July 14, 2009 (Limoges, France) – So far, so good for Victoria, BC’s Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Slipstream,) who is competing at the second Tour de France of his career. Despite two crashes earlier in the week, he has made it through Week One. His Garmin-Slipstream squad is intact, with all nine members still in the race and ready to help their team leaders.

We’d made arrangements to catch up with Ryder at his hotel in Limoges on the Tour’s first rest day. It seemed like everyone on the Garmin team was chatting on the phone, as I waited a couple of minutes listening to some French music while on hold, before a receptionist picked up. Hesjedal was in an upbeat mood, generally satisfied with the nine stages gone by, happy to have a daylong breather, and optimistic about the twelve stages that lay ahead.

So how was your first rest day and what did you do?
Ryder Hesjedal: Not too much, woke up, breakfast, little bike ride, lunch, massage…

Nice! I want to talk with you about what’s gone on the first week. A few days before the Tour started Martijn Maaskant replaced the injured Dan Martin. Talk about how that changed the dynamics of the team.
RH: I actually didn’t really know anything was wrong until Martijn came to Montpellier and met up with us and we started doing the TTT practice, stuff like that, on our way up to Monaco. I think Martijn was always on the long list so he was capable of being there and they just made the call with Dan that it wasn’t in the best interest for the team or him so they slotted Martijn in there and we just continued on.

This is your second Tour. How familiar was the circus that surrounds the Tour de France and are you better prepared to deal with all that after a year of experience?
RH: Yeah, it’s there, you can take it in as much as you want or think about it as much as you want, but it’s pretty easy to just focus on the race. Every day is so important, there’s so much to be done that pretty much the blinders are on from when we start the day to the finish. I’m not really even thinking about anything except for the racing and what needs to happen.

How did you feel personally with your ride in the opening Time Trial and how happy was everyone at Garmin about Bradley Wiggins’3rd place on the stage?
RH: Yeah, I hadn’t done an effort like that in a little while. There was a prologue in Switzerland (Tour de Suisse) and that was even more new, I hadn’t really done a prologue this year. Just the fact that it was the Tour de France and we got to start with an individual effort against the clock was great. The Tour started with a road stage last year so this was definitely new to a lot of people. For me, to start the Tour like that is unique and it was nice to start this one out with an individual ride against the clock, especially in Monaco and on that kind of course – it was pretty neat to be out there and give it your best shot. As for the ride, I wasn’t really focusing on having a good performance against the specialists and many riders who really focus and are at the top in that discipline. I was more just wanting to have a good ride and just feel good and not have any big mistakes or have any problems and just get through it in one piece…
(I hear a loud ringing from his end.)

Do you have to get that phone?
RH: No, it’s my roommate’s.

Who’s your roommate?
RH: (David) Zabriskie.

So what’s that like. Interesting?
RH: Oh, yeah. We keep it pretty interesting. It’s a little bit of yin and yang. He’s a little wild at times, I’m a little more laid back. But we get it done day in and day out.

Stage 2 was for the sprinters and Tyler Farrar placed second to Mark Cavendish, who almost seems unbeatable. What’s the mindset of Tyler and your team about trying to win a sprint finish with Cavendish in there? Might there be a couple more chances this week?
RH: Oh, yeah! The mindset is that we’re going to win one and we don’t really care if he beats Cavendish or who he beats – we want a stage win. If it’s gotta come at the expense of Cavendish being second then that’s what it’ll be. The team’s very confident that we can deliver him (Farrar) and I think we’ve shown and he’s shown that it’s possible and so that’s one of our goals throughout the race.

Team Garmin-Slipstream had prepared very hard for Stage 4’s Team Time Trial, but you were down to five riders pretty quickly – how did that happen and how tough did that make it for the five who were left – you, Bradley Wiggins, Christan Vande Velde, David Millar and Dave Zabriskie?
RH: It was just a case of the guys having an idea of what it would take to win the stage and we set out on that pace. We hit a hard part on the course, a climb, after the first 10-12 kilometers in the race. Unfortunately the pace we set out on was just a bit too much for those (other four) guys all at once on the climb and we were down to five guys pretty quick. It was clear that those four guys were the strongest time trial specialists, world class guys, the top in the world, especially on that day and I was kind of caught in the middle. At that point they made the decision that they needed to keep riding like that and keep that pace, that even waiting and regrouping and doing anything was going to jeopardize going for the win. So what they committed to was basically that it was just up to me to be that insurance policy and stay on with those guys and do that kind of ride, a different type of ride, but still hard.

With only five guys you continually had the best splits, and ended up second behind Astana. Do you consider second place to Astana a success?
RH: I think so. I mean, definitely in that circumstance you can kind of go back and look at a bunch of different scenarios and I think at the end of the day it was still the fastest ride that the team could have come up with, and if that was how we placed, behind Astana, then that was it. I think everyone was pleased with it and moreso the time we were able to put into other top teams so I think it was a successful day. Whenever you’re second you always want to be one step ahead, one spot further, you know, but that’s the way it goes.

You crashed two days in a row after that. Talk about the situations there and how you were feeling after those crashes.
RH: Yeah, it’s not an ideal situation. Luckily nothing major happened from it, nothing was broken or anything like that, but even just hitting the deck in the smallest crash in the Tour takes that much energy and can affect the body and can magnify how hard things get. Unfortunately those were pretty hard days of racing, too. It’s just unfortunate to crash during harder moments but they were just typical – more getting crashed as there was a lot of nervous riding happening. People knowing that very important parts were coming up and everyone trying to be in the same place at the same time.

On stage 5 there it was just before the two climbs, on a very technical descent straight down to the coast, where the crosswinds were real bad. It was a very selective part of the race and no one wanted to get caught out again like a couple days earlier (in Stage 3, in which a split was caused by crosswinds). The racing was on full gas from the moment I hit the deck right to the finish so it took a little bit more out of the body, I’m sure. And then sure enough, the next day early on in the stage, right when it was basically at its hardest moment on the winding coastal road towards Barcelona, the same thing…just some unfortunate happenings in a corner and I went down again on the same side, same kind of crash. Not super high speed but pretty fast and any time you go from on the bike to down on the ground the body feels it.

It was still a full-on hard day of racing from that point into Barcelona. I was fortunate enough not to crash again as there were many, many crashes in the final, in the rain in Barcelona. So I made it through another hard day. And yeah, I just was definitely feeling the effects by the Andorra stage (Stage 7) but was still able to be up there and be in good position and help those guys (Christian Vande Velde and Bradley Wiggins) right up to the last 10km of the climb up to Arcalis. So that was good, I was happy to at least still be able to perform and do the work on that day. But then the next day (Stage 8) I was pretty wrecked and spent the day in the gruppetto right out of the start out of Andorra and just tried to do the minimum it would take to get through the day. Fortunately I felt a lot better yesterday (Stage 9) and was able to be with those guys over the (Col d’) Aspin and (Col du) Tourmalet and get through the Pyrenees.

Stage 6 went from your European home in Girona to Barcelona. Outside of your crash, what was it like to have friends and family there to root you on?
RH: Yeah, I mean that was great! Unfortunately that day turned into a bit of a mess with the crash and the hard conditions but Millar had an awesome ride. It was just neat to be right in Girona for the start of a stage of the Tour de France! My parents were over here watching the first part, the first week of the race and they were there and yeah, it was pretty neat. It will probably sink in a little bit more as the race goes on, and later on (I can say that) in the ’09 Tour de France we were in Girona, and I’ll always be able to have that memory!

What did yesterday (Stage 9) tell you about your form and how you’re ready to go into the rest of the race?
RH: Well, yesterday was super encouraging based on the day before, just the fact that I was able to recover from the stage out of Andorra to the stage yesterday and with the rest day today, that was a huge day for me mentally and everything, to get through that. So the effects of the crashes and the hard days of racing in the first week are already on the way out. I’m recovering well and improving and I think it’ll be very good in the second half of the race and more importantly in the Alps. We have two guys in the top eight (Bradley Wiggins – 5th and Christian Vande Velde – 8th) in the General (Classification,) so we’re going to need as many guys in top shape as possible.

What did the three days in the Pyrenees tell you about the form of Wiggins and Vande Velde?
RH: That they’re in the race as good as anyone! That was always a hope and a goal for the team and it’s always good to start with a couple and improve your odds, and now that we still have two, and two that are looking pretty good, it creates even more morale and energy for the team. It makes it easier for those guys, too, that they have two guys there. Especially when you have teams that are stacking four guys in the front at the same time. At least we have two guys in the top eight that are looking just as comfortable as anybody.

Look ahead to the coming week. What key stages are you looking forward to for you and the team?
RH: Well, we just need to look at these attackers’s tages and see what’s the best approach for the team. Obviously in these non-GC days we want to see sprint finals with Tyler, I think that’s our best chance for a stage win based on the guys that we have here, and I think that’s going to be our game plan. We just have to see more closely on the stage profiles and stuff but any day that there’s not huge mountains and that we think the GC is obviously not going to be played out, we want to try and come to the line with a chance for Tyler.

What do you know about Stage 15 to Verbier, the mountaintop finish – is that the next important test?
RH: Yeah, I think so. Anytime the stage finishes uphill it’s an important day for the General. Actually since the Team Time Trial, stages 5, 6, 7 and these last days in the Pyrenees I haven’t been looking much past the rest day – just make it to today. I’ll crack the book again tomorrow morning – that last week’s going to be some hard mountain racing and (I’ll) just focus in on being as well prepared for that as possible and taking it right through to (Mont) Ventoux and Paris.

Garmin isn’t the new kid at the Tour like you were last year. How important is it to win a stage?
RH: I think we’re showing ourselves well. If you look at the Tour de France, stage wins don’t come easy by any means. With Bradley we have a third, with Tyler we have a second, a second in the Team Time Trial, two guys in the top eight in the General – I think the team’s performing right in the top percentage of the teams that are here. I mean, obviously a victory’s important, we want to get an outright stage victory but it’s not something that’s negating everything that we’ve already accomplished and that we’re continuing to work towards. We don’t think anything less of what we’ve done so far just because we haven’t won a stage.

So my friend in Ontario told me she knows a bunch of kids names Ryder that are between the ages of 2 months and 5 years old….
RH: Yeah? (Laughs) I guess the name’s getting popular! It’s a good name, I think!

Think they’re named after you?
RH: Haha, I don’t know. You know, I wasn’t the first one to be called Ryder, but if they get the idea from my name than that’s great, too! I think it’s always something when someone names their kid after you, or gets the idea from your name and likes it, then that’s great!

You’ll have a built-in group of fans for the Tour and beyond, right?
RH: (Laughs.) Yeah, really! It’s been pretty great, there have been lots of Canadians giving me support whenever they can, especially at the starts and finishes and I do hear the yells out on course, which is pretty awesome. I’d actually like to mention all the supportive comments through my website (www.ryderhesjedal.ca) – it’s been pretty phenomenal. I’ve been getting a lot of well-wishes through the website and I do get the messages and it helps a lot! I just wanted to put that out there that I do get the messages and they’re appreciated.

That’s fantastic, we’ll put this up on Pedalmag and make sure you get more now!
RH: Yeah, great!

Thanks a lot, and have a great next week.
RH: No worries, thanks Amy.

So keep those notes and good wishes coming – especially all the Ryders from coast to coast!