schmalz We’re here with Christian Vande Velde, catching up with him at the Tour after stage 11 today, which saw Tyler Farrar finish second again to Mark Cavendish. I have not seen this sort of performance from a sprinter in a real long time at the Tour, Cavendish is just so fast right now. It’s crazy. 

VDV Yeah, he’s really going and one person that comes close to him every day is Tyler, he had a good run at him. It really got a little jumbled right at the end when Renshaw was pulling off, he stopped the progress of Julian, so that kind of hurt. But, yeah, I think if anyone can beat him, it’s only Tyler who can beat him.

schmalz Were you around in the days of the Saeco "Red Train" when Cipollini was in the Tour?

VDV Oh yeah.

schmalz How does Columbia compare to the Saeco train?

VDV They used to start from way out back then, it seemed like those started from 10k to go; they would start going crazy from way out there. Because their whole team – that’s what they did – leadouts; there wasn’t anybody who wasn’t part of that train in the Tour. So they started from 10k out and that was formidable. It was something like you’d never seen before back then.

schmalz It seems like Columbia is still holding some aspirations for other types of wins with Kirchen, but Saeco was all Cipollini – there was no else who was going to get a win with that team.

VDV Yeah, it was all Cipo, and right now there seems there’s a lot more sprinters in the Tour guys like Boonen, Oscar, and a lot of these guys aren’t getting sprinting stages, so I don’t know what’s really going on.

schmalz It’s very strange, and on stage 11, you crashed twice today, dude, what’s going on?

VDV Yeah, that sucked, Furlan crashed in the corner and I went right into him – I was right behind him. I hit hard, I’m not going to lie. That kind of sucked, but I’m going to be all right.

schmalz Did you think you re-injured anything from the Giro? Did you land on a different side at least? Did you break a new bone this time?

VDV I don’t think so. I don’t think I broke my ribs, but yeah, I landed pretty much exactly where I landed in the Giro.

schmalz Yesterday you had the race radios off, and it seems like you did a much mellower stage, it was a lot slower. Do you think that going back to the race radios today with all the directors trying to push you guys to the front, sis that have anything to do with the squirreliness today or was it just bad luck?

VDV A little bit of both, there was a tail/cross wind to start with so we were going from the gun, 65k an hour, so any times there’s a lot of fast racing you’re going to be really nervous.

schmalz Yesterday did you decide to do a semi-protest or were you just taking it easy because you had no one yelling at you?

VDV Um no, we just decided to let those guys go, and then we’ll all work together behind. It made it safe and sane, and it was one of the nicest days I’ve had in the Tour de France, bar none.

schmalz Well, probably because you didn’t have your directors telling you "Get to the front, chase it down", things like that.

VDV Yeah, you didn’t have that kind of stuff and you had collaboration with the other teams without the directors talking or getting egos involved, so it was really nice.

schmalz Do you have a preference – radio or no radio? Or does it not matter?

VDV Hmmm, whatever would be equal. I think some teams function better with the radios and it’s more of an advantage, and other people just ride naturally as a team. But there times in a race where I don’t want directors coming into the caravan and causing more stress and things like that, so I’m in the middle. I can take it or leave it.

schmalz Right now, you’re in the middle of wine country, so I assume that Vaugthers has been on a four day drunken binge. Has he been incoherent, is he full of Bordeaux and you can’t even talk to him anymore?

VDV We’re not near Bordeaux are we?

schmalz I thought you were in a different area of wine country.

VDV You’re crazy, Dan, you’re smoking crack. We’re not near any wine, I saw like one little bit of wine today, but that was about it.

schmalz I thought you were going through wine country right now! I thought you were going through vineyards.

VDV We’re in the middle of BFE dude. There’s a bull once in a while and all those damn sunflowers and that’s about it.

schmalz Yeah, I saw a lot of sunflower shots today and the coverage was brutal because they were showing pictures of the random castle along the side of the road because nothing was going on today.

VDV There was nothing going on, just guys getting terrified and that was about it.

schmalz I think you have another nothing day coming tomorrow so hopefully everyone can get through it and not have any issues.

VDV I don’t know, these little hills, like yesterday for example was almost 8,000 feet of climbing. It’s hillier than it looks.

schmalz Yeah, it’s never flat, but you guys seems to roll those out and flatten out the hills as you go along, for a normal rider it would be absolute murder.

VDV(laughs) Yeah, exactly.

schmalz You guys are all just so damn strong.

VDV We knew today was going to be a field sprint when we put the Green Hornet on the front with his 1080s and his speed suit.

schmalz So Dave was laying it all down out there?

VDV Yeah, he loves it.

schmalz How’s your fatigue level as you’re going through the Tour, are you feeling tired or are you feeling OK?

VDV I feel great. I feel better and better – a lot stronger than when I started the race. This crash wasn’t part of the plan, but I feel great. And I’ve crashed threes times so hopefully that’s enough.

schmalz Exactly, the big stories of the Tour have so far been the Columbia split on stage three, when they went to the front and put some time into Alberto, and then Alberto comes back a couple of days later and attacks in the mountains. Everything seems to be following how Astana is either putting time gaps into one another, or – I don’t think they’re attacking one another – well, Alberto attacked everybody…

VDV Yeah, he attacked everybody.

schmalz Everything’s swinging back and forth with how the Astana soap opera goes…

VDV Yeah, we’re really just staying out of it, we’ve got a great Tour going –better than ever on this team – I’m astounded by Tyler and I’m astounded by Wiggo. Actually I’m psyched, I’m very happy with how my body’s reacting to the load of this Tour. We’ve been quiet and hopefully we can be loud in the last week.

schmalz Yeah, and how about throwing a sandwich at Wiggo? He doesn’t even look like the same person…

VDV(laughs) Yeah we put him in a fat camp for a couple of months and now he’s riding really well.

schmalz Yeah, I’ve never seen him climb like that, obviously it’s a result of the weight loss…

VDV Yeah, but he’s never tried to (climb) either, so he’s going good and he’s psyched.

schmalz How’s the sleeping arrangements? You getting enough sleep at night? Julian Dean’s not having night terrors, screaming at you?

VDV (laughs) He’s not having night terrors. He hasn’t been able to let the dogs out at the end of those stages, so he’s getting frustrated, so maybe he won’t sleep so well tonight.

schmalz It’s tough at the end of the stage because Thor has nobody to lead him out, and Tyler has less of a lead out than Columbia has, and Columbia has that all worked out right now. They’re really dominating.

VDV It’s all confidence, man. We’re starting to get together, Julian, Dave, had a good chance and he came close. We’ll keep trying for sure.

schmalz Cavendish is about as big as a flea’s fart. I don’t know how he’s going to get a draft off of that guy. He’s so low it’s ridiculous.

I’ve got an idea for you guys. The way that you go through the Tour, and you go to different hotels, and they’re different quality, different levels of air conditioning. I think what the team should do is they should get the equivalent of a train sleeper car, get a couple of RV’s, one or two beds in each of those, and travel from each hotel to each hotel, sleep outside in the RV’s where you know what it’s going to be like, and you can air condition the thing. And you don’t have to deal with the hotels.

VDV I agree with you man, don’t think we hadn’t thought of this. It’s just a matter of who’s going to drive and all that. I think it’s a great idea. I’ve thought about going in RV’s with Zabriskie, he wanted to get one of those things bad. The US skiiers do it, Bode Miller, some of those other guys.

schmalz Yeah, it’d be consistent every night, you know what your bed’s going to be like. If you’re with Zabriskie, he can take that RV at night and go around and solve crimes.

VDV It’s true, man!

schmalz Get yourself a sweet RV, put a mini bike on the back of it, and then you guys can cruise around, have a great time.

VDV Driving around France, beating the shit out the poor RV. I wouldn’t want to see that thing after a month of driving around France.

schmalz It’ll be like "Escape from Witch Mountain" all over again. It’d be totally sweet. You guys need to investigate this, get a big argyle RV.

VDV That would be sick, no doubt about it, man.

schmalz You can rent those things, seems like it’d be the same price as putting everyone up in a hotel…

VDV Dan, let me just explain. RV’s here and RV’s in the States are different animals. Those things that they have over here that they call RV’s are pieces of crap, they’re little little tin cans that you would never want to sleep in. The American ones, with the popup, they don’t exist here.

schmalz They’re like the size of a Volkswagen Golf, eh?

VDV More or less, the big ones.

schmalz You want something that you’re not actually spooning with Julian Dean when you get in there to sleep… See, when retirement looms on the horizon, think of getting yourself a nice RV fleet…

VDV After I crashed after 7k today, I almost chucked my bike into the frickin’ forest. Retirement ….

schmalz It was just a touch of wheels today, huh? Everyone was just kinda tight, bad timing?Didn’t you have a crash where you went over the guardrail the other day?

VDV Yep. Hopefully I’m done.

schmalz I don’t think you can go for any more than three.You started writing for this, this publication, the New York Times. You’re hitting the blog now, baby, and for such a rag. I can’t believe you signed up to do that.

VDV People like it too, I think.

schmalz I’ve been reading it, it’s been great, but are you just doing things now just to get a good story out of it? Are you thinking in the back of your mind during the stage, "What am I going to say today?"

VDV Today was. All through the stage it was going through my mind. Usually I don’t think about it, but today was kinda boring. Most things I think about writing, though, usually doesn’t make it to print. Not fit for publication.

schmalz It might not be so printable after…

VDV Oh hey, I meant to tell you, the New York crowd would really like to see the new George Hincapie movie.

schmalz The what?

VDV The George Hincapie movie.

schmalz Is it some sort of a…I’m thinking some sort of big romantic Mexican soap opera style thing?

VDV No, Planafilms productions made a George Hincapie documentary. A Ride With George Hincapie I believe it’s called, 82 minutes, 600 or something thousand kilometers, whatever.

schmalz Where do you see it?

VDV I dunno, I think it’s online. It’s really good, it’s got some stuff from racing in the park when he was 14 years old, old Mengoni guys, stuff like that.

schmalz We’ll have to search that out and find out if we can get that up somewhere so people can check it out.

Oh! I forgot to mention the TTT. Way to go, guys, you basically came in second riding with, say 4 1/2 guys instead of 5, ’cause I think Ryder was just hanging on for dear life at the end of your choo choo train there.

VDV Yeah, Ryder was the caboose.

schmalz I don’t think you guys got your due for that, because you basically took on Astana and finished with five, and they only dropped one guy near the end, it was basically the four of you holding off the rest of the race.

VDV That was sick, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of. Brad and the two Daves and myself riding….

schmalz That was an impressive ride, and that day took Cadel and Menchov out of the race for the most part. They’re down at about 3 minutes.

VDV Totally. It was scary when there was only five left with 30k to go, but at the same time we were all badasses, Olympic champions and national champions…

schmalz It’s so rare to see a TTT have that much of an effect early, in years past they’ve pro-rated the times so it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but that actually had a huge impact on the race. Well done.

VDV We were still thinking about the win, but at the end of the day we took so much time out of other teams, especially with just four guys, so we went out guns blazing, and the consequence was dropping those guys really early in the race, but…

schmalz I’m sure as soon as you crossed the line you were thinking, "Eat it, Columbia! Suck it guys, we win!"

VDV Ah…I can’t even hear you, we’ve got the stereo cranked up.

schmalz Ha, alright. We’ll talk to you later. I was just saying that as soon as you crossed the line you were thinking "Yeah, suck it Columbia."

VDV Naw, we were hoping against hope that we’d win, but when we heard 23 seconds at the time check…

schmalz Best of luck, keep the rubber down the rest of the Tour as they say…

VDV I hope so, first and foremost, that’d be nice.

schmalz Yeah, get your ass in one piece to the mountains, then everything will sort out after that.

VDV All right, bud.