Green Jersey – “you got to want it”

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Without further adieu I give you the Green. (he said I could say all this shit)

Ok here goes at some sort of try of a interview with recent winner of the Green Jersey at the Tour of Romandie. Chad is a friend of mine so it wasn’t super formal. More of an old war horse (me) and a rising star (Chad B.) We will keep his real name protected because there are probably a few people out there who are google stalking his white ass now. (A note about racing in Belgium. You lose your tan quick. Chad now has zero tan lines) Welcome home Chad, now get back out there and get a tan!

The rest of this psuedo interview is just me trying to remember what we talked about and me trying to remember it all. Most of you know that when I write its a fucking mess with ideas jumping around all over the place. So here to throwing some shit into a fan and seeing where it sticks on the wall.

I wish I could have some sort of voice recorder of the conversation that I had with Chad so I could remember it all but really we just talked like a couple of old friends. I did tell him after I said welcome home was that I needed to do an interview with him for DC. He said cool and just laughed. I said Velo News ain’t shit and this is the real deal Holyfield.

A little back story about Chad. I think I met Chad when he was 12 or 13. His dad used to take him to the races but then he had a radio show on Sunday mornings so we always had to get him home from the races. So a lot of us would chip in and make sure he made it home. Obviously since then he has gotten a drivers license and a girl friend. He since then had gone on to Pro Tour success. I don’t think we can say that about to many Americans. One thing of note is that I cant think of many Americans that have won jerseys at any of the stage races around the world on the pro tour? Yellow for Lance sure but after that its pretty slim pickings??? Leave some stuff in the comments if you know of who and when.
Currently Chad is living here in Tucson and in Italy. So he is splitting time between the both places.

Chad is one of the most down to earth cyclists that I have ever met. Very level headed and very very humble for a kid of his age (23). Its good to see that in a cyclist. If you were to see him on the street you wouldn’t think much of him. Skinny, bad hair cut, and zero tan. But on a bike you would only see his back side as he rides you right off his wheel.

I will try my best to remember how our conversation went this morning. It started with a text at 7 am or so. I was riding because that’s what guys with full time jobs do. We ride really fucking early. Text went like this. “I’m back, what are you up to today?” He replied, “Green.” (green jersey at the tour of fucking Romandie) Then I replied to my own text, “I’ll be there in 17 minutes and have your clippers ready, I need another hair cut.” Turns out that Chad can race his bike and in his spare time of dating a super model (Chad she is way out of your league), he can cut hair as well.

So, my interview began as the trimmers where fired up. (I told him this was going on DC. He said cool.) I told him that I would probably mess some shit up and paraphrase a bunch of it he said no problem.

1st question. Green, let’s talk about it.

Chad said that during the first couple of week over there he was racing a lot of one day races in Belgium. Shit we never hear about over here in the states. He talked about trying to get in breaks over there and just either them by one move or just completely blowing up trying to get into the move. He said most of those races he has about 150-170k in his legs. But the races are 200K and when the hammer goes down in the last 30-40 its for real and guys get peeled. So, good for training but bad for moral.

Then from there he did Titico Addico, or however you say it (I’m doing this on my lunch break so I don’t have a ton of time). He started talking about crazy ass climbs that start form the gun. Shit he was talking about was like an elevator and only going up. He said one of the main differences in pro tour races and big races over here in the US is that the peloton over there is so stacked 100 guys will go over the climbs together. Here in the US its just 5-8 guys. Evidence of that is Tour of the Gila. That was a blood bath for sure. So, at the end of his 1.5 month stay over there he did a shit fuck metric yak load of 1 days. 20-22 days of those, then 4 days off. Then Tritico then 3 days off then Romandie. (makes you want to be pro eh?) Most of us wouldn’t get past the first week over there. Trust me you’re not good enough. In fact you suck. In the time it takes you to read this you could have been riding…….

Romandie. Chad talked about how he and some other guy on the team their job was to get into the move if possible. Chad said that he just slipped into a move and they were off. So, that was that. He said it was funny just because for 22 days he was beating his head against a wall trying to get into the break. Then in Romandie is was bam and they were off. So he rolled it and won the points on the first day. Then from there it was just work like hell to make the break on the second day. He said that was the really tough day. He said he was just dying to try to be in the right one. But he saw it start to form and just hit it across and was there. So all good stuff. Then the TT was his rest day. He still needed to do a good ride just because of the time cut but nothing crazy happened. Then on the last day he talked about how the race was a clover leaf format and 40 degrees and raining. He said he and about 35 other guys were dropped 5k into the race cuz of some crazy climb right off the bat. He talked about being dead tired and really just wanting to drop out. But one of his teammates stayed with him the whole way. Some Swiss guy. Chad said the only reason that he finished was ‘cuz of him. (Insert whatever you want to say about TEAM here). In high level racing you live and die with your team. Don’t work together and you might as well pack it up and go home. Work together and you will have a shot at it. So, he said him and the Swiss guy were way off the back, all the other guys just dropped out so those two had to ride the last 40k or so together through some shit weather. But he finished. Mad props to the Swiss guy and Chad for sticking it out. So Chad was Lantern Rouge and the winner of the green. I think Chad is pretty proud of the Green for sure. At one point he talked about how his name will go down in the record book. They list all the winners in the record books for Yellow, Dots and Green. So, yeah, Chad your name is in there for life.

No prize for last place.

Now just some general notes that I had jotted down.

I think Velonews should be doing an interview with Chad. He is the future of our racing. 23 years old.

He was bumming how his results were so far this year. He didn’t really have anything to show for all the work but now that he got green he says the year is a good one, but he isn’t done yet

Tour of Cali is next and he wants me to go moto-pacing with him on Sat. Yeah right… How about I just sit on your wheel?

One thing that was pretty cool, and I don’t know if he would want me to say anything about it, is he showed me a really old Cinelli bike that his dad had bought from Domenic’s in the late 70s. Full Campy 50th anniversary addition. That was cool, but the even better part was the other stuff on the wall. I think from what I could see, or what I could read, was it looked like really old or written a long time ago by Chad, just positive stuff on the walls. So, picture this like half-pages torn out of note books, but positive stuff written on ’em. I wont tell you what they all said, but one hit me for sure. In sort of scribbly, shaky, hand writing (like he did it when he was 14 or something) it just said: “You have to want it.” Shit gave me the chills seeing it. Just gave me the chills again.

Big props to Chad for suffering like a dog and getting it done.

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