Giving His Best by Hilary Badger

Author:Hilary Badger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
Published: 2013-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

A TERRIBLE TOUR

Cadel began 2009 with his usual dogged determination and desire to win. As ever, he saw his main job as finishing the Tour in yellow. But as early as February there were signs the year would not be the game-changer he hoped for.

In the first days of February, Cadel left Australia for Europe to begin the racing season. Cadel was a long way from home when he heard about the Black Saturday bushfires that swept his home state of Victoria on 7 February. The most deadly bushfires in Australian history, many people were killed. Of those who died, 159 were in the Kinglake area.

Cadel had a strong sentimental attachment to Kinglake. It was on the Kinglake mountain bike tracks that the teenaged Cadel’s cycling dreams really took shape. His mother and many friends still lived in the area. As the fires raged, Cadel desperately tried to find out whether everyone he knew was safe. It was an agonising 24 hours before he knew for sure his mum was alive. Later he got the news that a childhood friend tragically died on his farm.

While Cadel was trying to deal with the events going on back home, team politics were flaring up at Silence–Lotto. The new season had brought the usual string of new arrivals and departures. Yaroslav Popovych left the team, but there were promising new recruits too, including Dutch rider Thomas Dekker and Austrian Bernhard Kohl. In the last Tour, Kohl won the polka dot jersey for best performance in the mountains. He’d come third overall, behind Cadel and Sastre. Soon after, Kohl signed with Silence–Lotto.

Then Kohl failed a drug test. Kohl was out and now Silence–Lotto had a huge hole to fill. It was unsettling for Cadel but he had to adjust and quickly shifted his focus back to racing.

The Vuelta a Andalucía was Cadel’s first race with Thomas Dekker, and he was looking forward to it. Dekker had won a few big races, including the Tour de Romandie two years earlier. It was a boost for Cadel to have someone like Dekker working alongside him.

Dekker fulfilled his promise in Stage 3 of the Vuelta a Andalucía. The Silence–Lotto team reeled in a breakaway group with a massive nine-minute lead over the peloton. Their teamwork helped Cadel to third place.

There was another minor victory in Paris–Nice in March, with Cadel placing fourth in Stage 6. Small successes were fine, but Silence–Lotto really wanted a big win. Rival Belgian team Quick Step already had 11 wins for the season. When the Coppi e Bartali rolled around, the pressure was on Cadel to deliver. This was especially true since he’d won in 2008. Cadel did perform strongly, winning Stage 5 of the race and coming second overall.

Silence–Lotto wanted Cadel to carry on this success by racing in the Giro d’Italia in May. Cadel loves the Giro and he loves Italy, but this time he wasn’t sure he should take part. He knew it would be near impossible to win the Giro and the Tour in the same year.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.