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By Andrew Hood
Photo: Andrew Hood
Garmin-Slipstream is enjoying its best March ever. With stage victories by Christian Vande Velde in Paris-Nice and Tyler Farrar in Tirreno-Adriatico, the team has stepped up nicely in its second season at the elite level.
David Zabriskie rode to third at the Castilla y León tour last week and Danny Pate capped a strong spring with third overall at Critérium International. The results marked the first podiums at top-level, European stage races for both riders.
Pate, who turned 30 last week, has been one of the anchors at Slipstream, joining the team in 2006 and helping it grow steadily toward its place among the top pro teams in Europe.
Pate’s personal evolution has grown parallel with the team, culminating with his breakaway in stage 15 to Prato Nevoso in last year’s Tour de France, when he finished third.
In addition to his recent podium view at Critérium International, Pate’s spring campaign has also included 13th at Volta ao Algarve and sixth at the Tour Méditerréen.
Up next are Tour of the Basque Country and then back to the Giro d’Italia and the Tour.
VeloNews caught up with Pate earlier this year to chat about his goals for 2009. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
VeloNews: How you feeling physically coming into the spring?
Danny Pate: I am ahead of where I was last year. I think everything is going better than last year. It’s easier to come back to things you’ve already done before. It’s always harder to go to new places and do new things. When you’re on the same schedule as before, you already know what to expect. That’s going to make a big difference.
VN: What are your top goals for the season?
DP: To be a very solid guy in the Giro and the Tour for the team time trials, that will be a key goal. With our team, we have a really good chance of winning both of those stages. That’s an important goal for the team and a lot of guys going to the big tours.
VN: How important was it for the team last year to do well in its first season at the elite level in Europe?
DP: It was new for the team for us to do all these big races for the first time. It was the first time we did the Giro and the Tour. It was a really big stepping-stone for our team. We proved that we could do it. Sure, we added some proven guys who had been there before, but we had a lot of guys do some new, big races and fared well and improved. Look at Peterson, he won a stage at the Tour of California. All the young guys are coming up.
VN: How has the experience from last year going to help the team this year?
DP: After doing some of the races last year, stuff like California, it becomes easier, more natural. Racing at that level has become somewhat of a normal thing. It’s doesn’t zap you physically or mentally anymore.
VN: How important was it for you personally to be able to come back to Europe, after having tried racing here early in your career?
DP: It was very satisfying. It’s great to be at the big races, but one of the reasons I had success last year was because these types of races don’t intimidate me. I don’t see it being above my level. You just treat it like any other race. I think you have to do that to be able to perform. You cannot go into the race thinking you’ve already lost. It’s important to have the support of the team.
VN: What do you take out of your big breakaway at the Tour de France last year?
DP: It was great to be there and have that experience. At the same time, there’s always that doubt, ‘I could have done this, I should have done that.’ There’s always something you should have and could have done differently, but you have to take something from that and learn from that. It always helps to be there and it helps you know that you can achieve something big. It’s important to be in that situation and then you know someday it will come.
VN: What was the most rewarding moment for you last season?
DP: It would be hard to pick out one thing. Maybe the respect that the team gained. The team grew a lot last year, compared from what the team was the previous year, but we kept the same atmosphere. We did some big races the year before, too, but last year we did all the biggest races. When I was at these big races, the team still had the same vibe. It didn’t feel like the team had changed that much. Being in the bus and having the same feeling, that was refreshing that it didn’t change in that respect. All the new guys just seemed to fit in with the same mentality the old guys had.