Tourist
The fifth stage of the Tour de France is a 33 km long, flat single time trial. The former cycling professional Tony Martin, 40, was four times world champion in this discipline. In an interview with the sports show, Martin talks about why Remco Evenepoel is currently the best time driver in the world and why the fight against the clock is actually a fight against itself.
Sports show: Mr. Martin, can you explain in two sentences what the beautiful thing about a single time trial is?
Tony Martin: I don’t know if there are two sentences. But if I had to compress it, it is on the one hand of the speedwhich you can create through your own muscle strength without slipstream, without any help, with your will and of course with a perfect, aerodynamic bike. And the second scene is awareness after time trial, to the border and to have grown beyond itself.
Sports show: How do you start a time trial? You know that you now have this route ahead of you and it will hurt.
Tony Martin: So first of all it is PacingStrategy a very, very important factor. Of course, it depends on whether it is a relatively long, even route. Then of course I can try to hit an even level, which usually also means an even level of pain.
On the other hand, if you have an outskirting time trial with many gradients, many descents, you have to go to the planning much more detail. You have to look, where do I have to go beyond my continuous performance because I know that after one or two or three kilometers it goes back into the descent, where I can take a little breath and recover.
This is very, very complex. But in general you just have to be aware of the fact that this will be a very, very painful mental, sometimes physical experience, where you always get to the limit or beyond pushen must.
Strict process before the start
Sports show: How did you approach the time trials? Did you have a special preparation?
Martin: It was always very important for me that I could keep my strict process. That was such a little mantra of me. There were always the same processes: Breakfast in the morning, then look at the time trace again, then another breakfast or an early lunch. And then of course that Warm-upwhich has increased more or less in equal parts.
Then I always had exactly the same time when I moved after the warm-up, when I started, for the technical control of the bike. That was very, very strict for me. That always gave me a lot, because I knew that when I prepare for this scheme f, I was 100 percent optimally prepared at the start.
And then I always went to the race with a lot of anticipation. I have worried less that it might be painful now, but my mental attitude was always very positive, so I just wanted – said exaggerated – was really cool on the speed. Of course, I also had the awareness that in most time trials I started as a candidate for victory and I really wanted to win. This motivated me so much that in principle I didn’t forget the pain that occurred to me, but displaced.
Sports show: If you roll onto the start ramp at the Tour de France, that’s probably something different than in other races. What do you perceive up there?
Martin: You are of course in the tunnel, but nevertheless the atmosphere is so huge that you still notice it. Nevertheless, I tried to areolate myself a bit. You usually enter the ramp, while it is just in the way out before a start. You still have about a minute to position yourself on the starting edge. One announces by the speaker. And when thousands of fans applaud, screech, it is definitely an absolute goosebumps. That gave me this two or three extra percent motivation.
“Suddenly the Superman is no longer there”
Sports show: There is also no danger that you will then be overpacedbecause you are so punched out of the crowd?
Martin: Definitely. Then you are really so cool to deliver now and to perform now that you then accelerate the first two or three minutes and then have to look at your power meter. Maybe 100 watts are too much on it than you actually have planned. Then you have to take back because you think about the first kilometers that you are superman, today everything works. And after five or six or seven minutes the Superman is suddenly not there, then the reality comes into play again. Then you may have the lactate in the legs that you actually didn’t want to have at the time. In this respect, iron discipline is definitely in demand. It is really fatal to be carried by the motivation of the fans and then punch out the grains on the first meter.
Sports show: So you roll down from this start ramp and it starts. What do you do on the way, what does one do, what is going on in one?
“Important to find the racing rhythm”
Martin: At the first kilometers it is very important to find your own rhythm. As I said, it is a very exciting scenery at the beginning. You are motivated, you are on the starting ramp, which is a special situation. You may also be distracted. And then it is very, very important to find in this racing rhythm.
Then you try to get back to you, with yourself, to be in harmony with your body and then really get the pace strategy that you have planned. Then you feel the first kilometers – at least always with me – very, very good. You have the speed, you drive 50, sometimes 60 kilometers per hour and you may not be able to assess what the shape is because you still live a bit from the freshness of the day. But at the latest half of the race you will be realized, okay, I can drive this pace or maybe not because the legs just go. Or you realized that you have a really good day.
That is the physical. The other is of course the mental strength. You can have the best legs in the world. If you are not ready to really go to the limit in your head, then the good legs don’t use anything. The decisive factor is that you don’t have a driver in front of you or has behind you where you can normally orient yourself. That means you decide how quickly you drive, how much lactate you produce, how much pain you produce, how much pain wants to cope with that day.
This is this well -known bastard, which you just have to overcome where you have to fight yourself again and again, where you also have to stay very, very strongly focused. It also happens from time to time that you simply slip with your thoughts. And with the sliding of the thoughts, the power usually falls off.
Sports show: Long time trials have come out of fashion at the Tour de France, what do you think is that?
Martin: Of course, I found this development very, very bad at my time. Today as a fan I can understand it a bit. It is simply the case that you can generate enormous time intervals, especially when it comes to time trials, larger intervals than on the mountain. In this respect, I can definitely understand the tendency that you try to keep these intervals small with shorter time trials, but nevertheless want to preserve the tradition of time driving.
“Remco has an exceptionally good position”
Sports show: The best time driver in the world is at the moment Remco Evenepoelthe world champion and Olympic champion in this discipline. He is also the big favorite for the first time trial on the tour. What does the former world champion Tony Martin recognize in Evenepoel?
Martin: Of course, Remco has enormous mental strength. He stands as a world champion at the start of time driving and knows that I am the best in the world, the profile is tailored to me and today I can win, today I will win. I have repeatedly proven that in the past few months. If you start in the world championship jerseys, it simply gives wings, just like the yellow jersey, I experienced it myself.
Remco has also clearly advantageous to all other drivers. It has an exceptionally good position, which is an advantage, especially on flat courses. I would also say that the one very, very high power output has over an hour, probably higher than its competitors, even if that is difficult to assess in detail.
I think this combination of power and aerodynamics is clearly the basic requirement that it can perform so strongly in the time trial, especially in the flat. In the case of hillier time trials, however, the tendency could tip Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogacar.
Sports show: You spoke to Pogacar and Vingegaard. Both have already delivered excellent time trials at the Tour de France.
Martin: Yes, the strange is always that all the broadcasters can perform extremely well on time trials during the big tours. If Tadej Pogacar were at the start at the World Championships, I don’t know if he would ride at the very front. I had just looked at my last time trial at the World Cup (2021, editor’s note), he was quite a bit behind me. With the same time trial at the Tour de France, he would have been very likely to have been in front of me.
I think Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard, I simply manage to cope with the preload of the previous stages so well or maybe even build form there so that you can close the gap to the classic timers. While a classic time driver is rather tired, these boys are still relatively fresh at least in the first one or two weeks of the Tour de France and can therefore ride the victories accordingly.
Nevertheless, I already believe that the fifth stage on the tour is now tailored for this classic time trip type and that a relatively large distance from the classic timers could come about.