Dean forced to plot alternative route to London
JULIAN Dean believes it’s likely he has lost his race against time to ride in this year’s Tour de France.
New Zealand’s most experienced professional road cyclist has been recovering from a broken leg sustained in March on the Tour of Catalunya in Spain.
He had hoped to use the Tour de France, starting on June 30, as a buildup for the London Olympics, but it’s likely he will now ride in the smaller Tour of Slovenia and then the Tour of Poland instead.
Dean is confident this route can still get him to the Games in top shape, but he needs to persuade Bikenz of this because it has stated that riders who compete in the Tour de France will be looked at more favourably when it comes to selecting the two cyclists for the New Zealand team.
But Dean believes inexperienced riders may struggle in London because the tour finishes just five days before the men’s Olympic road race.
‘‘It’s a bit of a generalisation and it is risky, but they’ve got their criteria,’’ Dean said of Bikenz’s stance. ‘‘It’s difficult to pick a road team, it’s not time and distance-based performance like you have with rowing or on the track.
‘‘When you’ve got guys like myself, Greg Henderson and Hayden Roulston, we’re riders that typically work a lot for other riders in our team.
‘‘So it’s hard to consider who’s got the best form or condition for an Olympic road race. If you’re doing it on experience, I’m by far the most experienced, but I have hardly raced through the first part of the year, so there are doubts about my condition.
‘‘Hayden has done a Tour de France, but Greg and Jack Bauer haven’t and they don’t know how they’re going to be after three weeks of it. Everyone’s going to have their own strategy or approach, whether that includes the Tour de France or not. The tour would have been my preferential way to prepare for the Olympics, but it’s certainly not the only way.
‘‘We’ve seen a guy like Tom Boonen choose the Tour of Poland, [that] shows that there are other options.
‘‘For me, probably the most ideal way would have been to have rode the Tour de France.
‘‘But there will be a number of riders targeting the Olympics who will start the Tour de France that will only ride two weeks of it and there will be others who’ll ride all of the way through it and try to keep their form going for one week longer for the Olympics.
‘‘If you’re riding the Tour de France for the first time and then not having that experience of how you’ll be a week after to prepare for the Olympics, there is a big risk.
‘‘If I take the start in the Tour of Slovenia, I’ve programmed in two altitude slots before and after the Tour of Poland.
‘‘It’s another alternative way of preparing,’’ Dean said. ‘‘It does have its benefits, it’s much less risky than riding the tour.’’