August Withdrawals

August is typically a month where everybody is going through post Tour de France syndrome.  It’s a time where some riders will participate in post-Tour crits, doing around 10 to 15 races to raise their earnings for the year, while other riders will focus on the Vuelta Espana/World Championships. Another thing that gets my attention is all the transfer rumours and confirmations. All I can see is a hunt for points to make the WorldTour status. It’s a good thing for the top riders with a lot of points because it makes their negotiations more lucrative, but it’s frustrating for the “domestiques.” It’s the domestique, out there to make sure his leader is in the best possible situation to score big for the team, who has zero points at the end of the day – not a strong position when it comes to negotiating a contract. This system was in place years ago and has led to some pretty big dramas in cycling.

This time of year is also the period where the Tour riders will try to hold on to their fitness as long as physically and mentally possible. Riders like Andy Schleck, who put a lot of effort and dedication into the Tour, might run in a natural decompression. The pressure endured by those riders during the Tour is intense. Lots of sponsor and self-ambitions are at stake during those three weeks.

As for the Trek-Livestrong? My riders are all in a bit of a lost situation since we weren’t allowed to race in the Tour of Utah or the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. My guys had to race with the U.S. national team to get ready for Tour de L’avenir and Worlds, which left me with an unfair feeling toward the decision to keep us out of those two U.S. stage races. I think that we deserved our spot in those races and our ethical commitment to compete would have been shown despite the fact that we share some sponsorship with Team RadioShack. It is what it is, but we will try to make things different next year.

I was pleased to see how well George Bennett and Dale Parker contributed to Levi Leipheimer’s win in Tour of Utah. It was also great to see Carter Jones finish third overall in Tour de Guadeloupe and Lawson Craddock’s stage win there.  I keep a close eye on them. As for me? After my cool West Coast Trail experience with some friends on Vancouver Island, I am here in Colorado to assist Alain Gallopin with Team RadioShack. I am looking forward to driving through from what I’ve heard is a beautiful region and hope we can get a few stage wins along the way.

Talk to you guys in a couple of weeks!
Axel