You only have to look at the start list of riders, with riders such as Levi Liepheimer, Fabian Cancellara and of course the legendary Lance Armstrong, to list a few, to realize that getting a start in the Tour of California is a big deal. The race is recognised as one of the biggest races in the world and is America’s equivalent to the Tour de France.
There are a lot of similarities between the two:
- the huge crowds (2.6 million watched on the side of the road alone);
- the huge ascents with nick names such as the Alp de huez of California ( a huge 21 hair pin climb gaining 1500 vertical metres), which is very similar to its counter part in France
- and riders who are the best in the world without a doubt a start list that only gets seen in other races such as the tour de France
If the race wasn’t hard enough the weather decided to throw in an extra challenge. The first road stage started in freezing rain and it didn’t stop raining till the end of the 4th stage. And when I say rain I mean rain. My team mate even went as far as to wear a wetsuit under his clothes to stay warm.
The Prologue, a 4km blast around a circuit as an individual rider kicked the tour off. The excitement was high. With Lance Armstrong coming back from retirement after winning 7 Tour de France titles, the American crowds were massive. The mad crowd crammed along the course to watch us go as fast as we could for 4km. When Lance did finally have his turn to start, the crowd went into a frenzy of utter madness. This was to set a common trend for the rest of the 9 days.
The spectators were like they had all taken crazy pills. With costumes like the Borat swimsuit (worn by many but I remember one man that was so fat you could only see the very top of the G line, he was also fast!, making the torture of seeing his arse run in front of you last alot longer than you want), helmets with huge antlers, superhero costumes and many more original ideas. Nudity actually became mundane and some were even up for running with their babies and kids held stretched out in their arms in front of us, shaking them with excitement.
To make things harder for myself, I managed to scratch my eye after I got some piece of glass or sharp grit in it while riding the first stage in the muddy rain. This added to the discomfort and almost made it impossible to sleep for a few nights afterwards. Quite possible the most uncomfortable thing I have ever had. Lucky your eye can heal very fast. I was however luckier than two of my teammates who crashed heavily due to the bad weather; Andy Jacque-Maines crashing into a parked car, being taken away with concussion; and Omer Kem falling on a decent, slipping out on a plastic road reflector which are deadly when wet. He managed to fracture his pelvis but is making a good recovery. Our team sprinter Kirk O Bee was finding the mountains very tough and had to abandon on stage 2. Starting with 8 riders Team Bissell was down to 5 after 3 days in the tour. If we kept that up we wouldn’t have any left before we got to the last days.
Just when I thought I had it rough enough with my eye being cut up, I got a nasty virus that made me have chronic diarrhea. This had to happen also the morning of the Tour’s longest stage. 6 hrs in the saddle and every minute I was riding I was fighting with myself to stay in the race. I was absolutely wasted at the finish and I can easily say that this was one of the hardest days of my cycling carrier.
With the battle of survival in the first 5 days over I had the last three days of the tour to get amongst it. The Time Trial was a great way to start on stage 6. 26km long and with the national champion skin suit on my shoulders I was wanting to fly the flag for New Zealand proudly. I managed to get 17th which was awesome. My team mate Tom Zirbel was 7th and my other team mate Ben Jacques-Maynes was 11th. Bissell was the 5th team on the day. Which was huge for the team.
The last two days were the shortest stages of the tour but maybe the toughest due to the huge mountain passes we had to ride over. Stage 7 had such a hard start and never let up. An hour long climb was a little too much for team mate and New Zealander Peter Latham, who was told not to suffer anymore and to pull out of the race. On the decent there was a big crash which put two team mates Tom Zirbel and Frank Pipp on the road. Frank was able to get back to the bunch after spending some time in the follow cars. Tom however took a little longer to get on his bike and had to ride to the finish alone. Not such a great day for the Bissell team.
The last day and with only 4 of team Bissell starting and only 90 of the 136 rider field left in the race, the survivors were going to throw everything they had left into the last stage. The race organizers had also left the hardest to last it seemed. With the biggest climb of the tour half way through the stage and a total of 4 climbs throughout the 160km. The crowds lined the ascents screaming and yelling with barely enough room for us to ride through them. The insane ones tried to run beside us before they either got taken out by the lead motor bikes or ran out of steam. The hills kept coming and in the end there was only me and 30 other riders left. The rest of the field still battling behind or pulling out. The epic stage was a great way to finish the tour. Finishing 26th overall I was happy to get a sleep in the next morning.
