Russell Downing has Tour of Britain in his Sights
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By Larry Hickmott
Russell in the jersey of Best British Rider at the Tour of Britain.
Undoubtedly one of the most successful road cyclists based in Britain, Russell Downing of the Pinarello Racing Team is now training hard for the Tour of Britain which starts on the 7th of September.
It will be his fourth Tour of Britain after he has ridden it three times, one each for the Great Britain team, Recycling.co.uk and DFL and he is he says in the best form of his life. Russell was due to ride it last year with American team Healthnet but they never got a start and that really cracked him at the time.
He came back with a vengeance though and in 2008 signed for the strengthened Pinarello Racing Team with the likes of Malcolm Elliott and told British Cycling at the Colne Grand Prix that the Tour of Britain race was now a big focus, and has been all year.
“Being at the end of a season, a race like this keeps you focused and thinking, if I do a ‘ride’ then, who knows what can happen. The race is a big shop window for myself and the Pinarello team. Now that the Nationals is over we can put that race behind us and move on with the Tour of Britain. I have just come out of a chill period and now the big training is on. Every race is focused on the Tour now.”
With the Tour de France on the TV and in all the papers, there is plenty of excitement about our own national tour, our own taste of the Tour de France with riders from the race expected to be doing the event and taking on a lot of the British based riders who have shown over the years the Tour of Britain has been running that they are able to step up the level and compete and finish the race.
And yet, stage victories and overall success has yet to come to British based riders. Paul Manning is the last winner of a stage in 2007, Roger Hammond has won stages as has that legend of a sprinter, Mark Cavendish but wins by British based riders have yet to materialise. Will 2008 be different?
Russell Downing is working on that! He and his team are looking at trying to get a start in the Tour of Ireland that precedes the Tour of Britain and also some racing in Belgium.
On the podium standing next to then World Road Race Champion Tom Boonen and within a stones throw of Buckingham Palace. One of the memorable moments from the Tour of Britain.
“The racing style in the Tour of Britain is totally different from normal British races” he explained. “It is a notch up and been having there, done that and had the jerseys to prove it, I’m confident I can win in that race. In big races like that you always ride that extra ten percent higher when on home ground and with some good teams coming over, it’s a good buzz. I look forward to it every year.”
To win sprints, it helps to have a well drilled team and Pinarello -- made up of a lot of young riders as well as very experienced ones like Malcolm Elliott – have shown they can ride races of this type well having done so in Spain and also in Norway not to mention the home grown classics where they have tasted success.
“The boys have come on great this year” Russell told us. “In the first training camp this year, we gave them a bit of battering and said this is where we need to be and when we went to Majorca for a stage race there, we went into it wondering how we were going to go. We did though ride really well as a team and they know the Tour of Britain is a big window for themselves and Pinarello -- they know they have to perform there.”
This year’s race is expected to have quite a few British based teams in the race so we asked – will there be alliances formed from time to time to take on the continental outfits?
“I’d like to think so” Russell replied. “At the East Midlands Classic I had a bit of grumble when the Irish rode off and the Brits were riding against each other and I said ‘look, lets not lose our home race, lets work together’. It doesn’t always happen though. I think ourselves and Rapha will be very professional and do what we have to but all the local teams want to do well for their own sponsor and not give anything to anyone else so we’ll see”.
So what level is the racing in the Tour of Britain at we asked? “I think it is quite a lot higher than a Premier but around the same as the Nationals when you have a good field like we did this year. Some days, if you get the right numbers and the right combination in a break, then it can be very easy.”
“Stage racing riding is just so different to one day riding. On a stage for example, the riders with the jersey may let a break go and it can be the easiest day in the world until you have too have a sort out for the ‘finale’. I have been third, fourth, fifth on stages and had a jersey so hopefully I can improve on that”.
Russell admits his form has been amazing this year and hopefully he can pick it back up and get a stage win in this years Tour of Britain. In Spain, in a UCI 2.2 race there called the Cinturón Ciclista a Mallorca, Russell won three stages.
“I’d be happy to win three stages in the Tour of Britain but I don’t think that is going to happen!”
“I was surprised on that race in Spain. I knew the first day was up the Puig Major (‘pig ma-yor’, an 800 metre climb) and I said if I can climb that really well, then I’ll be happy for the rest of the tour and I won the stage. I was flying. I don’t think the form was amazing in Majorca but it was a few weeks later so hopefully I can get that back in a few weeks from racing hard.”
Despite a pretty decent sprint, Russell is just as happy to win alone as he did in the Robert Price Welsh Grand Prix in Wales this year.
Race Transfers
Being on the race on the back of a motorbike in the last few editions, and having spent many an hour in the back of a press bus, I know only too well the distances the riders have to travel after one stage to get to the start town for the next stage. Russell though just shrugged them off and said it was just part of bike racing.
“The easiest way to deal with them is to shoot off after the stage finishes and try not to panic. There is nothing you can do about them. You don’t do the driving etc, so as soon as you get in the van, you chill out, get your drinks down you and use that time to recover before you get to the hotel. It’s harder on the staff really because you’re getting to the hotels late and they have start the leg rubs later than normal but it’s no bother. We have had some tough ones in the past but you have to stay calm – that’s bike racing.”
Russell then explained that unlike the Tour de France and other races where teams can have eight or nine riders to control a race, in the Tour of Britain with six man teams, the racing is more open. “I think it is more open and if something gets missed then you as a team don’t have the firepower to bring it back so the key is to get in the move and you don’t have to chase it which is what I have said to these boys all year.”
“There was only one race we missed it and that was the nationals – I don’t know want was happening there!”
The Tour of Britain isn’t just a great chance to win against the foreign based riders and in front of thousands of spectators. Russell admitted that in the past when the event finished in London it was a big high and that this year with such an iconic stage kicking things off in the capital, that he’ll peak for the race and when he gets on the start line, the buzz will come to lift morale and that he and many of the others will let it carry them on around the country.
Right: Russell in the Green Jersey of the Tour of Britain
“It is a real buzz out on the road where there are kids and crowds cheering us on. It’s not like one man and his dog like it can be here for some races and it does give us a taste of the Tour de France. The Tour of Britain is the best bike race we have and for riders and British sponsors like Phil (Pinarello) the race is very important and great to do.”
“It’s at the end of a year as well so its good to go out on a high and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Good luck to Russell and his Pinarello team in the race – if ever there is a rider who can win that first stage by a British based rider, Russell is certainly it!
Just one of Russell's victories was the Lincoln Grand Prix, the race all the riders want to win!
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