Learning from a champion

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An interview with Tom Southam, January 31, 2005

After competing for a year with the modest Amore e Vita team, Great Britain's Tom Southam will line out alongside former world road race champion Igor Astarloa and the other Barloworld-Valsir riders in 2005. Performances such as a silver medal in the British road race championships last summer plus a strong display in the Tour of Britain have led some to regard Southam as one of the country's brightest young prospects.

The 23 year-old is looking forward to the new season, training hard in South Africa over the winter and then returning to his base in Italy to complete his preparations. His first appointment is the Tour de Langkawi at the end of January; after that, he is hoping that the team will gain wildcard entries to some of the sport's big ProTour events, enabling him to continue his progression. Shane Stokes talked to Tom at the Barloworld training camp recently, and here's what transpired.

Tom Southam: Yes, completely. Last year was a small team of fifteen riders. It was a lot easier to get to know everyone, we got to know everyone really quickly. There were a lot of Scandinavians, hardly any Italians, and everyone was English-speaking. That was more like a family environment - a lot of the smaller Italian teams are like that, run like a family. This one is quite a big structure...you have the existing structure for Barloworld and the structure of another team coming in.

TS: I actually have to thank Phil Liggett for helping me out. I spoke to him during the year - he was commentating at the national championships and he was also at the Tour of Britain, two races I went quite strongly in. I was looking for a new team in order to step up the ladder a bit. He contacted John (Robertson, Barloworld-Valsir manager) because there is a connection there...Phil is in South Africa a lot. It just started off like that and just snowballed.

TS: Well, firstly Jamie Burrow rode really hard the first two ascents up the big climb on the back of the big circuit. He tore it apart so we were down to 35 guys before we even hit the finishing circuits. Then Jez (Jeremy Hunt) went away with Mark Lovatt and Andrew Jackson and they built up a good lead. We hit the climb then and it all split to bits. I was actually in the third group, because I felt real bad for a bit. A lap later I felt better and on the climb I went across to the next group, and then I attacked them straight away and went across to the break on my own.

It was a really good circuit. People said that it was too hard but if you look at the guys who were there, you have Jez and Roger (Hammond) who are not climbers, Jamie and Charly who are both climbers and me, who is not really a climber. So just the strongest guys. That is what was left up front. I attacked on the back of the circuit and Roger came across...that was it finished for the rest, really.

TS: I was very good on the first two days. The first day, I wasted a bit of energy sprinting for hill primes. I went with 20 kilometres to go and got a nice gap, but then a few guys came across and then it all came together. The second day, I was really strong. The plan was that I was going to go in the early move. I got a few mountain points the day before and I wanted to take the jersey, because that would be a big thing. Ben Day went away. For some reason Duncan Urquhart (mountains leader) had it in his head that he was going to mark only me. Fifteen times I tried to get away, and each time he was glued to my wheel. It wasn't a problem if he came through, because fair enough, I get away, he comes with me and we fight it out like that. But instead he just sat on me so every time the bunch just came back.

Anyway, Ben Day went away and got ten seconds. I went away and looked over my shoulder to see QuickStep - who had the leaders jersey - saying let him go, let him go. I thought 'right, I'm away' but then Urquhart came across again and brought the whole bunch with him. I got annoyed at that point, because I was really strong that day. I rode well on the early climbs and then later, I went over Holme Moss towards the front...there must have been about twelve guys left. There was a break and then the front group, and I was in that. On Snake Pass I paid a bit for my efforts...the Portuguese guy from US Postal attacked (Jose Azevedo) and unfortunately I pulled my foot and then lost my rhythm. I got back in but too late, the break had already gone. We caught them before the line but that day, if I had ridden more intelligently, I could have been up there... Okay, you can always say that ifs and buts count for nothing in bike racing, but I know I could have done well.

TS: All I know is that I am starting with the Tour de Langkawi. Obviously with the ProTour and us not being in it...we are probably one of the biggest teams that is not in it, we can't guarantee anything just yet. My personal goals lie again with the national championships which I am determined to win soon - this year - and the Tour of Britain as well. They are both races that I know I can do well in. When you have got races that you know you can do well in and you have done well in before, that makes it an easier goal.

TS: Yeah, sure. I watched him win the worlds because I was over there doing the Under 23 race. I watched him win that and now, all of a sudden, I am going training with the guy. That is pretty cool. In cycling you are always around older guys who have done it, and you are like 'wow, he has done this and he has done that', but they are not current. So you think, 'okay, you did do it like that but that may not be applicable now'. Astarloa was world champion last year and he had a great year. People say he didn't do much, but you must remember that he didn't race much. When he did race he was getting good placings - he took seconds and thirds in Tirreno-Adriatico, then didn't race (because of the Cofidis situation). Then he came back and he got second in his first race and won the first stage of the Brixia Tour. When you actually ride the events you think 'wow, that's really good.' He is a tough guy, he is one of the top dogs out there.

TS: I don't like to say an all-rounder because I think all rounder is a weak way of saying you don't do anything particularly well.....but I am, sadly, an all rounder. On my day I can climb. For example, climbs like Holme Moss that aren't more than five or six kilometres, I can do those no problem. On my good days in Italy I can get over a mountain. I haven't reached my peak as a rider, I am still developing, but for the moment I would say I am an all-rounder.

TS: I get quite motivated by races in France, the French Cups. We did three or French cups last year and in every one of those I was in the winning break. I didn't have it in my legs to get to the finish with the leaders - I got 11th and 12th and 15th. Those races are worked out on an attacking basis. Any races that are done like that I can pretty much get myself into the winning break. It is just a matter of progressing myself a bit further to be competitive.

My director last year was pleased with me but he said that the thing I have got to do from now on I have got to make sure I am finishing with the lead guys. It doesn't matter if you finish with 100 guys, it doesn't matter if you finish fifth out of five. You have got to be with the lead guys, you have to finish there. I have to race more towards being there in the finale and being competitive there rather than wasting my energy.

TS: I didn't realise what it was like because when you are young you just accept that if you want to be a pro, that is what you have got to do. It wasn't until this year until I came back with Charly (Wegelius) for the Tour of Britain. We said 'shit, this is so easy doing it at home'. You don't realise what a difference it makes, just being in your own country and not having to think. I am fluent in other languages but you still have to concentrate when you are watching TV. It is not your stuff, it is always stuff from another country so you are never quite settled.

TS: No, not really. You are not going to get British people doing it because it is just too hard. If you go to schools you just see loads of overweight kids walking around. British people are just eating bad food and turning into blobs. If you want them to go out and do a sport where they have got to flog themselves for 200 kilometres, they are not going to do it. So it is not going to get bigger. It is not going to become a big sport, unfortunately.

TS: Well, both my parents are very liberal. My mum lived in Paris for a year when she was eighteen, just packed her bags and moved off. Then she moved to Berlin too for a year. My dad travelled across the states. Both parents were teachers when I was a kid so the whole summer holidays I would spend abroad, traipsing around art galleries which bored the shit out of me! So I have always had a kind of thing about being open to other countries, being open to learning a language, being open to travel. That is one of the things I like most about being a bike rider.

TS: They both think it is great. My dad is into cycling, so he is over the moon with how things have worked out. He's come though it all the way with me. Coming from Penzance, it is about five or six hours to the nearest race so even when I was twelve, he would drive me about six hours to London. I would do a thirty-minute criterium and then he would drive me home again. That was his whole weekend, so to do it all with me was awesome. He is part of it as much as me. And my mum thinks it is great that I am doing something that is cool, not a job.