Inside le Tour with Pioneer and DaybyDay Coaching
By Ben Day
I still remember watching the Tour de France for the first time back in 1993, when I discovered the alluring beauty of European professional cycling. I was 14 years old, living in Brisbane, Australia where we’d get a little snippet of each of the stages - just 15-20 minutes of action with commentary by Australia’s Mike Tomalaris, the Phil and Paul show and perhaps an interview with one of the Aussie cyclists. This was the Indurain/Rominger era of the Tour de France and as a young bloke who hadn’t seen any of the world at that point, I was captivated...I was hooked.
I had just bought my first racing bicycle and I still cringe at the neon colors that I chose but tennis shoes or toe-clip pedals, nothing was going to stop me from riding hard as often as I could. It felt good to go fast.
Fast forward a few years and I decided to push all of my energies into riding and racing and my first big move was 1200 miles away to Melbourne, Australia as I followed one racing goal after another. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up racing a bike in Europe as a professional.
My first European professional contract came in 2002. 13 years later, after being a National Champion, representing my country 5 times and with numerous victories along the way, I retired from professional cycling racing in my adopted home state of Colorado at the USA Pro Challenge. While I never got to race the Tour de France, it was a race that I always dreamed of and had interest in, as every professional cyclist does.
In 2008, in the middle of my racing career, I started an endurance athlete coaching company called DaybyDay Coaching. During my time as an athlete, I was always inquisitive. I worked with great coaches, physiologists and intelligent minds of the sport and I gained a real world education as to what was effective in training for optimal performance. I wanted to take this hard earned knowledge, and share it with other aspiring athletes, and today, with my fellow coaches, we are a coaching group that assists over 20 professional athletes as well as many other cyclists and triathletes ranging from first time racers to aspiring pros.
I am an athlete and a coach that loves data, and in my final few years of racing I was introduced to Pioneer Power Meters through their sponsorship of the UnitedHealthcare Professional cycling team of which I was a member. Power data in recent years has revolutionized training on the bicycle, providing a true measurement of the output of the rider as they power their bicycles along. The Pioneer power meter is the ultimate product as it provides very detailed data, what they call “hi-definition data”, due to their dual-leg power meter system that includes the ability to measure power outputs at different points throughout the pedal stroke.
Getting back to the Tour de France, it is full of amazing history. First established in 1903, the conditions the riders faced in those days were unbelievable. Dirt roads, epic conditions, with very long stages up to 482km and tales of strength against adversity, brought a global admiration for the sport and the toughness of the participants. From Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault and more, we’ve witnessed some of the most talented endurance athletes in the world push their bodies to the absolute limit and come out on top. The Tour is now the biggest annual sporting event in the world and every year it’s an incredible showcase of the French countryside as the riders, the actors of the event, play out a soap opera where you will never know the outcome. That’s the beauty of cycling you see…you just never know what is going to happen and who will come up with the win.
At the 2015 Tour de France, Pioneer is the technical partner to the Giant-Alpecin and the Lotto NL-Jumbo professional cycling teams. Throughout the race I will be monitoring the performances of these teams and we will provide power file analysis when they are available – a tricky ask with the massive traveling roadshow that is the Tour!
The goals of these two teams during the race will be vastly different. German team, Giant Alpecin, is stacked with an excellent sprint train and a key sprinter in John Degenkolb, winner of this year’s Paris-Roubaix. Their other sprinting star, Marcel Kittel is not on the start list due to a difficult year with illnesses, but look for Degenkolb to win a stage or two. This sprint train is one of the best in the business and they will be especially active in the first week of racing. They also have a time trial specialist, Tom Dumoulin who is in excellent form of late with two stages wins and a 3rd overall in the Tour de Suisse – a final tune up race before teeing up in France. The team will be lining up on Giant’s new Trinity time trial bike and will be putting a lot of emphasis on their time trial performances. Check out Tom Dumoulin’s last stage time trial victory in Switzerland to see his current commitment!
The Lotto NL-Jumbo team, from the Netherlands, will have different aspirations. They have two riders in their lineup who have previously finished in the top 10 of the Tour de France in Laurens Ten Dam and Robert Gesink. Wilco Kelderman has also finished in the top 10 before in the Giro d’Italia – Italy’s version of the Tour de France. These riders will be looking to conserve their losses against the best General Classification riders in the world in Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana, in looking for a top 10 overall – no easy feat at the Tour de France. I am sure that we will also see them as opportunists on the mountain stages, in the hunt for a stage win.
Please follow along as I work with Pioneer in providing a pre-stage synopsis and post-stage review of what to expect in this year’s Tour de France, day by day, including some power file analysis of the Giant Alpecin and Lotto NL-Jumbo riders during this 21-day grueling event. Vive le Tour!
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