California dreamin': Local rider aims high
(By: Samuel Abt International Herald Tribune) :: In his mind, he can see it happening, not in slow motion as dreams sometimes are but at high speed, so high that he is racing far ahead and alone."I live 10 minutes from where the race drops down out of the hills into the city," said Ben Jacques-Mayne, a 27- year-old American rider for the Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada team in the Amgen Tour of California.
"I ride those roads multiple times a week," he continued in an interview. "I'm going to give 'em what I can, and we'll see."
By "'em" he meant the rest of the 127- man field. Each and every one of them, he meant, was going to be left in his dust Tuesday, when the race traveled 94.9 miles, or 152 kilometers, from Martinez south to San Jose, passing over a steep and long climb on Sierra Road 18 miles from the finish.
"You'll see my name," Jacques-Mayne promised. "Either I'll be going off the front or dying trying."
He has thought it out all winter: Attack on the climb he knows so well from training rides, then roar triumphantly into his hometown.
He knows that he is not one of the big names on the domestic racing teams and that he scored his only major victories in the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota in 2004 and the opening time trial of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic last June.
Before that he was mainly a cyclocross rider, winning the U.S. title in the under-23 division in 2000 and the U.S. collegiate title in 2002 while he was a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
He finished 16th in the Tour of California prologue on Sunday and, no sprinter, was content to finish back in the pack on Monday in Santa Rosa in a mass dash to the line that was won by Juan José Haedo, an Argentine with Toyota-United.
Olaf Pollack, a German with T-Mobile, was second, and the Australian Stuart O'Grady of the CSC team was third.
The American Levi Leipheimer of the Gerolsteiner team retained his overall lead, five seconds ahead of his compatriot Bobby Julich of CSC.
Jacques-Mayne may have a nice record, but not one to rank against rivals who have won Paris-Nice, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour of Germany and the world time-trial championship and have stood on the three-step victory podium of Paris-Roubaix and even the Tour de France.
"The Europeans and the people who are really motivated on the big teams are going to be better than me," Jacques- Mayne admitted.
"Hopefully, I'm going to be able to bridge that gap with a little bit of heart and a little bit of knowledge."
A good showing in the second of seven daily stages would be immense for his team, he said.
"We've been training specifically for this event," he said.
"It's the biggest event of the year for us."
"We are a smaller team in terms of budget, but we've definitely performed," Jacques-Mayne added.
"We were sixth-ranked in the nation last year, which is pretty good. We have guys who have stepped above our potential and really performed, myself included."
"Everyone on this team is a professional cyclist and we don't hold any other jobs," he said.
"This is my profession and I've been a professional for seven years. I haven't reached my peak yet, that's for sure."
In case his dream did not come true on Tuesday, Jacques-Mayne had a fallback plan: Wednesday, the third stage, a 17-mile individual time trial, which will be held on roads outside San Jose.
"Those are actually the roads that I practice my time-trialing on, so I know them intimately," he said, growing excited.
Time-trialing, or racing against the clock, is not his forte, he said, "but I've been able to hold my own, and I've won a couple of time trials in the past."
Those were in small races in the United States, he acknowledged, not ones against, for example, Dave Zabriskie, an American with the CSC team from Denmark, who won the opening time trial in the last Tour de France.
"True," Jacques-Mayne said.
"What it really comes down to is being able to lay down the big power, and, hopefully, I'll be able to do that, too."
"I ride those roads multiple times a week," he continued in an interview. "I'm going to give 'em what I can, and we'll see."
By "'em" he meant the rest of the 127- man field. Each and every one of them, he meant, was going to be left in his dust Tuesday, when the race traveled 94.9 miles, or 152 kilometers, from Martinez south to San Jose, passing over a steep and long climb on Sierra Road 18 miles from the finish.
"You'll see my name," Jacques-Mayne promised. "Either I'll be going off the front or dying trying."
He has thought it out all winter: Attack on the climb he knows so well from training rides, then roar triumphantly into his hometown.
He knows that he is not one of the big names on the domestic racing teams and that he scored his only major victories in the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota in 2004 and the opening time trial of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic last June.
Before that he was mainly a cyclocross rider, winning the U.S. title in the under-23 division in 2000 and the U.S. collegiate title in 2002 while he was a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
He finished 16th in the Tour of California prologue on Sunday and, no sprinter, was content to finish back in the pack on Monday in Santa Rosa in a mass dash to the line that was won by Juan José Haedo, an Argentine with Toyota-United.
Olaf Pollack, a German with T-Mobile, was second, and the Australian Stuart O'Grady of the CSC team was third.
The American Levi Leipheimer of the Gerolsteiner team retained his overall lead, five seconds ahead of his compatriot Bobby Julich of CSC.
Jacques-Mayne may have a nice record, but not one to rank against rivals who have won Paris-Nice, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour of Germany and the world time-trial championship and have stood on the three-step victory podium of Paris-Roubaix and even the Tour de France.
"The Europeans and the people who are really motivated on the big teams are going to be better than me," Jacques- Mayne admitted.
"Hopefully, I'm going to be able to bridge that gap with a little bit of heart and a little bit of knowledge."
A good showing in the second of seven daily stages would be immense for his team, he said.
"We've been training specifically for this event," he said.
"It's the biggest event of the year for us."
"We are a smaller team in terms of budget, but we've definitely performed," Jacques-Mayne added.
"We were sixth-ranked in the nation last year, which is pretty good. We have guys who have stepped above our potential and really performed, myself included."
"Everyone on this team is a professional cyclist and we don't hold any other jobs," he said.
"This is my profession and I've been a professional for seven years. I haven't reached my peak yet, that's for sure."
In case his dream did not come true on Tuesday, Jacques-Mayne had a fallback plan: Wednesday, the third stage, a 17-mile individual time trial, which will be held on roads outside San Jose.
"Those are actually the roads that I practice my time-trialing on, so I know them intimately," he said, growing excited.
Time-trialing, or racing against the clock, is not his forte, he said, "but I've been able to hold my own, and I've won a couple of time trials in the past."
Those were in small races in the United States, he acknowledged, not ones against, for example, Dave Zabriskie, an American with the CSC team from Denmark, who won the opening time trial in the last Tour de France.
"True," Jacques-Mayne said.
"What it really comes down to is being able to lay down the big power, and, hopefully, I'll be able to do that, too."
posted by Ryan Amirault at Tuesday, February 21, 2006
