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By Ben Delaney
Photo: Casey B. Gibson
With Scot time trial specialist David Millar in the mix, Garmin-Chipotle won the Giro d’Italia’s opening team time trial this May. Having added Olympic and world pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins to the team along with Canadian strongman Svein Tuft, Garmin is anticipating an even stronger TTT crew for 2009. With a team time trial back on the menu at the Tour de France, Millar is already eager for July. The Garmin captain sat down with VeloNews to talk about the peculiarities of the discipline, and how his team intends to win on the world’s biggest stage in 2009.
VeloNews: Let’s talk about the team time trial win at the Giro. Was that from practice or just the collective strength of the riders?
David Millar: It wasn’t any one rider, although Christian (Vande Velde) and (David) Zabriskie were just super strong. What made the difference was the amount of work we put into it. We got together in Girona nine days before and spent three or four days just doing TTT efforts. We were learning how to ride it, what sort of time each guy should do on the front, what sort of speeds we should be hitting, the general handling, the equipment, everything, down to the ice vests we used before. Every single little detail we had nailed. By the time we got to Italy three days before the race, we were ready. The other teams were just starting to practice, and we were good to go. Winning the TTT was our primary objective of the whole race. Then to do it was very gratifying. I remember, we all congregated about 300 meters after the line and just started hugging, because we knew we had done it perfectly.
Photo: Lennard Zinn
VN: Practice makes perfect.
DM: Yes. And we took so much pleasure in the process. And it wasn’t just about the winning. We took a great deal of pleasure in the work we put into it.
VN: How does that translate for the Tour TTT?
DM: I think we learned a lot. We will have an even stronger team for that. On paper we probably have the strongest team time trial squad that’s ever been assembled in cycling. If you think about it, with Zabriskie, Christian, me, Wiggins and either Sven or Magnus as the core driving force, that’s just lethal. Now we will have to do work in a very similar way to what we did for the Giro. We’ll have to work on getting the details right. Check out the course, figure out how we’re going to ride it. And then, just do what we do best. And if we do it right, there is no team that can beat us.
VN: How critical is scouting the course?
DM: It depends on how difficult the course is. If it’s very technical, then it will be best if we check it out a couple of times. We’ll definitely go out a couple of months before. If it’s just big roads in a square or whatever, then not so much.
VN: A wide, flat road is a wide, flat road.
DM: Exactly. Down in that region of France, the most complex thing will be the wind, as it will likely be windy down there. We could get some serious crosswinds, which could factor into the equipment choices.
VN: How much talking goes on during team time trials?
DM: None. It’s actually incredibly noisy with all the discs and the air over the helmets. One thing no one realized at the Giro, which goes to show just how incredibly good we are at team time trialing, was that our radios failed just before the start. So we did the whole team time trial without any radio, without any guidance from (team director Matt) Whitey or anything. That just goes to show how professional, and what a well-oiled machine it is. As the race goes on, you can start to see when guys start to get tired. They start to move more, their turns get shorter. That’s when you know they’re going to be out soon. And that’s how we ride it. We go until we have just five left. Or maybe six with one guy just hanging on.
VN: Does it add pressure or relieve it to have so many strong time trialists on the team?
DM: It’s both, really. You want to beat your teammates, but it kind of raises the game. It’s nice to be on a team where time trials are taken seriously. On Saunier Duval, I was the only one who took them seriously. I’d be the only one who would go and ride in the morning and recon the course. Whereas on this team you have a bunch of guys who do it, which makes the whole process simpler because you’re doing the same thing. It’s an advantage because it’s less stressful when you have a group doing it rather than just one trying to figure it out and focus.
VN: To have global TT domination, who else do you need? With Wiggins now on board, it seems like you’re only missing Cancellara.
DM: Cancellara would be nice, yeah. We basically have the dream team, minus Cancellara. Some people think Jonathan’s a bit mad (having so many specialists), but I think there’s method in his madness. It’s what we’re good at, it’s what we know how to do, and it’s what we’re going to stay focused on.
