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ACCOMMODATION
PROGRAMME Saturday: 28th June 2. Celtic Manor Challenge (British Heart Foundation Charity Ride) -- Start time 10.00am (32, 24 or 8 mile routes available). Click here for details. Sunday: 29th June 2. Celtic Manor Team Challenge (Off road charity ride). Click here for details.
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| THE
COURSE | THE
CHARITY RIDE | NICOLE'S
INTERVIEW | THE
RACES | INTRODUCTION
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DEFENDING THE DREAM
2003 has a been huge year for 2002�s British Road Race champion Julian Winn. His first year with Division 1 pro team, Team Fakta and the achievement of the dream, riding and completing the Giro de Italia. But the life of a professional is not about achieving the dream and then putting your feet up. No sooner had he finished the Giro, he started the Tour of Germany and that ended for him after four stages when he had to retire after he became sick with a chest infection.
It was an illness that had been going from rider to rider in his team, and for many, it ended their own dreams of finishing the Giro only days from Milan. Speaking to Julian after he returned home to Abergavenny, Julian said he was taking each day as it came, and with luck, he would be riding a home race, the classic Five Valleys Premier Calendar this weekend.
Talking about whether it was the after effects of the Giro that has brought him down or just bad luck, Julian explained that he was going fine after the Giro finished and feeling strong in Germany but the flu that had affected others members of his team was just starting to make its effects known on day 1 in Germany.
�I was aware of it. The power was there, and the form was there. I just didn�t want to dig deep and Kim (his team manager) said to me �I don�t want you going to hard now because you have had a great Tour, lets not mess it up now�. It was just my determination that was making me start the next day and the next day. And it wasn�t until the 4th stage that I called it a day�.
DO OR DIE IN THE GIRO
Prior to going to the Tour of Germany, Julian had completed the Tour of
Italy and there were some memorable days, one where many of the field
were eliminated and another where he made a break that stayed away.
We started by talking about stage 18 when 34 riders were eliminated (including multiple stage winner, Allessandro Pettachi) and another half a dozen didn�t finish. It was the biggest mountain stage of the race, won by Dario Frigo on a day when the conditions tested the riders as much as the terrain. At the top of the first climb, there was freezing rain and hail and a snow covered descent made riding treacherous and many a rider fell including Italian stars Stefan Garzelli and Marco Pantani.
I asked Julian just how tough had that stage been for him personally. He did after all really want to get to Milan and that was only a few days away at that stage. �That was a tough day that was. I had a good day there but I always said a good day in the mountains for me was not suffering and getting through it without feeling absolutely wasted.�
�On that day, I think a lot of the lads were unlucky because if Petacchi had been in there with them instead of being a further 10 minutes behind, they would have kept them in. There were three big climbs that day and it was a horrendous day with the rain and snow. And Magnus struggled a bit that day and so I waited for him at the top of one of the mountain passes and helped him through to the finish and we just got inside it.�
�I was told at the beginning of the race, when they call the first grupetto, never get in that first grupetto. So as we got to the foot of this pass, and there were plenty of riders going grupetto, grupetto, straight away. And I thought no way, there is too far to go, something like 150k and two big mountain passes and I thought absolutely no chance. So you just hold on to the actual leaders, and as the race starts breaking up, a natural grupetto forms.�
So I got to the top in a grupetto just behind the leaders, about 5 minutes behind them, and then Kim (Julian�s team manager) was at the top of the mountain and told me that Magnus (Backstedt) was with one of our other riders Rene' Joergensen about 5 or 6 minutes behind. Kim told me to stop and wait at the top and I couldn�t even see the first grupetto that had been called so I already knew they were in trouble because they must been 15 minutes down on us already.�
�So after that it, was Magnus, Rene and me all the way to finish and we kept picking up ones and twos all the way in. It was pretty big at the end, the last person we picked up was Jan Svorada (stage winner in the Tour de France) and he was giving it some big licks all the way to the finish because we had all calculated we were pretty tight on the time limit but we made it.�
It was however a close call for Julian and his teammates. Before the race, the organisers had extended it by around 10 per cent because of the weather conditions and so on but Julian and his group only made it by 4 or so minutes in a stage that lasted for over 6 hours for them. �I think because we raced all the way to the line, the judges could see us going through and off all the way.�
Making the time limit was crucial to Julian�s teammate Magnus Backstedt. He was leading the InterGiro competition, a keenly fought for race within a race, and so Julian�s waiting for him and the help of his other teammate, Rene, helped keep him in that leader�s jersey to fight another day.
�That�s what being a team player is all about� Julian explains. �What would I have gained finishing 10 minutes further up the road than him in 70th place when I could finish 120th and help the team gain a lot of publicity thanks to Magnus being in a leader�s jersey and money as well for the team. And what goes around, comes around. He�s helped me in races.�
Following that horrendous day, it was on stage 20 that Julian had his best result in the Giro, finishing 13th. Talking about it though, you realise it could have been a lot better. �It was a day from the end, and it was the best day for me of the whole of the race. That really makes you feel like you�re a bike rider because I was really really going well. I was attacking, and splitting the field and I forced a group away that eventually went away. And people like Pantani were coming up to us and it was a nice feeling to do that, to know you can race at that level."
�I was feeling good and we were coming into the last 10k, and Scott was in the group of around 25 with us, and two got away, Giovanni Lombardi and Eddy Mazzoleni. Then Giuliano Figueras and Marco Velo chipped off the front and they were in between the group and the break. Me and Scott were looking at each other thinking that's the one and I was thinking shall I jump now and I had the legs to go straight across to it but then Scott took the initiative first. As he was going across to it, I thought, that�s the end of that, and then two or three minutes later, he came back with his front wheel wobbling and he had snapped a spoke.�
�I did think afterwards if I had gone, I could have made it, because once you get into a winning situation, you get good legs and I was on a good day. We nearly had them at the end and I totally messed the sprint up as well. I should have won the sprint for 4th but I blew it. I totally misread it all, but it was a good day and it was good to race at the end of a three week tour and have one of my best days.�
The final time trial into Milan
The big day for Julian though was the final stage, a 20 mile time trial
where he would have to race for less than an hour to finish the race he
has dreamed of doing. �I was excited because I had made it to Milan. As
I was racing through the outskirts of Milan, I thought to myself, I�d
done it, and as I was coming into the last kilometre, and thousands of
people were there, it was a great feeling, but then I didn�t really feel
what I thought I would feel. It was like, its all over now, time to move
onto the next race. It was strange.�
�I feel very complete as a bike rider now though. I have done something and I have a lot more to give. Perhaps it was because we were going straight to the Tour of Germany that we didn�t have time to relax maybe.�
Highs and scary moments �
One of the highs for Julian and the team was the success of Julian�s teammate
and roommate, Magnus Backstedt from Sweden. Magnus who is married to a
Welsh lass Megan, a former UK champion herself, won the Intergiro classification,
and Julian himself didn�t do too bad, finishing 11th.
Talking about the moment Magnus went up to get his trophy at the end, Julian said �Yeah, he worked so hard for the whole of the race. I think he had a better Giro than even he expected and to get a jersey, it was great like. We really did have a good Giro, we were given a wild card selection and I think we fully justified that.�
And what about the scary moment � Not what you may expect because Julian says that it was getting the race manual that scared him. �It was like the old British Cycling handbook, it was that thick, and I remember sitting there and it was boiling hot, and thinking jesus christ (or words to that effect!), all these stages, how am I ever going to get through that. I have kept that as a memento.�
As for the learning experience in doing a major race like this he says that for him, the lesson was �there is a big difference between being a pro and amateur. Looking back over the last few years, I have raced big races with Wales, and so on, UCI 2.5 races, and there is a big difference between that and pro racing. You only make an effort in a pro race when you�re sure you can do something. Because if you keep sticking you�re nose out in the wind, a lot of energy is wasted. You learn to calculate when to use your energy, and if you have go, you really have a go like.�
�I feel like I have come out up a level. I don�t know how long it will take to come out in my performances but I�m 100 per cent sure of that. If I wasn�t ill at the moment, and the nationals were tomorrow, I am pretty sure I could win it. I just hope this illness doesn�t take too much out of me. I probably came out of the Giro fresher than out of the whole of the team and I had it all planned. I had spoken to Shane, and we had it planned to keep the week rolling with very easy rides, not training but just keep the legs turning. Now I feel sick -- hopefully, it won�t throw me too much.�
But the life of a professional isn�t just about racing. It�s also about being away from home and for Julian who has been based in the UK for most of his racing career with only the odd trip away for short stage races, this year has been a very different kettle of fish. Talking to his girlfriend Nicky at the Archer GP earlier this year, you could sense that it was a difficult time for both of them.
When asked, Julian said �I think that is one of the hardest things about being a pro, being away from home for such a long time. I mean, the only thing I miss and it sounds soppy, is my girlfriend (Nicky). I�m not bothered about anything else because I�m quite happy to live out of a suitcase. It�s hard for her because you�re on the go all the time.�
�It�s a hard life but that�s not a complaint, and anyone who wants to be a professional should go for it because it is a really good life. You have such good fun on the road. There is nothing worse than bike riding when you�re going crap, you just want to pack it in. I had it a little bit of that at the beginning of the year but when you are going well and everything�s rolling and happy, and you�re going well, you can�t get enough of it. It�s a good life, I�ve worked hard for it and I�m enjoying it. The day I stop enjoying it, is the day I�ll stop.�
THE DREAM
Here in the UK, just doing completing a �citizens race� covering a stage
of a major Tour (an �Etape�) is a such a big deal for many riders. Even
I had dreams of doing one when racing but to do the real thing, to do
every stage of a Grand Tour must be something else. I asked Julian whether
looking back a week on, whether the reality of doing a Grand Tour matched
the dream?
�The biggest thing that marks you� he said �when you really know you�re in a Tour, is going up them mountains. The crowds being 10 or 15 deep at the top of the passes, and screaming for you and that is an awesome feeling. Like I say, you really feel like you�ve arrived as a bike rider. Because you know you�re at the highest level. And the Italians are so passionate.�
�The Tour of Italy is an Italian race for Italian people, no one else really matters, but they appreciate the suffering you�re going through and they�ll stay on the mountain until everybody has got through and give everybody a shout and a push and it�s a great feeling. and you feel proud.�
�Its such a different world as well. Because I was in the national champion�s jersey, I was getting a lot of publicity, and doing the autographs, so it was great.�
NATIONAL CHAMPS 
Having achieved the dream, now comes the test � can he defend his title
he won last year at Rivington (pictured right) on home ground? He has
three weeks before the Celtic Manor Resort National Championship at Newport,
just down the road from his home at Abergavenny. �If all goes well, I�ll
be doing the Five Valleys next weekend, and then I have a training block
right up until the Nationals which I have talked through with Shane and
Matt Cosgrove. I could have done with a stage race a little bit nearer,
that would have suited me. There was talk of our team doing the Tour of
Switzerland but that didn�t happen. So I�ll be training instead and keeping
a low profile. I have a lot of racing in my legs. The important thing
is to keep the legs turning and all the advice I�ve had is to keep the
legs turning basically, not train as such.�
�I want to win it again, of course I do. I don�t want to talk it down, I want 100 per cent to win but I don�t feel the pressure of winning it now even though its near Abergavenny. I have won it and won it in the year I really wanted to win it.�
Asked whether the UCI points were a motivating factor, he explained that �It�s not so much the UCI points but the prestige of wanting to be British champion and to show it off as much as I can. It was great to win the British championship and then race abroad with it. I feel I have been recognised now so people know me in it. I have got to do my best to keep it now.�
As for the course, he says, �I have ridden it a few times, its tough and I don�t think there will be many finishers. You won�t get a lucky winner. Whoever wins it will deserve to win it. I don�t think it�s a sprinter�s race and I�d say its more climbing orientated for sure. It�s a very wearing down course and it will be an exciting race.�
But asked whether the course will be easy compared to the mountain passes of Italy, Julian says �When I have suffered as much as I have, everything else seems easy. I have learnt to dig that much deeper having to sit in line outs and go so hard up the climbs, -- I have learnt to dig that much deeper. And I have learnt to be craftier on the bike as well.�
And what about the period after the Championships? �I�ll be having a break for about 10 days where I�ll get off the bike and then start again for the end of the season.�
My thanks to Julian for his time.