Ryder Hesjedal: Building towards the Ardennes classics

Ryder Hesjedal says he’s had a “quiet” season so far, but everything is going according to plan thanks to a heavy block of racing in the last two months.

“I’m actually, I think, ahead of where I was last year,” said the 30-year-old from his home in Girona, Spain, earlier this week. “I started in Mallorca [Feb. 6-10], which was a little earlier than last year. I looked at the power meter files from there and I was able to start at a higher level (than in previous years).”

“At Algarve [Feb. 19-23], too, I was better on the decisive climbing day than I was last year — I was 10th there. I was one place less on GC but those kind of things are less of an indicator.”

Hesjedal, riding for the Garmin-Cervelo squad, strung together a particularly tough series of races in March, included the Eroica Montepaschi Strade Bianche on the 5th, Paris-Nice from the 6th to the 13th and the Criterium Internationale on March 26-27.

After finishing top-10 in the three previous editions of the 190-km Eroica, Hesjedal was targeting another top result but fell a little short, winding up 12th.

“I was in the front, no problem, but I made a couple mistakes,” he said. “Not a bad result, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I had to get that out of my mind.”

The next day, he was on the start line for the eight-day, 1,307-km Paris-Nice, a race he’d never done before.

“I started Paris-Nice with an open mind,” he said. “I was good on the mountain day [Stage 5] — only 20 seconds behind the front eight. I look on that as a good ride.”

Though Hesjedal was less happy with his time trial — where he said he struggled because he’s still fine-tuning  his position — finishing the cold and wet final stages of the race was an accomplishment.

“The last few days were pretty horrific conditions (but) I made it through the race without too many problems,” he said. “I was happy with that, I was able to recover and stay to the plan.”

He carried that form to the Criterium Internationale this past weekend, where he was 12th in both the mountainous first stage and the final-stage time trial.

“I think I showed in the Criterium that I’m still improving. In the time trial, I was definitely happy with that even though it was only 8k,” he said. “I was happy to do the ride that I did and still feel like I’m building.”

Next on Hesjedal’s calendar is the six-day Vuelta a Pais Vasco starting Monday and then he heads to the Ardennes for his main early season objectives: Amstel Gold Race on April 17 (where he was second last year), Fleche Wallonne on the 20th and Liege-Bastogne-Liege on the 24th (where he finished 11th in 2009).

After that it will be time to take a breather and assess his program in the run-up to the Tour de France, where he’s hoping to improve on his seventh-place finish last year.

One person who won’t be part of the planning is former Garmin-Cervelo directeur sportif Matt White, who helped plot out Hesjedal’s 2011 program but was sacked by the team in January. But Hesjedal says the departure won’t affect him.

“Not really, the program was already made out by him in the winter — most of those plans remained the same,” he said. “It changed a little bit but I still know how to do the races. I’m still pretty confident with the program.”

Part of that program is the Tour of California from May 15 to 22 and then a short visit to his hometown of Victoria, B.C., where he’ll be leading the Tour of Victoria mass-participation ride on May 28.

“It only takes a day to check out the best roads in Victoria,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing and I’m pretty excited for that.”

How does Hesjedal explain the sudden popularity of Gran Fondo-style mass participation rides in North America?

“People want to ride, they want to test themselves, push themselves. Do it in a fashion that’s enjoyable — road closures, feeding stations,” he said. “As a rider you want to be pampered like that.”