schmalz Have you ever seen our site?

Levi No, I haven’t. What is it?

schmalz It’s velocitynation.com or nyvelocity. We do the New York scene. And we make a cartoon called ‘As the Toto Turns’, loosely based on Salvatore Commesso.

Levi O-ok…

schmalz But we cover everyone in the peloton who’s hit the news, and you’ve hit the news, so we’ve had you in there a couple of times.

Levi Oh, ok.

schmalz You’ll have to check it out.

Levi I’m in the cartoon you mean.

schmalz Yeah, yeah.

Levi I’ll have to check it out.

schmalz You’ll have to check it out and see if you want to, like, uh, email us some anthrax or something after that, so…

Levi Ok…

schmalz We’ll see how that goes. So, what’re you up to?

Levi Just going through a bunch of mail that stacked up while I was gone.

schmalz While you were at the Giro?

Levi Real exciting.

schmalz How did you get ready for the Giro? That had to make your coach’s ears smoke when you got that last minute invitation.

Levi The way I describe it is as if all of a sudden you had to take a final college exam and you didn’t even study or go to the class. It was a little bit stressful.

schmalz It’s like those dreams where you show up naked to class and you have to take a test.

Levi Funny you bring that up about dreams, because I was having a recurring dream when I got to the Giro, that I was back in the US all of a sudden, and I was freaking out that I had to get back to the Giro before the next stage and I was realizing it wasn’t possible to get there in time. It was really weird. I had that for about a week.

schmalz Oh God. How well do you sleep during a stage race?

Levi You know, that’s a tricky thing. Sometimes you just have to go ahead and take a sleeping pill to make sure that you do sleep.

schmalz I always heard that especially when you’re in contention for the GC, a lot of guys have trouble getting to sleep because they’re anxious or nervous.

Levi The thing about the first week, it’s nervous, well, the Giro was different, but in the Tour, the first week is extremely stressful, you’re really amped up, so it’s hard to get to sleep, definitely.

schmalz Speaking of the Tour, any chance you guys get a last minute invitation?

Levi Uh, maybe, but for sure we’re not going.

schmalz Huh!? You can’t even plan to train to go to the Tour at this point.

Levi I haven’t even ridden my bike much the last four days and I plan on taking at least a week pretty easy, so it really wouldn’t work out for sure.

schmalz Why do you think ASO kept Astana out? Is it something to do with Vinokourov or is it something to do with Basso and Bruyneel? Why exactly are they punishing your organization for what happened previously?

Levi I think the first reason is definitely political. In the war against the UCI they’re trying to gain all the power. And what proves that is that High Road and Rabobank are still in the race, and they did as much or arguably more damage to the Tour last year. So, their excuse doesn’t really hold any water. And I think secondly it’s convenient for them because they never really liked Lance, basically because he won the race, and the French don’t like winners. You look back at Fignon, for example. He won the Tour twice, at a very young age, and he wasn’t very popular in France until he lost the Tour to Lemond, and then he was a hero. So they had a history of really rooting for the loser, so to speak.

schmalz Yeah, even Raymonde Poulidor was more popular, than Jacques Anquetil…

Levi Exactly, exactly.

schmalz It seems like unless you’re Bernard Hinault they don’t really care. I don’t know what their deal is, I can’t begin to understand the French psyche.

Levi Well, they’re really proud and they’re not going to change their minds, for sure, I think they expected a bigger fight from us, but I think in the end we knew that they were extremely stubborn in their decision, and the best thing was just for us to win as many races as possible.

schmalz Going back to last year’s Tour, especially in the mountain stages. I think that Cadel Evans gets a reputation for not being aggressive. But I think many times when you’re in that situation in the mountains, you’re just red lined or beyond, and I think that you’re just hanging on for dear life, aggression just doesn’t become part of it.

Levi It’s really hard…the only one who can really understand, for example, you bring up Cadel. The only one who can really understand what it’s like for him is someone like me. It’s really hard to watch TV, even when I watch races, I find myself thinking, "Oh man, it looks so easy, why don’t they attack?", but in the race it’s definitely not easy. Cycling is really a game of calculations, and the more experienced you are the better you can calculate and gauge your efforts. So I think most of the time we’re all just gauging our efforts. Which is why we go to look at the courses beforehand, because you need to know the climb when you’re on it: how you’re feeling, how far is left to go, where the steep parts are, which riders are attacking it. And the more experienced riders are definitely better at gauging their efforts.

schmalz Well, Cadel was definitely going against some pure climbers – Rasmussen when he was still in the Tour, even Alberto, who have accelerations, and that’s just not his…

Levi Cadel is like me, he’s kind of a diesel. The upside of that is that we don’t have many bad days, we’re very consistent. Whereas someone who is very aggressive, let’s say Vinokourov, he was always attacking, attacking, and then one day that caught up with him and he would lose 20-30 minutes. That doesn’t happen to a rider like Cadel, who is very steady, and very durable.

schmalz Yeah, he doesn’t pay for the efforts as much.

Levi Exactly.

schmalz Now you grew up in Montana, correct?

Levi Yes.

schmalz And you came to cycling as training for skiing, right?

Levi I was skiing in the winter, and cycling was a perfect fit with that because you do it in the opposite season and it’d make you fit. Initially it was just another sport to do because my brother did it, but I soon found out that I loved it more than skiing.

schmalz How long is the cycling season in Montana? Is it 45 minutes in July?

Levi I remember growing up there I saw it snow every single month of the year. Watching the 4th of July parade in Butte and it was in a snowstorm.

schmalz That doesn’t sound like it lends itself to a lot of easy training on a bike.

Levi No, well, it was definitely harsh weather, and I grew up at altitude, so that didn’t help things.

schmalz So, a tough day in the Vuelta isn’t necessarily going to put you out of your weather comfort zone, then?

Levi I spent some pretty bad days on the bike in my career, for sure. Pretty horrendous, actually.

schmalz Is there one that sticks out besides this year’s Tour of California?

Levi Yeah, that one to San Luis Obispo was a death march for sure. The Tour of Germany one year, I’m sure I can think of a few more.

schmalz I don’t think the California tourism board wants to hear that coming from you…

Levi No, they know that we had two years of perfect weather, it was going to come sooner or later. I mean, it rains in California in the winter.

schmalz On our site, when we do a cartoon about you, we often joke that you get forgotten. Just because, well, Lance, as a personal interest story, being so high, there’s just no way to replicate that story.

Levi Exactly.

schmalz And you’re not the first, like Greg Lemond. But yet you have all these results and you win all these stage races, and it seems like you don’t get as much publicity as these guys do, which seems a little…

Levi Well, I haven’t won the Tour like Lemond and Lance, you know, it’s a big difference.

schmalz True…

Levi I’m definitely not in their rank as a cyclist. Those guys were big champions and I’ve definitely had to inch my way up in the sport. I feel like I can win the Tour now, but both Lemond and Lance were big winners at a young age and I started the sport late. I’ve progressed more slowly than they have.

schmalz Well, you’ve gotta be at least a little upset that you don’t get to get your shot this year when you have form and you’ve had a couple of good years in a row.

Levi Well, yeah, of course I’m upset. It’s definitely been a long time since we learned about the decision, so… I think as an athlete you learn to focus and control your emotions, and with the Tour we’ve all gotten over it. We’ve won a lot of races and I think we feel like we’ve really made a point and no one can argue that we’re not the best team in the world. You saw what Alberto did in the Giro, unbelievable.

schmalz Coming off the beach, no less.

Levi He really was not in the best of shape when he came to the Giro. He had won Pays Basque not too long before, but you could see that he hadn’t been training very much when he came to the Giro. He was certainly suffering a bit in the first week, but for him to be able to follow everybody in the climbs, and then put the time into them in the time trials, he won the race the only way he could, but he won the race. He was pretty amazing.

schmalz Going into last year’s Tour, and the way the Tour developed, how did you find out, or how did you decide who was going to be the team leader? Was there a moment where you just said, "Alberto can win it and we should work for him"? Going in, who was the leader?

Levi Well, I think on paper it would’ve been me. Just because I’ve done the Tour more than him, and I’ve been sixth before, in the top ten a few times. He’d only done the Tour once. He was aiming for the white jersey, but when we came into the Alps, my plan was just to follow in the Alps, because I wasn’t at my best yet, and the others were a little stronger. But he was already attacking in the Alps, he showed himself to be the best next to Rasmussen. And then, the time trial, I can’t remember, we were both about the same time, I think. And then the Pyrenees, he was still strong, he was able to attack on Plateau de Beille. It just becomes pretty evident that he had the chance of winning more than me – flying in the mountains.

schmalz Going into next year’s Tour, with you and Alberto there, how’re you going to decide who does what? Well, the course will play a big role…

Levi Don’t forget it’s a nine man team. I’m not the one going to get bottles, I’m not the one leading around the first week on the flats. We have other riders to do that job. I’m not making big sacrifices early on, usually there’s a time trial or two to sort things out, and then someone else will have the yellow jersey, and we won’t have to control the pace. Then we hit the mountains… It’s not like on day one I have to put on a 20 pound weight on my back just because that’s what the team says. We will have, assuming Andreas is still there, I know he only has a one year contract, but assuming he’s there, we’ll have three guys who can win the Tour, and you have to keep that option open as long as possible in the race. It’s tactically superior.

schmalz Do you think you will be a bigger threat because you do have two GC contenders? I mean, if Alberto goes, someone has to cover that attack. Conversely, if you go, somebody’s going to have to cover that attack also.

Levi Yeah, and then the other person is sitting behind. And also you’ve got three guys who can win the Tour, and one or two of them is not at 100%, or one gets sick or injured, you’ve got the other two…

schmalz It would’ve made for an interesting Tour this year, but I guess we’re not going to see it.

Levi Yeah, I think that whoever wins the Tour it’s going to be a bit bittersweet because people are going to comment about how Alberto wasn’t there.

schmalz Sure. Now, has your time trialing position evolved over the last couple of years?

Levi Yeah, definitely.

schmalz When Floyd had his more vertical arm position, did you try to refine that into your own style? How did you go about that?

Well, I spent a couple of days in the wind tunnel, back in the fall of ’06. It was one of the directions we tried, and it really worked for me. Apparently I’m only the second person it’s ever worked for, besides Floyd.

schmalz Is that because you have a certain body type, or are able to hold that position or hold the power? Why is that?

Levi Well, it must be a body shape thing, ’cause we’re not even talking about real world ‘holding the power’, we’re just talking about drag numbers.

schmalz What kind of difference did that position make in your power output?

Levi I felt very comfortable in that position, now I’m not allowed to have my arms up. But when my arms were up I was very comfortable.

schmalz And you have no trouble keeping control of the bike?

Levi Well, that’s a little bit harder, definitely. If it’s a windy day I have to use a lower profile wheel.

schmalz Yeah, ’cause it’ll kinda knock the wheel in front of you…

Levi Yeah, it’s not an extremely stable position.

schmalz Do you train with a power meter? For instance, when you’re doing a 40k TT what kind of power output do you shoot for?

Levi My race TT bike doesn’t have an SRM on it. So, I don’t know, I just go off a feeling, but my training TT bike has one.

schmalz And when you’re doing an effort in training what kind of power are you putting out? Are those numbers classified?

Levi No, but it depends on the length of the interval, the goal of the workout. To give you an example, I could do 380 for 10 minutes…

schmalz I can do 380 for 2 minutes, so…so I don’t think we’re very comparable.

Levi Ha.

schmalz It’s fun because cycling now has gotten into the science of wattage and wattage seems to be the next big geek number out there. Everybody wants to compare wattages. It seems that a lot of professionals do train by feel.

Levi Well, that’s definitely the most important training tool you have, your feeling. You can’t let heartrate or power override that.

schmalz I think that you get to know your body so well that you know when you’re going fast and you get to know that sensation.

Levi Yeah, definitely. In a time trial I know if I’m going to win or if I’m close to the win or not. You can feel it.

schmalz Are you going to be training for the Vuelta?

Levi I will be going to the Vuelta.

schmalz What’s your strategy for the Vuelta? I don’t even know the course, it’s always hilly.

Levi I haven’t looked at it either. We’ll just have a very good team. It’ll be a Tour de France team. Alberto, so, you know, the goal is to win.

schmalz So you could take two of the three grand tours this year.

Levi We could, yeah. I think we should, definitely.

schmalz Once again, you have to be perplexed, I’m definitely perplexed as to why ASO made that decision. It just seems very unsporting, and very unfair.

Levi Yeah, it is. Definitely.

schmalz And it does rob a lot of the excitement from the race because you have two to three people if you include Andreas, who could win the race.

Levi Yeah. You have five active riders who have been on the podium, and three of them won’t be at the Tour.

schmalz Did Johan say something about Prudhomme? Did he make a bad joke?

Levi No, again, I think the number one reason is political, with the UCI. And then the second reason is the fact that they’ve always not like Lance and Johan from their years of domination. And Johan coming back with another rider, a young rider, who now is showing himself to be the best rider in the world, who has the potential to win many more Tours. So they feel a little bit, well, angry?

schmalz Maybe you should go out and finish second in a bunch of races and the French will LOVE you…

Levi We say that all the time! If we just lost the whole year, then maybe they would love us.

schmalz Yeah, you should’ve had Alberto fall off his bike in the Giro, come in second. And then the French would’ve appreciated his grit, and then you guys would be racing the Tour this year.

Levi I think that the number one thing for us was to win a lot of races. We’ve got the best anti doping program, Dr. Damsgaard, the same one that CSC’s had. We’re proving that this is a clean team and that we’re serious about fixing the image of Astana. We’re lucky that Astana and all the other sponsors have decided to continue to be in our sport. If you seen what happened to Unibet, they’re done because the ASO just killed them off.

schmalz Exactly. Now, have you been to Kazakhstan? That part of being on the team?

Levi No, I haven’t.

schmalz Did they introduce the team there?

Levi No, we were in Albuquerque.

schmalz So you’ll soon have your Kazakhstan trip lined up?

Levi I d-don’t know…

schmalz Well, thank you for your time, Levi. Come by our site, feel free to read our cartoons.

Levi Ok, I will.

schmalz Everybody takes a shot, so…

Levi Yeah?

schmalz Oh yeah. Everybody who makes the news takes a shot. Thank you for your time!

Levi Yeah, no problem!