Читать книгу The Pain and the Glory: The Official Team Sky Diary of the Giro Campaign and Tour Victory - Chris Froome - Страница 16
ОглавлениеThe day began slowly courtesy of an armistice in the peloton. The previous day’s exertions called for a collective decision to ride a gentle first 60km. Riders enjoyed an easy warm-up before a walloping 120-odd kilometres over the mountains to Erto e Casso. Harried directeurs sportifs, following in team cars, also had a welcome respite from being in ‘red alert’ mode, ever-poised to assess the race pattern through swishing windscreen wipers, to deliver crucial information over radios that don’t always work in mountains and rainstorms, and to offer tactical support as the daily peloton fireworks exploded.
‘DS-ing the Giro, I think, is the hardest job in the world. It’s so chaotic and stressful,’ says Dan Hunt. ‘Marcus, the senior directeur sportif, was doing a great job in very hard scenarios. As it turned out, very few more things could have gone wrong than did in this year’s Giro.’
The fundamental responsibility for everyone lay in ensuring Bradley Wiggins got from Naples to Brescia, safely, healthily, more quickly than his rivals. Wiggins was supported, not just by his eight colleagues in the saddle, but by a Team Sky staff of 22, a roll-call that included directeurs sportifs, performance staff, doctor, physiotherapist, carers, mechanics, chef, press officers and bus driver. All play a crucial role around the clock, but during a race it’s the riders and directeur sportif alone in a bubble of competitive survival. Riders have a manual for the race, but on a bike they can’t access that or glance at a map. They’re in a high-pressure environment – the argy-bargy of the peloton – so it’s vital to receive info over race radio about wind speed or direction, cautions about crosswinds or crashes, wet patches on the road or emergency vehicles, and to receive a countdown of the distance to the start of a big climb so that the team can position itself.
‘The car is there for back-up, with a mechanic and the doc, but often we see what’s going on, or we know where Bradley is, before race radio,’ says Danny Pate. ‘The dynamic inside a race is a weird thing and it’s different each day dependent on how the overall standings are looking. There’s a bigger mind-set on any given day depending on who’s on what time, who’s going for the mountain jersey, the sprint points, the young rider category, who’s in a breakaway, who’s got personal vendettas. Each of these scenarios could play a big role in each day’s action. You have to be aware of these, plus the tactical problems too. Your GC contender can’t ride with the top ten guys on the road all the time. You have to be attentive. If a group goes away and there’s someone dangerous in there, you might have to chase it back. You have to stay on top of all that stuff. It can be complicated.’
