July 15, 2008 (Pau, France) – What a year it’s been for Victoria’s Ryder Hesjedal. He signed with the Pro Continental team Slipstream-Chipotle then finished on the podium in his first race with the team, 3rd at GP d’Ouverture La Marseillaise. The team raced its first Grand Tour, the 2008 Giro d’Italia, and started it off by winning the Team Time Trial, putting Christian Vande Velde in the coveted Maglia Rosa. Hesjedal worked hard for his teammates in Italy, and was one of just four of the squad’s riders to finish the race, coming in a very respectable 60th in what could only be called a brutal Giro d’Italia: 21 days of racing, 3,473 kilometres, some 40,000 metres of altitude gained.

But there was to be no rest for the weary. Immediately after the Giro, Slipstream held team training camps at altitude in Switzerland and Spain in order to prepare for the world’s most storied race, the Tour de France. A few weeks before the Tour was to begin, Ryder got official word that he had been selected to represent Canada at the Olympics in Beijing.

The team, now known as Garmin-Chipotle after acquiring a new title sponsor, is now in the midst of its first Tour de France. After a successful Giro, Hesjedal is now racing in his first Tour, becoming the first Canadian to do so since Gord Fraser in 1997.

It’s been “so far, so good” for Garmin-Chipotle and Ryder, both in their maiden Tour de France. The team has had some good stage placings, and after the first 10 stages Christian Vande Velde lies in an impressive 3rd place on GC, only 38 seconds behind leader Cadel Evans. We had a phone conversation with Ryder on his well-deserved rest day in the mountain town of Pau, not long after he enjoyed both a massage and a burrito.

Amy Smolens: What a month it’s been for you: official nomination to Canada’s Olympic team, your team picked up a new title sponsor, Garmin and now you’re racing your first Tour de France. It must be a pretty eventful and exciting time for you.
Ryder Hesjedal: Yeah, it’s pretty right up there, it’s everything I was going to make happen for the year. I’m just trying to make good on it all and do what I need to go for the team. It’s going really well so far for Garmin-Chipotle and I’m trying to be a big part of that.

AS: During the Giro you told me, “there’s no better way to get ready for a 3-week race than to do a 3-week race.” Were you right and how did suffering through that tough Giro help prepare you for the Tour?
RH: Yeah, in some respects it’s been a lot easier in the Tour compared to the Giro, with all the other stuff that goes along with the racing, with what it actually takes place during the race day to day around the country. You know the Tour’s definitely bigger, just in respect to a lot of the other stuff but so far the racing’s been very doable and our team’s been performing at a very high level and we’ve prepared really well to do that. Yeah, making it through the Giro – that Giro in particular – I think really helped prepare me for this race.

AS: Has your first Tour been everything you’ve expected it to be? RH: Yeah, I’ve been in cycling for a while now and done pretty much all the biggest events, less the Tour until now so it’s not that far away from all of the other big events. It’s just that everybody really focuses on the Tour so yes, it is special, but as far as a racing standpoint and what I do personally and need to do to prepare and everything it hasn’t been that far off from anything else I’ve done. It’s the Tour de France, yes maybe from a different perspective it’s bigger and that sort of thing, but within the race we just focus on what we need to do and racing is racing. We’re kind of in a bubble, you know? We just do what we need to do every day and I don’t know if we really get to realize just how big it is from the outside.

AS: Yeah, you don’t see the Caravane Publicitaire….
RH: I mean you do, but you don’t get to experience it the way others do, you know? We’re not camping on the side of the hill for three days waiting for the guys to come by. And we’re not in the big media circus and all this sort of thing so you definitely know what’s going on and can see all of it but it’s not something you get to take in – we focus on the riding.

AS: And the team’s been riding so well. In Stage 3 Will Frischkorn was in the break all day and came in second on the stage – how big was that for your team in its first Tour and for Will in his first Tour?
RH: Yeah, yeah, that can easily happen and it does happen in the early days in a race. Something goes early and it can go to the line (i.e. the break can survive) and if there are only four guys it’s looking good to have a shot at victory. So he came really close and had a great ride and I’m sure he wasn’t expecting that when he started in Brest and that’s the beauty of racing, anything can happen – and it does happen. With that result and Dave Millar’s 3rd in the Time Trial, close to victory and now Christian 3rd overall after the first real shakeup you can be sure that in the team there’s a lot of good morale right now.

AS: Yeah, the Time Trial was great for Team Garmin, with Dave, Christian and Danny Pate in the top 15. Did that give you confidence that you guys were riding well?
RH: Yeah, for sure. Danny Pate’s a time trialist, a former (U23 Time Trial) World Champion in a very strong class, seven years ago now, and if you go back and look at Danny’s Road World Championship results and see who he was racing against and beat, it was pretty impressive, and he’s always there in the time trial. That was pretty expected. So for him to ride like that and obviously Dave and Christian are at the top of that discipline right now, that seemed like a day that went according to plan. Will’s day was maybe a little out of the ordinary but the Time Trial was definitely a day that just went like we expected. And now Christian’s made good on some pretty serious bike racing up until now and it’s showing in the overall.

AS: How about you personally – Stage 6 to Super-Besse looked like a really tough stage. How did you feel on the day and were you satisfied finishing 1:45 down?
RH: Yeah, it was ok. The idea was to be there as long as possible and at that point we were still on team (leading the Team GC) so were looking for three good finishers. I actually had a little bit of a problem with about 5km to go before it crested, before the final ascent. Somebody crashed into the back of me and actually kind of got tangled up on the back of my bike, dragging me to a halt. I didn’t crash but he was on me and brought me to a stop, so that kind of killed my rhythm. And I just wasn’t able to stay in the front group going over that second to last crest. So actually I would have been able to go up quite a bit better had I gotten to the base of that climb still at the front but I had to basically ride over the top and do the whole thing on my own. So it wasn’t really a day that was super special, it was the first kinda bump in the road after some hard racing in Brittany. My condition was there that yeah, I would have been able to probably be even closer to the front. And we hung on to the team (GC lead) barely so it was still a good day, to ride up in that position.

AS: And the next day, Stage 7 to Aurillac – every rider said it was flat out all day.
RH: Yeah, yeah.

AS: You finished in the autobus almost 22 minutes back. Describe how tough that stage was, physically and mentally?
RH: It was hard, it was just a mixture of the conditions, once it really gets hard for a while people start to decide what they’re really going for and if you’re single file and you’re with a bunch of guys unfortunately that decided “enough’s enough” than that’s it. Wherever that break in the line is you don’t go forward any more. I definitely was hoping to be more at the front on that day, but the condition I guess wasn’t there or the circumstances. There were a few little crashes going on and what have you, then we were in a split and then all of a sudden it’s gruppetto time. You know, fortunately Christian and company were near the front and they were able to have a good ride. But that’s where the day by day comes in. You’re not trying to be as low on GC as possible after three weeks, you just decide ok, the fight’s over and you form an alliance and you make it to the line to get to the next stage. It was an unfortunate day for Maggy (Magnus Backstedt,) it can come apart that fast. You just have a bad moment a little bit too early in the stage, you don’t hook up with guys at the right time, you end up riding by yourself for a long time and it’s that easy to miss the time cut. You know (laughs) it was definitely a hard day and you know, you get through them and you just go on to the next one.

AS: Yeah, after a week that was already hard and fast, what were the high mountains of the Pyrenees like for you? What’s the strategy in those high mountains? RH: Just to be with Christian as long as possible and provide support and be there with him. The first day there (Stage 9) with the (1,569m Col de) Peyresourde and (1,489m Col d’) Aspin, actually I wasn’t feeling super. I had a little bit of a stomach problem, something was not quite right in the gut and I had quite a bit of sharp pain pretty constant through the day. I was just trying to deal with that and make it through. Once you start racing and stuff like that happens you don’t really know if it’s going to get worse or get better or become more of a problem. I was happy to make it over the Peyresourde and be there for Christian before the Aspin and lend a little help with feeding and that sort of stuff and make it as easy for him as possible. I wasn’t good enough to be over the Aspin with the front group but again, I just hooked up with a decent group to make it to the finish. Then yesterday (Stage 10) was pretty hard, it was pretty fast racing right up to the (2,115m Col du) Tourmalet and I was just looking, again, to be with Christian as much as possible and actually had a little bit of drama yesterday as well – I had some bike issues and a little bit of stuff like that – it’s all part of racing and was still able to be comfortable enough at the bottom of the Tourmalet to cover a few moves and be there at the start, the hard moments of the Tourmalet, and be around Christian. Then once those guys started to go I was not able to follow in the front group and again, and found an alright group and just rode over and got to the (1,520m summit finish) Hautacam and rode up and that was it.

AS: You’re so matter-of-fact! So tell me, how energizing is it for you and the team to see how well Christian is riding and climbing the first week and being in 3rd place overall? Does that bring up the morale of the entire team no matter how you personally are feeling?
RH: Oh, yeah! That’s what you’re here for! He’s contending the Tour de France right now, it doesn’t get any bigger or better than that! But we’re still doing it our style and having fun and we came here with high expectations but not big pressure. We’re a new team, a young team and a team that’s doing it with their own style and the way that we want to do it so we’re just enjoying it. Then when you have successes like that and are doing well on top of all that there’s nothing better so the team’s at top morale right now! It’s fun to be riding and racing and participating in the Tour de France, no doubt!

AS: How welcome was this rest day and what did you do on your day off? RH: Hah! We actually had a big huge Chipotle burrito bash for the media and everybody. Chipotle came over with their people and put together burritos over here so it was pretty awesome. Yeah, we had Chipotle burritos in Pau, France so that was pretty good. The sun’s gleaming, not a cloud in the sky. It’s a piece of cake compared to the Giro so far, in my eyes (laugh!)

AS: Ten stages down, eleven to go. How does that sound and how important is it for you to make it to Paris?
RH: It’s super important. That would be unbelievable completion over here. When I finish the Tour that’ll probably be my last race over here in Europe. I’ll go directly to Victoria for a few days before going to China and that won’t be the end of my season but I probably won’t return back to Europe, I might do (the Tour of) Missouri or something like that in North America, and that’ll be my season! So yeah, that’ll be the ultimate to arrive in Paris and if we can put Christian on the podium in Paris, I mean it’s not going to get any better than that! Yeah, halfway through! It’s going great.

AS: One more thing – tell me about the Tour de France t-shirts being sold at the Pro City Racing, a shop in Victoria. How did that come about and what’s that for?
RH: Back home a good friend of mine runs Media One, a media company, and he’s always looking to do things like that. So he just put together some t-shirts to go along with the website, if you’re supportive and want to be part of it, he put together the t-shirts. Plus some of the proceeds go to BC Cancer and the Tour de Rock and what they’re doing there. It all just ties into community. I have a lot of followers I think, definitely in Victoria and throughout Canada so it’s something to get a little piece of Ryder at the Tour de France and help a good cause.

AS: That’s great, I know that Canadians are following and supporting you!
RH: Yeah, it’s good, I’ve been noticing quite a few Canadian flags out there now. There’ll be people always making sure they come up to the (team) bus and make sure they let me know that they’re around and watching, it’s good. I mean, yeah, when there’s only one guy here for a whole country I guess it’s easy to support and focus because you’ve only got one guy (laughs!)

AS: Thanks a lot and good luck at the rest of the Tour!
RH: All right, I appreciate it!