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Q&A with Bob Stapleton: Cav' has home at Columbia
Bob Stapleton was already in a good mood Monday morning before the start of the third stage of the 2009 Tour de France at Marseille’s old harbor.
The president of Columbia-HTC was enjoying the warm afterglow of Mark Cavendish’s explosive victory in stage 2 and Andre Greipel’s win at the Tour of Austria.
Fast-forward seven hours and Stapleton had even more reason to cheer. His Columbia-HTC team stunned the Tour by breaking apart the peloton and putting all nine of its riders into the winning 28-man breakaway. Cavendish delivered the goods with his second straight win — and Michael Albasini won for the team in Austria.
VeloNews caught up with Stapleton before the start of the explosive stage. Here are excerpts from the interview:
VeloNews: How important has Cavendish become to this team?
Bob Stapleton: Mark has been a part of the success. The team has won 51 bike races and (Andre) Greipel won yesterday in Austria. Those two have won the most races for us this season. The key is to never build a team just around one rider. We want to remain an open team, where decisions are based on merit. And continue to build the team spirit, so believe people they get their chances if they do their work, and that’s critical. We don’t intend to lose that.
VN: Does having an international squad help in the search for sponsors?
BS: I think it opens more of a market. In bringing in HTC, we had ferocious competition from Formula 1, which is basically having a fire sale on branding rights. This is a company that wants to connect to lifestyle and they believe in the green elements of the sport, so cycling was a better fit for their customers. That’s part of the unplanned benefit of the team. The first thing we said was, ‘Let’s break all the molds, let’s bring in all the best talent in the world, it doesn’t matter where they come from. We make decisions based on merit, not on passport. Give them all the tools and see what happens.’ Now we see the benefits of that, we get a lot of international coverage. And you’re seeing a lot of interest in international sponsors. Columbia is an American company, but they sell products internationally. HTC is a Taiwan company that sells all over the world.
VN: Do you hope to keep Cavendish on the team despite the new Skye team with a strong British flavor?
BS: I think Mark Cavendish is going to outgrow just being a British athlete. He’s becoming an international star. I think he deserves that. In my mind, he already represents a broader market. He already has a huge following in several countries. I think ‘Brand Cavendish’ is doing just fine without the British flag. Cavendish will be here for the foreseeable future.
VN: The team’s lead-out train is working well.
BS: That was a tough stage yesterday, that later in the race a breakaway stays away, but there was enough common interests among the teams and we were able to take advantage of that. Bert Grabsch and Bernard Eisel did a good job at the front to reel in that breakaway and then the lead-out train really executed well. We pre-rode the course with Erik Zabel, they always went the right way on the round-about. That last corner, our guys knew that corner and they went full gas through there and opened up a 10-meter gap. They executed almost perfect — we saw George (Hincapie) and Michael (Rogers) in the end, it was almost exactly how we wanted to do.
VN: How is Erik Zabel helping the team in the sprints?
BS: He’s critical to a bunch of young riders. Just him being around gives them a bunch of confidence. They feel support from someone who’s already done it. For Tony Martin, he’s an idol. The discipline and training that Erik did all those years is critical to Tony’s future growth. For Mark, Erik’s tactical help is critical. You saw that at his San Remo victory and Mark acknowledged that. It will pay off in his long-term future goals here at the Tour. Erik won the green jersey six times, that’s relevant experience.
VN: Some are starting to say Cavendish is getting too cocky.
BS: The real quality that Mark has is self-confidence and self-awareness. People see him as a little cocky and a little arrogant, because he does have a lot of self-confidence. In sport, if you’re not a little bit confident, you probably won’t go far in life. But he balances that because he’s really aware of his own faults. He knows what he needs to do to do better — he does the work and he’s very self-critical. That combination is what makes him so successful.
VN: What does he need to improve? Most everyone agrees he’s the fastest sprinter right now.
BS: He hasn’t finished the Tour de France. Goal No. 1 is to get to Paris in good shape. I think he’d love to win on the Champs-Élysées, but he needs to work at that. He did the work for San Remo and he was able to win. He came in leaner and stronger earlier in the season and he did work and he still has work to do to survive a three-week Tour at a high level. That’s a maturity and experience thing. The key thing for him is to continue to set goals. The green jersey is an obvious target. If it’s not this year, then next year.
VN: Everyone saw the incident with the other rider almost punching Cavendish. What happened there?
BS: There was a little action on the field. Mark was in the dirt a couple of times. That’s everyone staking out their territory early in the race, that is not uncommon, but Mark gives as good as he gets. That’s all fair in the sprint.
VN: The Columbia train seems to be right on track. How has it improved from last year?
BS: I think that was about as good as we’re going to pull it off. (Mark) Renshaw could have won yesterday. What they did yesterday, they talk to each and may actually change in the race. Eisel and Grabsch in front, Maxime (Monfort) and Kim (Kirchen) as needed, then Michael from 3km, then George, Tony, Mark and Cav’. Those are strong boys. They like it. George loves it when these guys win. It points to team orientation. When there is a win, everyone is happy.
VN: How has the addition of Renshaw helped Cavendish?
BS: He’s a gem in terms of lead-out. He’s extremely fast and he’s very good at positioning. Mark believes he can follow him blindly. That’s a huge confidence. Mark is good tactically, so to have that kind of confidence in Renshaw is pretty special. That’s the ideal situation. To have that kind of lead-out, when you don’t have to worry about the right spot and looking around.
VN: What are the expectations for the team time trial?
BS: It’s a very difficult course, it’s a technical challenge, up and down, lots of lefts and right; that really puts a premium on teamwork and accelerating in and out of the turns and corners well. The key is the right guys in the right place pulling at the right time, but really staying in sync with all the riders. It would be very easy to drop riders off the train. The real technical details are different from the Giro. Everyone is here and you will see everyone’s A-game.
VN: Do you believe the team will win?
BS: We’ve got experienced guys — George, Rogers, the track guys are quite good at this, Cav’ and Renshaw, Grabsch is TT world champ. I think we’re in the top five; we’ve screwed up if we don’t accomplish that. Astana is the top favorite for this. Anyone who is saying otherwise is fooling themselves. They have four guys in the top 10, they are all top pros. I think they’re the class act. Fabian (Cancellara) and Bjarne (Riis) are very confident. Astana, even money; Saxo Bank is 2-1; Garmin and us are 5-1, after that is Liquigas is 7-1.
VN: How important is the team time trial for bragging rights?
BS: It’s a big badge of pride. Every team wants to win. No team wants to be embarrassed. I think it’s interesting to see how Astana chooses to ride, if there’s going to be a division in the team. It seems like a crazy environment over there. Whether that affects their sporting environment is a big question.
VN: And it seems even more important for the bike manufacturers.
BS: I put our technical prowess against everybody, that’s a real strength — from our fabric on our jerseys to our wheels. We have five different wheel manufacturers to choose from, so we’ll make a last-minute decision based on the conditions to make the optimal selection. A number of teams do a good job of this. You’ve got a little technology war going on in the background. They all compete at some level on technical criteria, this is a chance to show that it is better.
VN: How important is it to have the team time trial back in the Tour?
BS: I think it’s a spectacular event. People love to see it. I think it’s made for television. It’s crazy not to have it from a pure marketing standpoint. It does upset competition, though, this is where the haves and have-nots get separated. That’s a little bit unfair, but in terms of spectacle and color, I really like it.
