March 20, 2008 (Cattolica, Italy) – Living on the West Coast, I was still dead asleep when Stage 1 of the 2008 Giro d’Italia got underway. The phone rang, rousing me from my dream state. I was greeted by the words, “Hey! What are you doing sleeping?! Slipstream just beat Tinkoff’s time and took the lead in the TTT!” It was my friend Robby on the East Coast, wide awake and watching the Stage 1 Team Time Trial over the internet, excited about Slipstream-Chipotle’s great ride.

I was excited too but it had been a late night and I needed more sleep. Once again the phone rang: “Astana finished and didn’t do so well, Slipstream’s still in the lead… CSC had a better time split than Slipstream, then Barloworld beat their time!…Here comes CSC…McGee is hammering!! Here they come… no!” Back to my dream state but Robby’s too excited – rrrrrrring!! “High Road just passed the 1km kite…Wiggins is out front… NOOO!!!”

Now I was irrevocably awake and Robby filled me in with more details as Slipstream-Chipotle had completed their mission of Team Time Trial victory garnering them the Maglia Rosa leader’s jersey on the back of Christian Vande Velde, making him the first American to wear that coveted jersey since Andy Hampsten in 1988. And Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian to win a stage at the Giro d’Italia – what a day!

Since their Stage 1 victory, it’s been up and down for the race for the lone Canuck. On Victoria Day we caught up with Hesjedal in the resort town of Cattolica at the Hotel Waldorf, where he was enjoying the Giro’s first rest day.

Receptionist: Hotel Waldorf, buona sera.
Amy Smolens: Ciao, la stanza duecento trentotto (238,) per favore.
Receptionist: Sì,
(“beep…beep…”)
Woman’s voice: Pronto!
AS: Ryder Hesjedal, per favore.
Woman: Dica?
AS: C’e la stanza duecento trentotto?
Woman: No, c’e CENTO trentotto (138.)
AS: Mi dispiace.
(I redial)
Receptionist: Hotel Waldorf, buona sera.
AS: Ciao, la stanza DUEcento trentotto, per favore. DUEcento.
Receptionist: Sì, due-tre-otto…
AS: Grazie.
Receptionist: Prego!
(“beep beep…”)
Ryder Hesjedal: Hello.

Hi, Ryder!
Ryder Hesjedal: Hi, Amy.

I love Italian, isn’t it the most beautiful language?
RH: (Laughs) Pronto!!!

It’s pretty cool of the Giro organizers to give you guys a day off on Victoria Day so you can relax, isn’t it?
RH: Oh, is it really? That’s how detached I am, I had no idea…

How did you enjoy your day off?
RH: We just generally got as much rest as possible. We had a really big day yesterday. I think we did about a 100 kilometre transfer in the morning, 220km race and then over 400km in the bus after the race (sighs.) That’s about as big a day as you can get racing, with all the bits and pieces.

When we spoke before the Giro you told us that Slipstream-Chipotle’s objective was to win the TTT. How did it feel to meet that goal, win the TTT, and see Christian wear the leader’s pink jersey?
RH: Wow, it was unreal. You set a goal and put in the effort and do everything you think is needed to accomplish that and when it unfolds and actually happens it’s pretty special. I mean, that doesn’t happen all the time and I think we were just more…I don’t know if we were surprised but I guess just pleased and very excited that we were able to do that when we set out to do that. It was a pretty special moment and everyone was really excited and it just set the stage for a pretty brutal first week in a Grand Tour. I think that helped us get through this first period. There are a lot of guys that are hurting already and unfortunately there were a lot of crashes in the early first part and Dave (Zabriskie) had to go home early (with a compression fracture of his L1 vertabrae) and there’s lots of stuff that’s been hard and the Stage 1 win is something that we have that we can use to help us through. We got a stage win right out of the gate as a team and opened the race in Pink, and that’s pretty big so we’re just taking it as it comes now.

Tell us how it felt to be on the podium, having won a stage at one of the world’s most important and storied cycling races, with Christian on your shoulders?
RH: Yeah, yeah, we just enjoyed every moment of it 100%. You go through a hard spring in professional cycling and everyone makes it through the best way they can, then the Giro team was selected, that was a clear objective. They put it together, we went down to Sicily, showed up, and we did it! That was over the top and we just took in every little bit of it on the podium. We had a pretty long run waiting for the top teams to finish and you know, that was a little bit of a roller-coaster and it was one of those moments and periods you always want to happen. We were just in it and enjoyed every moment!

You’re the first Canadian to win a stage at the Giro, how does it feel to have that honour that will last forever?
RH: (Laughs) I guess, I haven’t really been thinking about those things. But yeah, that definitely went through my mind at one point. I wanted to be on a Grand Tour stage and this was a real possibility to do it as a team and we did it – now we’re looking to other parts.

Are your friends and family back home watching and excited for you?
RH: Oh yeah. Everyone that’s close follows it, and now I have a new website, I’ve been trying to do a blog every day just giving a little bit of insight personally on what’s going on and that’s been going good. Mostly it’s my parents, and close family and friends, hoping everything’s ok. When you hear about all the crashes and things like that, we’re all just trying to make it through.

I read that you had a little adventure trying to catch a ferry?
RH: (Laughs) Yeah! That day we finally left Sicily it was a bit of a crazy production – buses and boats and cars everywhere and just trying to make it to the right place. We (Ryder, Dave Millar and Christian Vande Velde) actually went to a different port with the staff, which was different from the other riders and ended up in a different place. But at the end of the night we all ended up at the hotel at around the same time so it was just part of the Giro. It’s pretty much been keeping that pace until now (laughs!).

What are some of the memories or observations that stand out after week one at the Giro?
RH: It’s just been really hard on an actual statistical level, you know, the kilojoules and kilometres and elevation done at certain efforts – it’s pretty stiff so far for an opening week with what’s coming in the second half, it’s not letting up by any means. I’ve just been focusing on that and making sure I can hopefully improve throughout the race and have some good moments at the end. That’s my main objective, and especially when we started the race with a victory like we did, that relieved a little bit of the pressure for the team. Now we’re just looking to come out of it in the best way possible.

The day we started in Pink (Stage 2), right away it was like a mountain stage you’d see in the second or third week of a Grand Tour, and it was just over the top – it was more or less just straight up. We were enjoying it because we were the leading team and riding for the jersey. It was more fun to do an epic mountain stage than some of flat sprint stage. We took it as it came and everyone did their job and we ended up losing the jersey by one second.

We could have easily been in the jersey for five days but we weren’t and that was just the way it was. Everybody’s been doing more than their share and that’s what you do at these races – it’s three weeks of battle. I think we’re already up around 16-1,700km after nine days or something crazy. (Laughs) It’s a good training camp anyways.

Training camp, like an audition for the Tour?
RH: There’s no better way to get ready for a 3-week race than to do a 3-week race and there are only three of them. So if you can get one in the legs before July, you’re sitting a little bit better.

There are three ITT’s to come, which has to be good for your team. Slipstream-Chipotle was the only team to wear ice vests while warming up for the TTT – whose idea is that and do you expect to do that for the ITTs as well?
RH: Yeah, it’s definitely a tool that we utilized for the Team Time Trial, it just depends on the outside temperature. It’s actually raining here today, not super, super hot, so I guess we’ll see tomorrow (Tuesday) how it works. It is a 40km TT that is mostly climbing after the first half so we’ll see if that makes sense from our physical trainer here.

That’s Allen Lim?
RH: Yeah, Allen sort of sets the protocol and tells us what will be good or not for us, and that sort of thing.

What do you know about the more grueling mountain stages and the famous passes such as Alpe di Pampeago, the Marmolada, the Mortirolo, and the Gavia?
RH: Whoa…I’m not a super-veteran by any means on all of those details. I didn’t ride the last week of my first Giro (with Discovery in 2005,) so I think we would have done a few of those. I’ve done a few of the big passes in the Dolomites and I know what to expect so we’ll just see how it unfolds. Once you past the halfway mark and get into that last week it’s more just an issue of condition and what you have left to give. The parcours is what it is and everyone’s there and everyone tries to make it through. But I’m hoping that it’s more suited to me in the second half of the race and I can get through better than some other guys and maybe have some opportunities on some mountainous days.

From team director, Jonathan Vaughters’ perspective, what are Slipstream-Chipotle’s team goals for the rest of the Giro?
RH: I think just being opportunists and if there is a chance, obviously winning stages is a big goal. Besides what we’ve already accomplished we want to perform, so we’ll see what makes sense each day based on the team feeling and the stage ahead. The race evolves every day and you see where other teams are at, the objectives ahead, and what’s going to make sense here and there. We just approach it every day and come up with a game plan and see where it takes us. Dave Millar was really, really close on one stage (Stage 5, where his chain broke with 1km to go) and I’m definitely going to be looking later in the race to have a chance on one of the the more mountainous days. We’d definitely like to have some more victories before the race ends but you know – it’s racing and you gotta take what comes. I know I would love a victory in a big epic stage at the Giro d’Italia, that’s for sure.

In bocca al lupo – have you heard that before?
RH: I think so…

That’s the cool way to say “good luck” in Italian.
RH: Ok, yeah, thanks. It’s been pretty sweet so far.