schmalz You’ve dominated this year like a large raging marmot amongst lesser rodents (that’s a compliment – can you believe it?), was this a breakout year for you or just business as usual?

How do you and Caryl decide who’s going to win? Is there a scientific process involved, or is it a coin flip?

@##=#<1,L>@##=#Sauvayre I was really happy with how my season turned out, and pleasantly surprised, too. My work life has been completely insane (more than usual) for about the last 12 months or so, and Pascal and I have a lot going on with our kids. Maybe I have learned how to thrive on stress.

As for Caryl, we both race to win but when we get to the end do whatever we think we need to for the team. But please remember…Caryl is phenomenal, the best sprinter around here, and if I have a hugely “on” day and come across the line ahead of her in a real sprint I call myself lucky and write it in my super-special diary.

schmalz That’s funny; I have a super-special diary, too! But mostly it contains entries related to humbling Andy Shen in sprints and picture of puppies.

Now, we all know you have a high power job (something about owning/operating a small country or something), so it must be hard to find time to train, how do you do it?

Do you and Pascal have to take turns racing on mornings? Have you ever had to find someone to watch the kids at 5 am on a Saturday?

Sauvayre Pascal and I train early in the morning all year round because of our jobs and our kids; going to bed by 9:30 is unglamorous but it works for me. For my 10 day “off season” I drink wine and eat a lot of Halloween candy, but otherwise we are pretty clean.

The real secret to our lives is excellent babysitting. The girls (3 cousins) who have babysat for us since our first daughter was born 12 1/2 years ago now live downstairs from us. They used to come at 5am so we could train and race (they are very nice), but now we turn on the monitor and half the time everyone is still asleep when we get home.

schmalz OK, let’s get this out of the way. What do you think about the attitude that women’s racing might be easier because fields are smaller?

Does familiarity breed contempt, or does it breed respect?

Sauvayre If I give a decent answer will you all stop criticizing us for the way we race?

You guys know that how hard the race is depends on the composition of the field, not the size. I race with the men’s’ field a lot for training, and in a P123 or CRCA A race a smaller field is definitely harder. There is nowhere to hide; it’s hard to recover from a big effort, etc. But in those men’s races, no matter what the size, the level of fitness and strength is relatively even. That’s not typically the case in a CRCA or smaller local women’s race, so the pace is going to be slower to begin with because a smaller percentage of people in the field are capable of driving it super hard. And if enough teams are worried enough about their depth to come to the race with a defensive plan; you end up with a very slow overall pace. Larger races outside the park are plenty hard, by the way.

In your questions, though, I think that you were referring mostly to the CRCA racing; I should point out that our team has been very active about finding new women racers. We have been committed to the CRCA women’s clinic because we want to up the ante and continue to improve the level of women’s racing in the club. Some of the best new female riders of the past 2 years came in through the clinic, and they all ride for other team now, which makes us really optimistic about future competition in the park.

I am personally very excited about the increasing quality and depth in CRCA. It’s really fun to see new women get hooked on a sport I really love. And most importantly, I am really getting old and am hoping to parlay my twilight racing years into a new gig as a respected village elder. With significant perks, I hope.

schmalz I personally would hate being in races where there is no where to hide, as I could not use my devious and deceptive skillz.

Is it assumed that after a woman wins a race that she has an offer standing from you guys?

Do you still get a lot of unsolicited advice from knuckleheads?

In my twilight racing years I hope to gain the wisdom to stop running my mouth, but we all know that will probably not happen.

Sauvayre I am all about devious and sneaky. One of the things I like about bike racing is that you can still get results even when you are not, ahem, the strongest rider in the field.

As for the team, we haven’t recruited anyone for the last year. We’ve been pretty happy with the makeup of our roster, and we have actively encouraged new riders to join the other women’s CRCA teams. The last team cup race of the season was truly great – there were full teams there in addition to ours, everyone was there to race, all of the teams rode very well and aggressively, and it was probably the fastest women’s CRCA race of the last 2 seasons. We have really worked for our results this year, but we are going to have work even harder next year if we want to win the team cup, and we’re looking forward to that.

The only unsolicited “advice” I really mind is the kind that suggests I don’t belong in the men’s race and should get the hell out. Often enough, this kind of advice comes from somewhere behind me in the group. If I’m not strong enough to be there I’ll get dropped, ok? So, whoever you are, you don’t have to worry about me. The men’s races are good for training, and I try not to bother anyone.

schmalz Hmm, ass comments (meaning someone yelling at your behind), always legit..

As an aside, how great is cycling when you can be devious and sneaky and not really have any major repercussions?

Do the people you work with know that you punish your fellow racers on weekends?

Sauvayre I have worked for Conde Nast, the magazine publisher, for over 15 years, first for magazines like Vogue and Allure, and more recently as head of their internet company, CondeNet. Except for the time a bunch of years ago, when I placed top three in a Corporate Challenge running race, which briefly made me a celebrity to about 6 people in HR, I had mostly been able to keep my sporty life separate. Until recently. In the last couple of years several bike racers have joined CondeNet, and my cover is entirely blown. Pascal’s Blue Ribbon teammate and interactive designer Jason Parkin was the first, but now we have the likes of hotshot web developer Kimani Nielsen of Edgemont Capital and Andrew Babaian of Foundation, who works on multiple projects here as a consultant. So much for my years-in-the-making professional persona; it’s hard to maintain it all when covered in Lycra and sweat (and, occasionally, horsepoop).

schmalz Wait – you work for Conde Nast? I see a huge opportunity for us to combine forces! We can provide inside jokes and innuendo about European men in brightly colored Lycra, and you can pay us a lot of money. It’s a win-win!

Sauvayre Sorry, but we have plenty of our own inside jokes and innuendo.

schmalz Damn! There goes our shot at corporate legitimacy!

OK, who wins when you guys sprint it out – you or Pascal?

Does the loser have to take out the trash?

Sauvayre You are trying to make trouble, aren’t you?

First of all, you and most of your readers know that Pascal is roughly 467 million times stronger than I am. Maybe more. But I was lucky enough to get a small genetic gift in the fast-twitch department. This might be kind of interesting…in the late 1890’s my great-grandfather was a world-class sprinter. While he ran for Yale and the NYAC in the late 1890’s, and his college relay team held the world record for a time at the 4X100, where he ran the anchor leg. Family lore is that he also rode as a pro bike racer on the track to earn money for college, but he used an assumed name to protect his amateur status for running, and so I have never been able to find any of his results.

Anyway back to speed and strength. When Pascal and I were running more seriously we knew that in any distance under 400 meters I could beat him, and anything more than 400M he crushed me. So we used to contest the 400M a few times a season, just for sick fun, and we tied several times. (He won more than I did but it was always very close. our coach thought it was funny.)

So, similarly, I can usually beat Pascal in a sprint from a standing or rolling start, but he can bury me in a sprint that requires a longer and/or more difficult run-in. Leg speed can only take you so far.

Which takes me back to my need to be sneaky and devious.