World Road Championships 2011 Day Two, and it was wearing on for midnight when we pulled in to the truck stop in the north of The Netherlands; hundreds of artics lined up, many with refrigeration units chugging away on the cab roofs – how do the drivers sleep?
You have to think it would be more environmentally friendly to haul all that freight by train?
Anyway, ‘Green Ed’ what a thought that is.
First job today was to preview the TT, I’m calling it:
- Tony Martin
- Fabian Cancellara
- Bradley Wiggins
But it’ll be a cracking race, there are a lot of good guys in there hungry for the podium – Richie Porte, David Millar, Jesse Sergent, Taylor Phinney, Jack Bobridge…
This morning is the junior men’s time trial but we won’t see it – too many kilometres to cover.
Last year it was the Luxembourg laddie Bob Jungels who won it.
I interviewed him after it for PEZ – I’ve dealt with pros who are much less PR conscious; his website is very impressive and he has a wide support network of coaches and sponsors.
This year he rode the U23 TT but it’s a big step from junior to U23 – Luke Durbridge who won the U23 yesterday was junior world TT champion and it’s taken him a few years to get to where he is now.
Durbridge actually raced in Scotland last year in the Edinburgh Grassmarket criterium – Peter Jacques brought him over with Matt Goss and Leigh Howard.
We’ve run out of autobahn – ferry time, across the Baltic from Puttgarden in Germany to Rødbyhavn on the island of Falsta in Denmark.
In January when the six day circus is in full effect and it’s time to travel from Berlin to Copenhagen, we cross the Baltic from Rostock, in what was the old East Germany, further to the north east – the ferry has to contend with the pack ice and the wind would slice you in two.
But today it’s 21 degrees and there’s hardly a breath to disturb the flags on the ferry’s upperworks.
And there’s our first result of the day; an email from Ivan, for the junior TT
- Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Den)27.km in 35’07”
- James Oram (NZ) @ 4″
- David Edwards (Aus) @ 21″
Oram won the Tour d’Abitibi in Canada a month or two back – it’s the biggest stage race in the world for juniors.
In recent years the likes of Taylor Phinney and Tyler Farrar have won it, so it’s a fair indicator of future talent.
Oram is with the Kiwi PureBlack team with former F des J rider, Tim Gudsell – there are interviews with both of them on PEZ recently, if you’re interested.
The Danish newspapers are on the boat, ‘Politiken’ is apparently ‘European Newspaper of the Year’ and it does Homeboy Rasmus Quaade proud for his U23 silver, giving him full colour, front page.
All good stuff – getting us in the ‘party mood.’
Off the ferry and we have 160 K to run Copenhagen.
The further north we head, the windier – and wetter, it gets.
The island of Zealand, where sits Copenhagen – media accreditation is in the post office; glamorous it isn’t.
On the big screen the race plays out as girls tackle wet cobbles at walking pace – very wise on board hard tyred ‘bedstead’ TT bikes.
It takes a wee while but eventually the magic “creds” get handed over – and of course, the “goodie bag.”
Pen, programme, tourist guide – and, my official UCi Copenhagen Worlds bicycle bell.
I remember wandering away from the Salzburg and Stuttgart Worlds with rather nice laptop cases – but those thrifty Danes don’t go in for stuff like that.
We’ll leave the girls to their rain and cobbles; there’s nowhere to park and we’ve got a campsite to find – and a camper to hook up.
One of Kris’s chums is watching the race; ‘the Canadian girls rode in the dry and are leading the standings’ says the text.
We find the camp site, grab a shower and there’s the email from HTC;
“ARNDT TAKES GOLD IN COPENHAGEN
Judith Arndt finished over twenty one seconds over Linda Melanie Villumsen (New Zealand) with Emma Pooley (Great Britain) in third, after gaining most of her gap in a technical, final ten kilometres.”
Not a bad day’s work for New Zealand, then?
Elite TT tomorrow – but please can we have some dry weather?