Julian Dean hopes it will be third time lucky when he tackles the tortuous 3500km of the Tour de France which starts on Sunday (NZ time).
Dean, taking on the Tour for the fourth time, is the only New Zealander in the field, starting this time as the designated sprinter for the Garmin Chipotle squad, the new team competing for the first time.
The last two outings for the kiwi national champion resulted in nasty crashes although he has his body back to full health for the arduous event that finishes in Paris on 27 July.
Dean bruised his ribs in a crash on the first stage proper of the Giro D’ Italia, soldering on until the penultimate stage of the three week tour, and he also crashed twice in a three-day race in the Netherlands two weeks ago.
“I’ve definitely had my ups and downs in the build-up for the Tour. The crash in the Giro was quite serious but that tour was a key part of my prep for the Tour so I just had to knuckle down and keep riding sore. It was difficult but that’s professional cycling,” Dean said.
“The Tour of Zeeland was a nightmare and a race I did not want to do. I had two crashes but avoided any serious injury.”
Without the pressures of expectation, Dean is confident of a good Tour for both himself and Team Garmin Chipotle.
“In the past three years with Credit Agricole the pressure was on us from the gun to set up the green jersey from day one and then work for the GC rider.
“We don’t have a serious contender for general classification in our team. Our aim is to gain a stage win either through myself on one of the sprint stages or with one of our riders in a breakaway. Without a GC contender, we won’t be targeted by the major teams.
“It means we can just go out there and give it everything. It’s important that we are seen to be active and aggressive throughout but we don’t have the same constraints.”
Dean is no longer the set-up man, achieving recognition as the best in the business for Credit Agricole’s Thor Husholvd in the past and this time he has three team riders set to play a similar role for him.
They may have to wait a little with this year’s Tour much different than previous with no traditional short prologue for the first time in over 40 years.
“The heat will go on from the first day because there will be jerseys at stake so it will be quite different. There’s not the usual early flat stage for sprinters and the first time trial is on day five.”
Dean may have to wait for day three to get a reasonably flat stage for the sprinters to stretch their legs.
“The second day is an opportunity also but day three definitely although both are a bit lumpy.”
After returning from his disastrous Tour of Zeeland Dean did have his issues in the final block of training for the Tour.
“I just could not come right in the first half of the training. The motivation was no issues and I was doing the miles but I didn’t feel great. But over the last week I was able to really rank up the big miles and felt the strength come.
“I had my last long ride yesterday and now it’s a case of freshening up for the weekend.”
While his focus is on the next three weeks to Paris, Dean has a plan in place for the Beijing Olympic road race, which is two weeks after the finish of the Tour.
“I’ve just completed a plan although it will depend how I come out of the Tour. It can be quite a tricky balancing act. Basically you must keep riding every day or the body will shut down, but you have to pay a lot of attention to your diet after the Tour.
“If things work out you can come off the Tour and it will really set me up well for Beijing.”
Dean has had one major boost this year with wife Carole presenting their second son 10 weeks ago.
“We’ve been blessed with a good baby. To have a great wife and two boys at home here in Valencia waiting for me is definitely a key part that keeps me balanced and motivated in this pretty tough profession.”
Dean is hoping it is an omen for him to step up and win a stage of the Tour de France where he will be proudly wearing the kiwi colours as national champion of New Zealand.
The Tour starts on Sunday (NZ time) with 21 stages over 3500km with 10 flat stages, two time trials and nine climbing days which will transverse 17 category climb
NOTE: You can follow Julian’s progress on the Tour on his website www.juliandean.co.nz |
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