Seeing a silver lining

Image 1 of 7

One day, Stuart O'Grady was riding alongside his Milan-San Remo nemesis...

An interview with Stuart O'Grady, March 31, 2006

This spring was to be a big one for Stuart O'Grady. At 32 years of age he has a strong blend of strength, experience and results, and his move to Team CSC last autumn was expected see him move to a new level as a Classics contender. In the past he's taken podium placings in both Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders; motivation boosted by his change of team, he was all fired up for good performances in both.

However, the Australian has been forced to change those plans, his Spring campaign being foiled by a bad crash on stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this month. O'Grady broke his collarbone and five ribs when he hit a pothole and is only now returning to training with some sessions on an indoor trainer. He's worked with a chiropractor to try to get moving again as soon as possible and, motivated to bounce back from this misfortune, he's now aiming to hit peak form this summer.

His recent crash is the latest in a series of frustrating experiences in the past few months. Last Autumn he was forced to scratch from the team for the world road championships in Madrid due to injury, losing out on what he feels could have been a strong medal opportunity. Around the same time, he discovered that his signing with Giancarlo Ferretti's new Sony Ericsson project was a no-go when the planned team had collapsed before it even started, leaving him without a ride for 2006.

It was an extremely stressful time, but a positive twist was in store. "Luckily I had already spoken to Bjarne a few years ago," he told Cyclingnews earlier this year. "He had shown some interest and CSC have always been a team of choice, that is for sure. Fortunately he still had a spot left on the team so I could fill a void they had in the team for the Classics. We came to an agreement very quickly; at the end of the day, I guess that everything happens for a reason. I am bummed about the deal with Ferretti but now I am with the number one team in the world, so that is fine."

Instead, his new direction will see him play a team role in the Tour, aim to get into breakaway groups when the opportunity presents itself and chase big results in Classic races. He is happy with this shift in targets. "I have had big talks with Bjarne and management. I have told them that if it takes sacrificing going for the green jersey, then I will do it. If it means being part of the winning team in the Tour de France, then for me it is a big challenge, a big step.

Normally you have a slight millisecond to lift your front wheel, it is part of the sport. You can usually see something coming and take action. I was pretty well positioned, I was about 20th wheel at the time. I said to my team-mates that morning that I was going to stay right up the front and keep out of trouble, the first couple of stages had been pretty dangerous. But the guy in front of me just swung at the last moment, and all of a sudden my front wheel just went down into this hole. It wasn't a normal hole, it was a crater! My front wheel basically just caved in, the forks snapped in half and the handlebars just pushed right into my chest.

SO'G: It is incredible. A lot of guys have had problems, I guess in one way things happen in bursts. As my big friend Magnus [Backstedt] says the other day, it is not falling off that is the issue - we are all going to fall off - it is just how hard you fall and how much damage you do. Anyway, we are just going through a bit of a bad moment, but we will hopefully get it out of the way now and be okay later in the season.

SO'G: Yeah. I guess one thing that comes out of this is that I will miss the Classics, but I'll be fresher and hungrier and angrier than ever when I get back on the bike. You have got to take the positives from this kind of situation; when I think back to 2004 I missed some of the Classics but had the best year of my life. Riders who miss the start of the season seem to really kick on well at the end of the season, so that fact is an inspiration and a motivation at the moment.

SO'G: Well obviously all that is gone now. There is no way I would be able to ride over a cobble. I was programmed to have a break after Paris-Roubaix, with four weeks off. But instead of having that time off after Roubaix, I will just have an enforced break now. I guess another benefit is I have had my break so I will be raring to go, full training when I would have been resting. Hopefully come the Dauphiné and the Tour, I will be going very well!

SO'G: Well, you wouldn't have wanted to be around me that morning! It was really disappointing, I had spent the whole of the off season training towards that race. Milan-San Remo was a major objective. Flanders and Roubaix are objectives but it is a bit more complicated to win those... Milan-San Remo is my real, preferred event. I ended up going down and watching it in Italy and caught up with the team and actually had a good time. It was a fantastic race, it was great to watch, actually!

SO'G: It has been everything I have thought it would be, and probably a little bit more. It has been really good, the team is definitely extremely professional and at the same time, it is a really good group of people. They dot their 'i's and cross their 't's - Bjarne is a bit of a perfectionist, plus he has a lot of experience and a lot of time for the people around him. He is just a pool of knowledge.

SO'G: Yes. When I went back to Australia, I had a signed two-year contract which involved my friend Matt White and young CJ [Chris Sutton], who ended up going to Cofidis. I went home a happy man. I had a good couple of years with Cofidis, I have no regrets. I had the year of my life in 2004 and the riders were really supportive, they gave everything they could, but I just found the last year that I didn't get enough support in the Classics. I was struggling for motivation, coming off 2004, such a big year.

Then I was questioning my future for the first time [in 2005], and realised then that I needed to move on or, if I stayed, it would have been the last contract that I would sign. So that is why when searching for a bigger team and bigger challenges out of France. I wanted to wipe the slate clean and start again. I seemed to have found that with Ferretti, he was very motivating and very professional, but unfortunately the person involved [in arranging the deal] wasn't.

Luckily I had already spoken to Bjarne a few years ago, he had shown some interest and CSC have always been a team of choice, that is for sure. Fortunately he still had a spot left on the team so I could fill a void they had in the team for the Classics. We came to an agreement very quickly and, at the end of the day, I guess that everything happens for a reason. I am bummed about the deal with Ferretti but now I am with the number one team in the world, so that is fine...

SO'G: It was a very frustrating year for me. Like I touched on before, 2004 was special... the Tour, the Dauphiné, the World Cup [the HEW-Cyclassics-Cup in Hamburg - ed.], the Olympics and even the Worlds... but last year it was really difficult. You hear about it a lot, people say if you have a big year, then the next year you go into a kind of slump, and I experienced that first-hand. It is not something you do on purpose; I know that commitment, dedication, health and everything - including a little bit of luck - fell into place in 2004 and it was just hard to keep motivated, to do that same kind of work in the team environment that was there.

I felt a lack of 'want,' I guess. The troops seemed a bit content, really. There was an attitude of, "we will go to the race and see what happens," there was no direction in the races. I don't mind taking responsibility and a challenge, as long as everybody else does their bit and gives 100 percent. But in the end, after a few months of giving, giving, giving, you kind of say, 'okay, hold on a minute, no one here gives a sh*t', and you can't help but take that mentality on.

SO'G: Yes, for sure. I have spent my whole career in French teams, like I said I have got no regrets - everything is a learning experience and my years with Credit Agricole were fantastic. But then, looking back, after seeing how this team works, it is just so different. There is a real science behind what we are doing, we are not just doing 36 kilometres an hour into a headwind for six hours. There are people here who understand training and are really calculating everything for a reason.

SO'G: Yes, it is fantastic. When I was at the training camp and looked around the dining hall, it is not just myself and one or two others who are the team leaders. There are many guys on the team and 25 of them are bloody good bike riders. That makes a very big difference as well. French teams kind of in general have maybe two or three leaders and the rest are just worker ants. That is okay for a little while, but in a long season - especially with the ProTour now - you have young riders doing the Grand Tours and they just aren't prepared or aren't ready to do that. And there is a lot more pressure put on the leaders to get results.

SO'G: Yeah, that was my whole reason for moving from Cofidis. With what happened a few years ago with the big scandal and everything, we were just being content with being bike riders with jobs, we should be happy to be here, this is a great life. But I have been a pro for too long to just ride my bike through the French countryside for fun. And it isn't fun! So if I do it, I want to do it properly. I want to get that winning feeling back.

SO'G: I think if I am selected, then firstly it will be on my ability to get into breakaways during the Tour. It takes a lot of pressure off the team, not having to ride behind. I think that riders like Jens [Voigt] and Jakob [Piil] and Lars [Michaelsen] and myself all know how to get into breaks, and win from there. Secondly, it will be my experience and knowing that I can get to Paris without any drama, and thirdly, to help Ivan and whoever on the team is in the best position to win the Tour.

SO'G: Yes... Everybody was saying all year how easy this climb was; I am sorry, but show me a climb that is easy after 260 kilometres! I will be lying if I said that I was not disappointed. I was pretty happy with how things panned out the year before with the Vuelta and the world's... I think you need to have two leaders. Okay, if it came down to a sprint, then I would work for McEwen, but I needed to have the opportunity to have a crack myself. And that opportunity wasn't available.

SO'G: Ah, it was nothing to do with what happened in the Tour. Robbie and I have been going head-to-head for years. We are both going for the same goal, so... like I said back then, I respect Robbie for his bike-riding ability. He is one of the best in the world. But I was pretty motivated to do the Vuelta and have a proper crack at the world's. When I look back at the results, I am definitely sure that I wouldn't have got past Boonen, but a medal is a medal...