, Alex Stieda and Steve Bauer have participated.

Stieda became the first North American to wear the maillot jaune in the 1986 Tour as part of the 7-Eleven team while Steve Bauer, by far Canada’s most successful professional, rode 11 Tours, won a stage and finished fourth in the 1988 Tour, and wore the yellow jersey for 14 days during his career.

Hesjedal, who hails from Victoria on Canada’s west coast, is hoping to take advantage of the Tour to work into breakaways and be in contention to try to win a stage or perhaps even sneak into the yellow jersey.

VeloNews spoke with Hesjedal before the start of Monday’s stage. Here are excerpts from the interview:

VeloNews: Two days into the Tour, what are your first impressions of the race?

Ryder Hesjedal: It’s been good. The first two days, with windy stages like that, it’s been good for me personally and the team. We had a little bad luck with Julian (Dean, who crashed) yesterday, but otherwise the spirits are good. We want to keep it going. There’s a lot of stress out there, people trying to stay safe. It’s the most important race of the year, so it’s a vicious combo, but we’re keeping it on track.

VN: You’ve raced the Giro and Tour, what differences have your noticed at the Tour?

RH: Just the magnitude. You see the effort put into it by the sponsors, by the team. There’s a reason for that. It’s full-blown. You see the importance of the race, with the spectators, the media, that’s the big difference. The racing is the same. It’s the same guys you see all year. It all feeds on itself. We’ve been clipping along pretty good, over 43kph for first couple of days. So far, I’m feeling pretty good.

VN: How is the morale on the team in its first Tour?

RH: Everything is going better than expected. Then with Garmin and Chipotle supporting us, everything is in its right place. It’s easy to race. The energy is high. We’re just having a good time.

VN: What will be your personal goal in the Tour?

RH: I’m going to be looking for some opportunities when it goes a little more up and down. Even at the end of this week, I will be on the look out, stage-hunting. We have two guys who are looking for the GC (Trent Lowe and Christian Vande Velde). It’s pretty straight-forward these first few days. Stay out of trouble and then see how the time trial goes. There are a couple of straight-forward days with the summit finish (at Super-Besse). We’ll see how it shakes out in GC, maybe I can sacrifice some time one day and put it all into another day. 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.

VN: You were up at St. Moritz, then in the Pyrenees, I bet it’s nice to get some race speed into your legs?

RH: We went there after at altitude, resting after the Giro. Then we did some good training in the Pyrenees and around Girona and then came up here. It was a full-blown open road stage on the first day. OK, that’s what we’re dealt with, we’ve made it through, we’ll see what the next days hold.

VN: Do you expect it to be more difficult to sneak into a breakaway at the Tour?

RH: We’ll see. Saturday just went so quick. It was really technical, guys were at the front, they were good guys and it was done. It was looking like yesterday it might take awhile, but then those two guys just shot off. It’s different everyday. The only sure thing is that it gets harder and harder as there are less and less opportunities. I am going to need it to be a little more selective, hillier type of course. This high-speed type of course isn’t ideal. You have to decide the purpose. It’s always great to be in a breakaway, but there are only a few opportunities for the sprinter teams in the first week, so you’re pretty sure it’s going to come back. You have to decide if you want to spend that energy or see how it will go in the TT tomorrow.

VN: So you will give it a good run in the time trial? You probably want to be in good position so you might have a chance to take the yellow jersey if you work into a breakaway?

RH: It’s early in the race, so we’ll see. We’ll just have a go and see how it shakes out. That’s just it. You want to stay in contention now. I’m looking for an opportunity in the middle of the week, then there might be an opportunity for that type of thing. I’m not an overall threat for the yellow jersey three weeks down the road, so you never know what can happen. Maybe you can get in position to get a few days in the jersey and hang onto it for a little while. You never know. Right now just trying to get through this first half of the race with a lot of options and take some chances.

VN: How important is for you to finally make it to the Tour after making the transition from mountain biking after the 2004 season?

RH: It’s a culmination of a lot of years pounding away since I made that switch to the road. I came (to Garmin-Chipotle) to get back into the European racing. I think I’ve done that at a high level all year. I’m just trying to take advantage of the opportunity here. It’s the Tour, but I still want to want to try to have a good ride.

VN: How big is it that you’re the first Canadian in the Tour since Gord Fraser in 1997?

RH: It’s been 11 years. There has been a lot of awareness in that. Canada is really passionate about cycling, especially when the Tour comes up, just like everywhere. It’s nice to be that guy that broke that streak to be here to represent the entire nation. It’s a little daunting.

VN: It’s too bad that Michael Barry couldn’t be here as well? [ed - Barry wasn’t selected by the Columbia team)]

RH: He really helped me a lot when I first came over. It’s a little weird and frustrating making it here before him. Your path in cycling is never easy. A lot stranger things have happened. He deserves to be here also, it’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes.

VN: Is a lot of the Canadian media following your race?

RH: All the national papers have been calling. I don’t know if anyone’s here. Now that I am here, maybe they will make it over halfway through if something exciting happens.

FILED UNDER: Road / Tour de France TAGS: Tour de France

Andrew Hood

Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.

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