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Tuft Talks of the Giro and Wins Nationals

By Rob Jones, Canadiancyclist.com

Langley, BC, resident Svein Tuft, who now races for the Garmin-Transitions team, finished his first Grand Tour in May — the Giro d’Italia (note: he did ride 15 stages of the Vuelta Espana last season also). After he returned to his home in Girona, Spain, we caught up with him to find out how his season is going, and what it’s like riding on the Pro Tour. [We subsequently followed that up with an interview after he won the Canadian Time Trial Championship in Edmonton, Alberta at the end of June.]

Svein Tuft, Canadian National Champion.

Bicycle Paper: So your first Grand Tour, how does it feel?

Svein Tuft: That was a pretty hard edition, from what I am told by other riders who have raced it before. It was a really tough one. I don’t think I’ve ever done more kilometers or more climbing than in the second week; we did 41.5 hours [of racing] that week.

BP: You’ve done a number of stage races in your career, what made this one so tough?

ST: I guess it’s the back-to-back days that really get to you. Stage 10 was a really wild day — really cold, and the race just split apart on a climb. All the GC guys were there [in the chase group], so it was the strangest thing the way the front [group] went away, it was really weird that no one was chasing.

BP: What was your role at the Giro, and what were your goals?

Photo courtesy of Garmin-Transitions/Slipstream

Tuft during Paris Nice 2010.

ST: We had huge objectives for the first two weeks of the Giro. We were trying to get Tyler [Farrar] or [David] Miller into the [leader’s] jersey. We had two stage wins, but then a bad day in the team time trial.

My role was just taking care of those guys. It can be pretty taxing, and you can take yourself out [of the race] if you aren’t careful by going too hard one day and damaging yourself so that you can’t finish the next. You have to get comfortable with the amount of effort that you can expend.

BP: Do you feel more comfortable racing in Europe now?

ST: Every race I’m still learning, still getting used to the patterns. You really do need a year and a half or two years to get settled, to learn the rhythm of racing over there. It’s not something that you’re going to come over from North America and just pop into, and at the beginning it is a little discouraging.

One of the biggest differences is that in North America there are 10 to 20 guys at the best level, but here there are 200 guys at that level. Add on another 100km per day and the narrow, twisty roads ... and your body has to adapt. If you are used to racing three to three and a half hours tops, and then you start having to do six hours, and pushing hard for the last hour ... it takes a year or two.

The other thing is, when you are new here, you don’t really know anyone, you don’t know the other riders and how to react to stuff they are doing during the race. This year, I know the riders, their roles [on the teams], so I can put myself in the right position at the right time; I know who is going to be doing what during different parts of the race, so you can take time [during the race] to relax a bit and save some energy.

For me it has been a great challenge, relearning stuff over and over again.

BP: So what is next, once you have recovered from the Giro?

ST: I’m doing the Delta [Zeeland] Tour in Holland [June 11-13, where he finished 8th], then I head home to Canada for a while. I’ll do the Nationals and then have a chunk of time training at home [Canada] until the Tour of Denmark [August 4-8].

BP: So does this mean a build-up for the Worlds like in 2008 [when he won silver in the time trial]?

ST: Yes, that’s right. I’m taking a good block of time to train like I used to for the time trial. I’ll be able to give it a good effort for both the Worlds and the Commonwealth Games.

Nationals

In the men’s time trial at the National Championships, Tuft was the favorite by far, with most of the field virtually conceding the win to him. He was unstoppable, finishing nearly two minutes up on second place Zach Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies), and close to three minutes ahead of bronze medalist Ryan Roth (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy).

The times fell slowly until François Parisien (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy) put in a very strong 51:15, which held up until the final three riders came across the finish line. Ryan Roth knocked eight seconds off the top time, but was immediately supplanted by Bell, nearly a minute faster at 50:12.3. However, Bell knew that his time in the lead was very limited — Tuft had already made up a minute and five seconds of the two minute gap by the turn around, and looking over his shoulder at the finish he could see his former Symmetrics teammate powering to the line, only ten seconds back. Tuft’s time was a very impressive 48:23.1.

Bell was not unhappy with his second place. “For the last three years I’ve finished third,” he commented. “Two years ago, Svein caught me before the turn, and last year a little after the turn, so just to avoid getting caught is a big accomplishment.”

Tuft pointed to having Bell as his “rabbit,” as a factor in his phenomenal ride, as well as having an opportunity to spend some time on his TT bike. “Zach was very strong today, and it gave me the best possible rider to chase. The other thing is that I’ve actually had some time now to ride my TT bike, which we don’t usually get to do. Usually, we are either racing or resting, so this has been a real bonus for me to be able to practice and prepare like this.”