schmalz So we’re catching up with Christian Vande Velde, who is in Spain at his house. So far, Christian, you’ve had a good season, and you’ve even come away with a victory in a stage in Paris Nice. How is this year different from last year for you?

It’s 2009.

 

It’s 12 months later?

VDV (Laughs) 2009. The biggest change has been in the house, with two kids, it’s been a different dynamic. Racing in California, it had my mind in a different place, you know, when the family’s at home and you really want to see them really bad. Other than that, it’s been a little bit more pressure on my shoulders, I’ve had to have more of a big picture vision this year than last. I was just going from race to race last year, this year I’m thinking more of the future and know what I can or can’t do and what I should or shouldn’t be doing.

schmalz You seem a little more ruthless this year.

VDV (Laughs) How so?

schmalz Last year it would’ve been, “Hey, we got in the break, that’s great.” This year you’re in the break, “I’m going to take this one, I’m going to win this race.”

VDV Yeah, yeah. Yes and no, that breakaway in Paris Nice just happened. I really didn’t ever think it was going to succeed. But I do have much more confidence in myself, more confidence I can make it in the break when I want to. I guess I have changed a bit this year.

schmalz Did you find motivation in the fact that Jonathan called you Piglet?

VDV Oh, I didn’t read that ’til a couple days ago, and I didn’t sleep well that night, I’ll tell you that. I’m thinking I’m going to be torched for that.

schmalz You’re going to have to think of something to come up with to counter Jonathan. I would say that he’s the assistant navigator on the Starship Enterprise, something like that.

VDV (Laughs) I’ll think of something good.

schmalz. So how’s the training gone this year, and if it’s gone badly, would you tell us anyways?

VDV Uhhh, no I wouldn’t. But it is going well. The training before California wasn’t ideal apart from the training camp-the training camp went really well-but training at my house, was barely anything apart from the gym, with the cold weather. And then race and recovery up until Basque country, and last couple weeks we put in a lot of serious hours.

schmalz What sort of unspeakable things does Allen Lim have you doing now?

VDV (Laughs) We made the decision not to do any races, no Ardennes classics, after Pays Basque, so I had a good block of time at home. Now we’re doing some good hard training in the Pyrenees here, also some work on TT bikes. Allen’s great, it makes it so much easier when he’s following behind, giving you positive feedback, if it’s raining he has a bunch of stuff in the back of the car, food and drink. We did some epic rides up in the mountains, things you couldn’t do by yourself.

schmalz You can’t do epic mountain rides in Chicago?

VDV No! There’s only so many overpasses you can go over, you know?

schmalz Is it true that he had you doing exercises after Tour stages last year?

VDV Exercises?

schmalz Yeah, he had a talk here and he said he had you doing one legged squats or stuff with the stability ball…

VDV I wouldn’t go that far, I wouldn’t do the squat stuff. But I do have one of those massive balls that follows me around in the truck, and I have to do exercises in the morning and at night.

schmalz Does that go against the time held tradition that you don’t do anything when you’re off the bike?

VDV I think it’s becoming accepted more. People having more problems, Ivan, he does ten times more than myself, I know Lance always used to do it in the morning, quite a few of us actually. The race is almost four weeks, so if you neglect some of the things you need to work on all the work just goes towards nothing.

schmalz I’d imagine you guys are this water aerobics group that goes to work in the morning, bring out the big balls and…

VDV Yep, yep, just like the water aerobics, you know?

schmalz I can just imagine the type of songs you have going. I’m thinking of ‘Let’s Get Physical’…

VDV I need to listen to WuTang instead of Olivia Newton-John.

schmalz Maybe you should try Olivia Newton-John, it’s a better beat count for that sort of thing. I think that WuTang’s too sloooow.

In the run up to the Tour, sometimes guys don’t want to show their form. Are you going to be bluffing?

VDV In the Giro? No, I don’t bluff. I like to race, I don’t like to pass up any opportunity. If I feel good I’ll ride hard for sure. The Giro’s just really hard, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m feeling really good right now, the team’s feeling good, first things first, we just wanna do well in the time trial.

schmalz And that’s the first day. How are you guys going to decide who’s going to cross the line first?

VDV I don’t think we will, man. I think it’s going to be another close one. Last year, I think it was only 4 seconds…

schmalz So it’s just whoever ends up crossing the line first? How’re you guys going to do it, some kind of arm wrestling tournament?

VDV No, we didn’t do it last year, it’s just how it happened, man.

schmalz Completely random, eh? You’re sticking with that story?

VDV Yeah, completely random! I guarantee!

schmalz Who’s scheduled to be on the Giro team this year?

VDV Let’s see here…

schmalz Is Zabriskie on the team?

VDV Yes sir!

schmalz Make him wear the pink jersey so he has to be interviewed.

VDV Make him? (Laughs)

schmalz Yeah, because I think he hates that, doesn’t he?

VDV He doesn’t hate it that much. I think he loves it in a sick and twisted way, in all honesty.

We got Brad Wiggins, Dave and Dave, myself, Danny Pate, Ryder Hejesdal, Julian Dean, Tom Danielson, Tyler Farrar, Cameron Meyer… We have ten guys right now, it hasn’t been narrowed down. Cameron’s a stud, 21 years old. The Slipstream Giro start list was just announced.

schmalz Ah, where’s he from?

VDV He’s Australian, he’s the guy that won the World’s points race couple months ago.

schmalz It’s going to be an interesting whittling down the next couple of weeks.

VDV Yeah, and I believe this is going to be his first pro race, he hasn’t even raced yet, he’s just gonna get thrown in. Wait, I take that back, in Europe, he did Tour Down Under and Malaysia. 

schmalz When you go to the Giro and the Tour, this is going to be the first time, when was the last time you were a team leader on a team when you raced against Lance? Has it been about 15 years?

VDV Ha! Oh God, I’m going to say…never.

schmalz Never? You’ve always been in a domestique position or never been in the races together?

VDV Well, he had cancer in ’97, and he came into the team in ’98. ’96 I don’t think we raced together…

schmalz And that guy needs to hire a publicist. You NEVER hear from him.

VDV (Laughs) He’ll definitely do enough for the next three months, that’s for sure.

schmalz Even the interviews he does of himself, there’s enough for the next three months.

VDV Yeah.

schmalz The man’s a twitting machine.

VDV He really is unbelievable.

schmalz And you’ve got a Twitter account. I think you and Zabriskie both noticed the name of some town, Fartsburg or something like that.

VDV That went over really well, actually! Boner, I think.

schmalz Boner!

VDV Bone-AIR. All the screaming and hollering when we rode through there was pretty funny. The retorts from the Twitterati were hystericall, actually. They were amazing. We’ve gotta come up with better stuff for the Giro so they can have a chance to respond, ’cause it was really damn funny.

schmalz So you’re rolling along, “Hmm, this deserves a twitting later”?

VDV Well, Zabriskie beat me to the punch on that one, that deserved it, if anything did.

schmalz You guys did the Boner thing, and then there’s Twitter silence and Dave every once in a while will post a video of him applying chamois cream to himself, and then that’s about it. Goes black for a while, which is fine, I don’t know if I’m the biggest Twitter person myself.

VDV I have the same problem.

schmalz What’s it like being on the team that’s seen by many as the last hope of international cycling? You guys ever feel pressure that way?

VDV LAST HOPE OF INTERNATIONAL CYCLING??

schmalz Yeah, it just seems that everybody is just so down on pro cycling these days, you guys are the glimmer of hope. Do you ever feel that way?

VDV No, I truly don’t feel that way in all honesty, but I myself was pretty down this last week with Rebellin, and well, Schumacher, that was an old one I guess, but that’s hard to take ’cause it keeps on regurgitating itself, things that took place 12 months ago. It’s not like it happened last week, ’cause that’d be a different story. It just puts everything in doubt again in the public’s view, it’s hard, we were out here, I want to show, and I’m not just talking about myself, a massive percentage of the peloton is clean, and it’s a shame that the one or two positives here and there make everyone have that doubt on the thousand or so clean people.

schmalz It’s just different being a cycling fan, if you’re a football fan, if someone scores a touchdown, yay, it ends after the game. There’s no going through the urine profiles, it’s cut and dry, it’s done, whether they’re taking anything or not, they’re playing according to the rules that have been set up, the rules are on the field and that’s it. There’s no cloak and dagger back room stuff that we have to worry about. I’m sure there is, but we don’t hear about it and it’s not the big story.

The situation with cycling is that they’ve decided to take some efforst to get rid of as many of the dopers as they can, but in order to do that bad things have to happen. They have to be willing to withstand the PR hit that they take from going after people. And the result is a bummer.

VDV You know, we’re just trying to do our best, man, every day, and hope that people believe in us, and more than just my team, Garmin, or Columbia. Everyone from Astana to Saxo Bank, it doesn’t matter who it is. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt when I go to the start line with them. That’s all I can do, I’m not going to lose sleep over who’s doing something or who’s not doing something. I’m just going to try to do my best first and foremost.

schmalz Which Tour stages have you up at night wondering, looking at your maps, freaking out?

VDV You know in all honesty the first couple weeks are always the ones that scare you. There’s that much more anticipation…everyone’s always going so well. The last week, you know where you stand, you know how well you’re going. You know where you stand, everyone’s come to the realization that “Yeah, I’m a gruppetto rider”, “I’m top ten”, “I have to work for my team leader”. The first week, everyone thinks they can win the Tour, it’s insane.

I’m thinking of Monaco, I’m thinking of the team time trial, I’m thinking of the stage to Monjuic, I’m thinking of going to Andorra. Those are the four stages I’m thinking of right now. Apart from that, I’m thinking of the Giro more than anything, ’cause that’s really on the horizon. I gotta get through the Giro first, then I’ll think of the Tour. The Sestri Levante stage looks terrifying to me! The more I look at it, it’s epic, you know? Every year they pull something out that’s unbelievable. Last year it was the uphill time trial in the dirt, this year they’ll have us do cinque terre, it looks amazing.

schmalz The Giro really has been hard fought the last couple of years. It really has been great to watch, and those early stages, the risks that some of those guys will take to win those sprint stages. CRAZY.

VDV Oh man, it’s crazy. You don’t even see the first hour and everything else that’s happening. It really is crazy. It’s a great race to be a fan of and watch, and it’s a great race to be a part of.

schmalz You can just tell how much they want to win it. I think it was last year or the year before, it was a sprint stage, I think Bettini really tried to kill Baden Cooke going into one of the last corners.

VDV (Laughs)

schmalz He put him right into the barriers, it was insane! Not a bump or a move, I think he was just trying to murder the guy.

VDV I was in the front with a k to go last year in the second or third stage. That reminded me that I shouldn’t be there, that’s not by place. Get to the back.

schmalz Let’s make it through without dying today.

VDV Uh huh.

schmalz Tyler’s going to have his, bath by fire if he goes for the sprints, but he did all right at Tirreno, so I guess…

VDV Yeah, I’ll say. He did really well. And he did really well at the prologue at Romandie, we’re going to try to give him some support in the sprints. He’ll have his baptism in grand tour sprints, there’s no better place than the Giro to see how you go.

schmalz And your role will be to chase back everything, then with 10k to go just duck and cover?

VDV I-I don’t know about that. I’ll look out for him and try to keep him protected, but I think Cavendish’s and some other teams will be all over the front.

schmalz Tyler’s over his shoulder thing pretty quickly, actually.

VDV It wasn’t so bad, he only had to take a week and a half off the bike, since he’s been back he’s been training like a madman, he’s really going well. He was down here in Girona the last week and a half, so we got to train with him, and I think it was good for him to be out of Belgium too, which is like the Chicago of Europe.

schmalz Tyler’s hair, looks like he could do some stunt doubling for Don Johnson, if Miami Vice ever comes back.

VDV(Laughs) It’s thicker and red, though.

schmalz I’m not going to say anything. I’m going to be kind about Tyler’s hair. I don’t know if I get it or not. He’s a brave guy, that’s not a look I would ever go for. God bless him. He can pull it off, he’s got the confidence. I think his hair has taken over from Cozza’s moustache this year as the look for Garmin.

VDV You’re trying to pull me out there, I’m not doing it.

schmalz I’m not trying to pull you out, I’m just remarking. I have eyes, I notice things. There’s no hair or facial plans for the Giro for you? Anything special?

VDV I’m going, last year I had, well, a fro.

schmalz You just grew it out and there it was?

VDV It was horrible. I have pictures, I don’t know, I just, I don’t know why, but I didn’t cut my hair for months. I don’t have the hair that I should ever do that kind of thing. Looking back it, it was scarring. I don’t know how my friends and family went along with that.

But no, I’m going to go the opposite and shave it down a bit, keep it clean.

schmalz I would shave down, and you know what else I would do, Christian? I would go with the three shave on the eyebrow, a la Ice Ice Baby.

VDV Oh! Ice! Dude!

schmalz Think about it, it’ll grow back, but you can put those racing stripes in…

VDV What about the lines in the head too? That’d be pretty dope too, huh?

schmalz That would be very sweet. And Pozzato’ll get a whiff of that and he’ll have to top you, he’ll go with the fade.

VDV(Laughs) He’s the only one I know who’s gone with cornrows underneath the helmet. That’s pretty impressive.

schmalz That’s what you wanna see, and Italian guy in cornrows.

VDV Ludacris. What up!

schmalz That’s a great look. Very smart. They have the barber shop at the Giro, right? Like the Tour?

VDV I don’t know, I was thinking about it the other day. I know they have it at the Tour. Last year Ryder put argyle, shaved argyle into his head. That was pretty sick. I don’t know if I’d go that far, though.

schmalz Racing stripes in the eyebrow!

VDV I had it when I was a kid. I didn’t do the eyebrow…

schmalz You had it as a kid?

VDV I had lines in my head.

schmalz You’re kidding me. What was the inspiration for that?

VDV I had a mohawk too!

schmalz What was the poor decision making that made you do the lines in your head?

VDV The poor decision making was that I lived in Lemont, IL, I was in fifth grade, we listend to gangsta rap, there was absolutely no black people in our school, things like that. Bad decisions left and right, you know?

schmalz A young Christian Vande Velde, making his way in the world, shaving stripes in his head…

VDV I wasn’t alone, man! Most of my friends did the same thing!

schmalz So there was a lot of rap inspired poor decision making going on in Lemont, IL?

VDV Man, we would listen to the worst things, things like 2 Live Crew, things that should never have made its way to the suburbs.

schmalz So you’re blaming it all on Luke Skywalker.

VDV Luke Skywalker, Easy E, NWA, any of those guys.

schmalz You gotta go with the eyebrow lines, man.

VDV I’ll think about it. It’ll be pretty sick. Maybe I could even grow a tail. Then I’ll peroxide the end of it. I’ll get my Z Cavaricci’s out.

schmalz That’ll be nice. It’ll be you and Aimee Mann.

VDV I’m pretty sure Hincapie might still have a pair of Z Cavaricci’s still at his house.

schmalz I’ve seen pictures of George from back in the day. He had some pretty glamorous things going on back then.

VDV Hell yeah! But he always pulled it off. At the time, he looked good, though. That shit worked for him.

schmalz I never did have a tail, don’t know how I dodged that.

VDV Dan, for you, I’ll definitely think about putting some lines in.

schmalz If I see any lines, I’ll know where it came from.