Day two of riding with professional road cyclists… somebody has to do it 🙂
Today, I did a sweet beach ride with the Giant Alpecin team in Adelaide, South Australia. The lads were on day three of their easy period. It takes a few days to recover from the various flights from Europe to Australia. Chad Haga made an insane number of flights after the team presentation in Germany, to make it to Adelaide. And I thought I had it bad.
Tomorrow, Tuesday Adelaide time, the team is returning to work; meaning, they’ll be riding a longer and harder training ride. I’ll be skipping that one.
Giant Alpecin had a full complement of riders on today’s ride. Marcel Kittel (multiple Grand Tour stage winner), Tom Dumoulin, Koen De Kort, Albert Timmer, Simon Geschke, Lawson Craddock and Chad Haga.
During the ride, I spoke with Marcel, Lawson and Chad. Lawson and Chad both stated they had troubles adjusting to riding on the other side of the road. Sounds like a certain K-Dogg and Mrs K-Dogg who rode with me in Australia in 2011 :). I asked Lawson and Chad if they had any interest in driving… a firm no was the answer! Marcel and I chatted about life, cycling and travel.
The team isn’t focusing on stage wins, rather the G.C. situation. As this is the first race of the year, things are a little more relaxed. All three of the guys I mentioned above were an absolute pleasure to chat with. Zero attitude. A lot of regular amateur cyclists could take a lesson from these lads in etiquette!
The video is an almost three and a half minute excerpt, please enjoy in High Definition, courtesy of YouTube.
Thanks for viewing!
Lawson and Chad know what they are talking about.
You can’t adjust to the riding the other side of the road that fast….no matter how loud someone shouts at you.
Safety First-Dogg
Are you going to accompany the Movistar Team too?
Movistar hadn’t arrived when I last checked. But, they are one team I’d like to ride with. I’m taking today off the bike (crap weather here today), but will be riding with more teams from Wednesday to Friday.