Ryder Hesjedal looks to the Tour de France
A little more than a week after the Giro d’Italia wrapped up, Ryder Hesjedal was at his European home base in Girona, Spain. In his words, he was “just chillin’.” But chilling for the Cannondale-Garmin rider who had recently finished fifth in the Italian Grand Tour meant that he was out riding his bike. He had to maintain his fitness. The Tour de France was a few weeks away.
“I wasn’t really that tired after the Giro actually,” he said. “I’m just keeping ‘er going. Not racing is enough recovery mentally and all that.”
The drawly Victoria native exudes chill with his words, but his performance at the 2015 Giro was markedly not chill. After falling behind in the general classification in the first week of the Grand Tour, he battled consistently stage after stage. “I always rely on my strength that comes in that latter part of three weeks of racing,” he said. “I always wanted to get to the hardest part of the race and do the kind of race that I know I can do.” He was in breakaways. He had two second-place finishes on mountain stages. All that fight brought him to fifth place, a result that matches his 2010 placement overall at the Tour de France. Those fifth-place finishes sit as his second-best Grand Tour results behind his Giro win in 2012.
After time to reflect, he’s ultimately happy with his Giro. He’s now looking toward the Tour de France, which, like the Giro, has been in the works since this past November. While Hesjedal was the leader of the Cannondale-Garmin squad in Italy, his role, once he’s confirmed for France, is not yet defined. “You just have to get to to the race. That’s when you start to make decisions, once you are on the road,” he said. When pressed on what he’d like his role to be at the Tour, Hesjedal was, unsurprisingly, easy-going about the possibilities.
“My role is to perform for the team,” he said. “If they ask me to do that in a GC capacity, I’ll do it. If it’s going for stages or targeting a jersey, I’ll do it. But I want to be performing. Even supporting someone else, performing at a high level, is satisfying. I’ve done it all. I enjoy helping teammates win the biggest races in the world. I also enjoy going on a more aggressive role and chasing stages. One of the best times of my career was last year was when I was off GC in the Vuelta. Dan [Martin] was riding well and he was really focused on the GC, so that was covered for the team. That gave me the luxury or the flexibility do my own race when it made sense and go for stage wins.
“I’m happy with any of those scenarios because I’m racing my bike and getting out there. Riding GC is not always very exciting versus going on those big days, getting in the break or trying to win stages. It can get complicated if you are in GC. Definitely racing the GC in a high position is exciting and important too. So, I’ll take it as it comes. There’s pluses and minuses to all sides of it.”
After the Tour, Hesjedal plans to race the Spain summertime one-day race, the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian. Then it’s back to Victoia. He’ll be riding in his gran fondo, the Tour de Victoria, on Aug. 23. It’s back to racing for Hesjedal on Sept. 2. He’ll make his return to the Tour of Alberta. He’s not only looking forward to the six-day stage race’s new mountain stages, its gravel stage, but also the opening team time trial. He then heads east to Quebec for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montréal. He’s finished on the podium (third in Montreal in 2013 and 2010). He’s keen on win in Quebec.
At moment, September seems far away. Once he finishes the Tour, he’ll have racked up 76 days of racing. His final prep for the Tour starts Thursday at the Route de Sud, a four-day stage race in the south of France. Then, he’ll take the Tour de France as it comes.
