2005 Junior World Championships Day 5 (Time Trial)

 

August 12, 2005; Austria;

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On the first day of the Junior Road worlds, Andy Tennant and Ian Stannard rode in the Men's Time Trial. Here is a report of the two days after the track championships.

From Track to Road, Day 1 in Bad Tatzmannsdorf

This year, unlike the past few years, the Junior Road Worlds are being held as part of a Junior Worlds Week, inclusive of Track and Road. The Track Championships were held in Vienna and they finished on the Wednesday night. The next day, Thursday, many of the Great Britain staff including manager John
Herety along with the endurance riders Ian Stannard, Matt Rowe, Lizzy Armitstead, Ben Swift, Steven Burke, and Andrew Tennant travelled the two hours required to get to Bad Tatzmannsdorf up in the Austrian mountains, to the team guest house. The town is very rural, with all the normal things associated  with that, including the tractors parked in driveways, wildlife and, in some cases, narrow roads.

 

In all, there were three GB vehicles required for this part of the trip, two vans and a car and first to the hotel was the car driven by John Herety and the van for the mechanics driven by Ernie Feargrieve. The riders followed later with Nick Kenwright, stopping off enroute to see injured rider Ross Sander, who has a broken arm.

 

Once at the hotel, it was down to the task of unloading the vans and it's at this point you realise what a job the 'carers' do. Whilst the mechanics went about the business of packing track bikes, ready for shipping back to the UK, and then getting the road and time trial bikes ready, Sarah Heal went about her business of setting up her room and those of the riders.

 

This meant many a heavy bag and box had to be carried up to the second floor of the hotel before the process of making sure everything was in place for the riders was taken care of. The hours ticked by quite quickly as there was lots to do and once the riders had settled in, everyone had lunch and then got ready for the afternoon ride. The squad were going to be split into two: those doing only the road race would do around two and half hours steady around the road course; and those doing the time trial, Andy Tennant and Ian Stannard, who would do some efforts on the TT course. The only rider missing at this stage was Matt Rowe who had a sore throat and was sleeping it off while the others trained.

 

Before anyone went anywhere though, the mechanics had to get the TT bikes for Tennant and Stannard ready, which meant putting race wheels in and, in Andy's case, adjusting his position. With carbon wheels being used for the TT bikes, the brake pads were also changed to suit and 9bar put into the Continental Competition tubulars. Not far aware, the USA mechanic was equally busy out the back of his team's guest house.

 

At 2.30 in the afternoon, the riders rolled out and they didn't have to go far before they came to the course for the World Championships. The piece of road we were on was around 5 kilometres long and would be used for both the road race and the time trial. In the case of the road race, this piece of road was to be the final 5kilometres of the circuit, which meant the riders could have a good look at the run-in to the finish and for those doing the time trial, a chance to test the bike in race setup up during a couple of efforts.

 

John Herety and Darren Tudor brief the riders before a training ride

We drove all the way into the host town where Andy and Ian were able to get up onto the starting ramp and do a test run down it onto the roads in a town centre very busy with traffic. Having done that, the riders were then taken along the complete route for the time trial, which was out and back with the turn at the top of a longish gentle drag, giving the riders a downhill run to gather speed, after the near stop at half distance. The group had a GB car both in front and behind them at this stage.

The road for the time trial was flat, though there were gentle undulations - not hills, just very slight drags - along a course with sweeping bends, on an 'A' style road. Whilst following the riders, manager John Herety mentioned that we would not be the only Brits at the championships, as Race Radio would have none other than Graham Jones on it, which ought to make it interesting listening on race day.

The riders seemed very comfortable riding along at 30kph plus in what seemed to be a tailwind on the return leg of the TT course and then, before we got back into the town, where the finish of the time trial and road race would be, the two riders doing the Time Trial stopped to be given instructions by their coach, Darren Tudor, whilst the other three carried on with John Herety behind them.

John occasionally brought one of the riders back to the car to point out a particular noteworthy point on the course: For example, a slip road which riders would go down in the opposite direction to that which the traffic normally travels, which meant that they weren't able to ride the complete course until
closed for the race.

 

He also indicated where the feed zones were -- both on climbs -- one near the finish area on the lower slopes of a climb out of the town and then another further on, on top of a long climb, not far from the village where we were staying. First time up and John had a chat to them at the top feed, pointing out
that this would be the best option for feeding as its likely to have less teams feeding there and also, being on top of the climb, the gaps between riders would be greater.

John would also ask the riders how they felt their breathing felt, with one eye on the altitude of the venue: not extreme altitude but high enough to perhaps for riders to find the air thinner than normal. When asked, Steven Burke seemed to think it was fine.

 

Onto the second lap and Lizzy Armistead, who the night before had won a silver medal in the Women's Scratch race, and who also appeared to be having no trouble on the long climbs on the first lap, was starting to drop back from the boys. John could see the danger signs and asked her to hang onto the car up a long climb to save her legs. It was a novel experience for her, but one she seemed at home doing and over the top she sprinted up to the two boys to carry on the ride back to the hotel.

Once back, it was time to get changed and for me, time to start looking at trying to solve some of the communications problems I have had. Unlike the previous hotel there was no Wireless Internet Access (WiFi) and the M3 card I had installed before leaving, and which in the UK had worked ok, wasn't working at all in Austria, which meant no internet access at all whilst at the Road Worlds, unless the press room at the race finish could help.

Overall, it had been a fascinating day. To see how the riders looked at the course and the information they gained from a short ride round it and how the manager John Herety was able to get them thinking about key things on the course, was interesting and an example of how these events are a learning curve for the riders, even those who are quite experienced. The next day would see Andy and Ian racing in the afternoon, going off third and sixth from last respectively, an order which would give John plenty of time to follow both.

Sarah Heal gives Andy Tennant a pre race leg massage ready for the wet conditions.

Day 2, Time Trial

The first day of competition for the Junior World Road Championships would see two of Great Britain's male endurance riders taking to the roads in search of more medals. The last time a Great Britain rider won a World Junior TT title was Nicole Cooke in 2001 in Portugal. In the men's event, running since 1995, there have been some quite famous winners, Italian Cancellera (98/99) and Mickail Ignatiev in 2002/03 being two who have gone on to greater things. Hopes were high however that one of the GB boys would get close if not win the event, especially after Stannard's win in Switzerland around six months ago.

 

Andrew Tennant heads for the line as we are directed off the course

With Lizzy Armitstead having withdrawn from the Womens Time Trial, so that she could concentrate on the Road Race, it was a later than normal start for the GB staff, as the team met up for breakfast at 8.30. As always, there was lots of laughter around the two tables, one for riders, the other for staff, for the hour or more the team were in the breakfast room.

With breakfast finished, the riders not doing the time trial returned to their rooms to get ready to go for a ride at 10am, whilst the staff went about their jobs to get ready for the afternoon competition. Down at the back of the hotel, the GB van was being scrubbed clean by Ernie Feargrieve and John Keegan, the loud hailer fitted and the magnetic boards denoting the country stuck on.

It was at 11.15 that the two GB vans departed for the start area in nearby Oberwart, with staff and equipment , just as rain was starting to fall outside. By the time we got there, the women's time trial was only half an hour from starting and a crowd, bigger than that at the Track championships, was starting to gather as the rain got slightly heavier, making some parts of the road and pavement dangerously slippery.

After parking up, a shelter was put up for the riders to sit and warm up under and the bikes and van were prepped for the race. First to the start was Andy Tennant at 1pm and he was being looked after by Sara Heal. First there was a drinks bottle and then a pre-race leg rub, and finally the pinning of his number onto his skin suit. Andy then put his road bike on the rollers for a 12 minute warm up.

At ten past one, team manager John Herety gave the signal to jump into the van which would be following Andy throughout his time trial. In the van with John were mechanic Ernie Feargrieve and myself, along with spare wheels and Andy's road bike, which Ernie went and collected from coach Darren Tudor minutes before the start. On a road near the start ramp, the GB van was lined up ready to slot in behind Andy as he came off the ramp. At 13.33 Andy got the countdown, but not before the announcer had told everyone he was the new World Pursuit champion, which raised a big cheer from the crowd - the highlight of  the event according to Andy afterwards.

 

John Herety on the microphone as he encourages Andy Tennant during his ride...

With coach Darren Tudor now sitting beside the manager taking splits, the van drove up close behind Andy as he battled the headwind and slightly uphill drag on the outward leg. With the manager giving him encouragement over the loud hailer, Andy was riding along at a steady 26/27 mph in the drizzly rain. Shouts of Allez Allez constantly emanated from the loud speaker along with other instructions such as keeping his arms on the pads, focusing on the motorbike in front and so on.

 

With each kilometre marked on the road, Darren was able to keep track of the splits and told John the kilos were consistent, a product perhaps of the pace  judgement that Andy has on the track. Soon, 15 minutes or so out, we were at the turn and, from there, it was not only a tailwind but mostly downhill as well. Andy was soon riding at 40mph on his restricted gears and pedalling fast to keep the speed up. He was however being caught by an Estonian rider who had made up a lot of time on the outward leg.

When the gap got very tight, John pulled the van over and the Estonia entourage sped past chasing Andy. The Estonian soon caught and passed Andy, who had said the day before his legs didn't feel great after the racing he had done over the previous week. Travelling at speed, we were soon into the finish area where Andy went straight on and we turned right to return to the start area, where Ian Stannard had just arrived.



Ian warms up on his road bike with his time trial bike on the right...

After a debrief with Andy Tennant and the logging of the splits from Andy's ride, coach Darren Tudor then spoke to Ian Stannard who, like Andy, had been given a pre-race massage before warming up. It was while he was doing this that I walked back to the start/finish to take some photos of Ian coming off the ramp and then on his return. Ian went into the event very confident of doing a ride and when you consider he had beaten the Moldavian rider who was second, during his stage race victory in Switzerland six weeks ago, he was very disappointed with his eventual 20th place, one minute twenty nine seconds down on the German winner.

The manager John Herety saw a lot of good in the ride along with some mistakes but the biggest problem for Ian was that with the UCI combining the Road and Track championships in the one week: those riders peaking for the track events have no chance of then adjusting their training for the road event.

 

Speaking to Ian's coach Darren Tudor, he confirmed that had the road Worlds been in their normal position six weeks later, then Ian's training would have been adjusted to suit, but with no gap between track and road that was impossible to do.

 

Not that Ian should have to worry about that in the future. He'll be a senior (Under 23) next year and for him the Track and Road World Championships will be at opposite ends of the season. Of course, that is little comfort for a rider who knows he beat the silver medallist only six weeks ago, but it's a disappointment he will get over.

Once the riders were all in, everyone returned to the hotel for the usual end of day routine knowing that the next day was a rest day before the road race on Sunday.

Results

1 Marcel Kittel (Germany) 25.45.82 (54.728 km/h)
2 Alexandr Pliuschkin (Republic of Moldova) 0.04.88
3 Siarhei Papok (Belarus) 0.39.97
4 Jaroslaw Marycz (Poland) 0.45.17
5 Dominik Roels (Germany) 0.48.92
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) 0.50.67
7 Cameron Meyer (Australia) 0.53.00
8 Dmitry Sokolov (Russian Federation) 0.55.67
9 Andriy Vasylyuk (Ukraine) 0.57.51
10 Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania) 1.10.48
11 Rein Taaramae (Estonia) 1.13.68
12 Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) 1.17.06
13 Timofey Kritskiy (Russian Federation) 1.20.40
14 Yvegeniy Nykolenko (Ukraine) 1.21.48
15 Chris Stockburger (United States Of America) 1.21.90
16 Hossein Nateghi (Islamic Republic of Iran) 1.22.74
17 Manuele Boaro (Italy) 1.26.89
18 Pawel Mikulicz (Poland) 1.26.91
19 Jonathan Dufrasne (Belgium) 1.27.56
20 Ian Stannard (Great Britain) 1.29.63
21 Alexander Kristoff (Norway) 1.34.13
22 Gert Joeaar (Estonia) 1.34.57
23 Gatis Smukulis (Latvia) 1.38.19
24 Kasper Thustrup (Denmark) 1.40.31
25 Kevin Crabbe (Belgium) 1.42.88
26 Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Spain) 1.45.76
27 Andrey Solomennikov (Russian Federation) 1.45.77
28 Alexander Egger (Austria) 1.51.09
29 Tejay Van Garderen (United States Of America) 1.54.30
30 Maurice Vrijmoed (Netherlands) 1.54.51
31 Luca Benvenuti (Italy) 1.55.76
32 Roberts Krumins (Latvia) 2.01.06
33 Thomas Guldhammer (Denmark) 2.02.02
34 Zakkari Dempster (Australia) 2.02.21
35 Patrick Gretsch (Germany) 2.03.55
36 Zdenek Machac (Czech Republic) 2.04.16
37 Roman Kireyev (Kazakhstan) 2.07.19
38 Micha묠Baer (Switzerland) 2.10.18
39 Michael James Northey (New Zealand) 2.15.52
40 Tony Gallopin (France) 2.20.33
41 David Veilleux (Canada) 2.22.75
42 Darren Peter Shea (New Zealand) 2.26.95
43 Martijn Keizer (Netherlands) 2.27.06
44 Nicolas Schnyder (Switzerland) 2.27.68
45 Jonas Bjelkmark (Sweden) 2.35.37
46 Josef Kamler (Czech Republic) 2.35.82
47 S颡stien Ivars (France) 2.37.41
48 Jarc Bla? (Slovenia) 2.40.01
49 Mark Hinnen (Canada) 2.48.69
50 Michael Kocner (Austria) 2.49.82
51 Lukas Goc (Slovakia) 2.52.41
52 Andrew Tennant (Great Britain) 2.53.29
53 Jaco Venter (South Africa) 2.55.93
54 Martin Munroe (Ireland) 3.02.96
55 Gorazd Bauer (Slovenia) 3.03.00
56 Duncan Viljoen (South Africa) 3.03.03
57 Mikael Lehtomaa (Sweden) 3.04.32
58 Krisztian Lovassy (Hungary) 3.17.00
59 Andrey Kucherov (Kazakhstan) 3.26.42
60 Siarhei Sakavets (Belarus) 3.27.73
61 Kenta Osono (Japan) 3.39.19
62 Reona Sumi (Japan) 3.43.44
63 Marius Petrache (Romania) 3.44.12
64 Jose Maria Alcaraz Franco (Spain) 4.18.37
65 Eduard Nistor George (Romania) 4.43.20
DNS Enrique Moreno Perez Israel (Ecuador)