Team Specialized - 600 kilometers over seven stage and six days – what’s the best training for 17-18’s that want to attend Tour de l’abitibi in the future?
Owen Gillott – "First, I planned to train in six day blocks. I would ride 100km or more each day to
condition myself to the race distances.
In the weeks leading up to the race, I would cut down on the distance
and work on intensity"
TS – 4th place and 19 seconds back going into the 7th
and final stage. You won the stage solo!!! When did you start to
think about a solo flyer?
OG – to be honest, the plan wasn’t to go solo. I wanted to get in a breakaway and it
happened a few times but it never stuck.
So, with 3 laps to go I thought I’d try one last effort. And, with 3km to go the opportunity arose, so I
took it. I “took a flyer” in track
terms. Cut the corner and never looked
back.
TS – well, your “flyer” earned you the win and your time
bonuses pushed you up to 2nd in the final General Classification. Congratulations! Can you please
describe the thoughts running through your head in the last 3km?
OG – “if this sticks it’s going to be something I’ll
remember”… “I might even pull off the Tour win”
TS – when did you realize that you were free and clear?
OG – “I never actually did.
When I went solo every pedal stroke I thought would be my last which
made me push much harder. Not looking
back I had no idea how close they were”
TS – our team only has two 17-18 year old so you joined
another team (Race against Childhood Cancer) – how cohesive was your new team,
given that you had just met each other?
OG – yes, coming from a team with only one teammate was hard,
but I dove in head first and within 24 hours we had made a strong friendship
with the guys. People thought we had
been racing all year together.
TS – most stages are wide open road races into final
circuits in the host city. Describe what
the racing is like on the days with a massive (120+ rider) field sprint. Where would you position yourself? How fast were the finishes?
OG – well, lucky for me, I just came from the Tour of Ireland
(9th stage one, 10th S2, 4th S3, 2nd S4, 1st S5, 34th S6, 14th GC) where the roads are narrow and tight.
Getting on the open roads made it so much easier. With a large bunch of rider s it is hard to
move forward at times, but I would always make sure to be up near the head of
the race with 20km to go. As the “sprint
finish” would start this far out! I
would hold my position and move forward whenever the chance came up.
TS- after 14 hours of racing
you ended the stage race just 2 seconds off the winning time. That’s a lot of time off the bike in a week
of racing. What else fills your day?
OG – well, it’s longer than most people think and you spend
anywhere from 3 to 4 hours before the race either getting there or making sure
everything is packed and ready. After the
racing some days I had podium or drug testing to go to which can take an hour
or more. But, for the rest of the time
we would try to sleep and recover as much as possible for the next stage.
TS – what’s it like racing in such a widely international
field? Varying styles of racing or the
same?
OG – well, every rider has their own style of racing but so
does every country. It was interesting
to see how all the different styles clashes.
It made for very intense and scary racing at times!
TS – any example (of racing styles) to share?
OG – some aggressive styles, then you have riders who waste
energy sitting in the wind all day and some people who ride with no fear! Everyone has different styles and when they
all come together there can be some big crashes like the ones we saw on stages
1, 5 and 6 and the biggest one on 7.
TS – podium and drug testing (Owen had two of each)… can you
tell us what those are like?
OG – podium is always, fun especially when you win. This is the only race of the day so all eyes
are on the podium. Hearing your national
anthem and the sea of people looking back at you is something special - that’s
for sure. Drug testing on the other
hand - not so fun. For those that have
never had the experience it pretty much consists of sitting in a room until you
need to pee then doing it with someone watching you. Plus about 30 minutes of paperwork. Not ideal recovery for a stage race.
TS – thanks for your time
OG – thank you!
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