ROBBIE McEWEN INTERVIEW
By Rupert Guinness - Sydney Morning Herald
(Made before he withdrew from the Eneco Tour)
 

Rupert Guinness: How are you now Robbie? Where are you with your rehabiltation now?

Robbie McEwen: I am having up and down days with my knees. Counting down the days so I can get one of the [two] screws out. The top one goes straight across from outside to inside and the bottom one is a bit diagonal from bottom to top. It holds part of the fractrure on the outside, but it sticks through the bone on the inside and sticks out by 9mm into the soft tiossue. It is sticking into where a lot of the muscles of the leg overlap or attach. Where things should be nice and smooth and sliding over each other, it's got this sharp end of a screw sticking into it which inhibits the working of the movement of the msucles. It's inhitbiting the whole leg, the whole work of the quads, but also giving me pain to the hamstrings and the back of the knee. That one has to come out. But I have to wait untilt he fracture is stable enough to remove the screw. I keep doing what I can and what my legs lets me do. If I over do it a a bit I have to take it a day easier.
 
RG: How were the four criteriums you did recently?

RMc: If it is flat it is okay. I can pedal all right and get away with only pushing with my left leg and not pulling up. But if I have to ride uphill and also pull up it starts to hurt. I can get away with it on the flat and turn a small gear over and basically take control with the right leg, but when I start climbing it starts to hurt. But I was happy to put a [race] number on, ride around in the bunch and be part of a race. That was the nice, but I realise I still have a long way to go. I am having a bit of trouble with tendonitis and with the patella tendon. It got a bit of a smash when I had the accident and the left patella tendon is four timess thicker than the right one.
 
RG: Are there days when it is sore but you still appreciate progress you have made?

RMc: I have made a huge amount of progress in the space of two and a half months [now three months] since the accident. Generally, someone who has an injury like this won't be back on the bike within four minths and I was back on the bike after two weeks on the home trainer and three weeks on the road. And after six or seven weeks I rode my first criterium. So recovery has been good and fast. Normally the screws should stay in there for six months minimum, but it looks like the fractrures are healing well enough to get it out of three. I am ahead of schedule, but when you get ahead of schedule you probably get more impatient. You want to have more sooner. If you want to make progress you have to push it. And if you don’t push it you are not going forwrad. I trying to improve and improve on the the msucle tone on the left leg and rebuild the quad. It's diffcult with the tendon and screw. It's difficult to do anyhting that makes  big difference. So I have to move along at a pace that my knee lets me.
 
RG: Is the rest of the season an open book for you now?

RMc: I haven't made or set any race related goal. I just want to race and finish off the season at a really good level of fitness and form. Give myself right to the end of the the seaosn to feel good on the bike. I'll have one screw out in a couple of weeks and the other I will have out mid October as the soon as the season finshses. My biggest goal reharding racing is the our Down Under in 2010. (Both screws were removed 25/8/09 by Dr Pierets in Blankenberge, Belgium)
 
RG: Will you race domestically in Australia before the Tour Down Under?

RMc: I won't commit myself yet, possibly. But my goal will be the Tour Down Under so I will make sure I train hard, even with the club races on the Gold Caost. I will get plenty of intensity, basically train my arse off through the summer to get back to where I was and how I started this season.
 
RG: You've made a number of comebacks in your caree, how does this one rate against others?

RMc: This has been the most dificult because this has been the most traumatic injury. The broken back [in 2004 Tour de France] was bad, but I could stil ride. I always said one thing you could not injure is your knee. That's the part that has to move the most and where you put the most pressure on in cycling. I have broken cople of bones in my back, my collar bone a couple of times and that sort of thing, but this is the first time I have had a fracture anywhere in my legs and that's really frustrating. It's the longest I have been sidelined by an injury, even with the crash in the 2007 Tour. That hurt my knee and I went out after 9 days, but after a week of rest I was able to ride again and it started getting better and I was away and had a good end of season. Now it's coiming up to three motnhs and I am realy struggling with it which is normal for the type of injury.
 
RG: Will you come to the Tour Down Under next year with added motivation then?

RMc: I think I will be extra motivated. Also at my age I know I haven't got that long left. I want to race for a couple of more years, but I am not in a position where I am 23 and have another 10, 12 or 14 years left. Like they say, I am in the twighlight. Obviously opportunities are limited to that couple of years and I want to make the most of them. Having missed so much this year - the Giro, Tour and whole seaosn - I wil be extra motivated.
 
RG: Had the injury been worse and ended your career, it would have been a horrible way to retire ...

RMc: It could have been. Had it been a couple of millimitres higher it could have been. I stil have to see how it gos because you never know how an injury could develop, or how the healing process will go. I hope I can be back to 100 per cent by the Tour Down Under because I think I am going to need that amount of time to really get back the base fitness I wil have lost. Most of all, as a sprinter, I have top get back that explosive power. Most of all I have lost a fair bit of muscle on my left leg. It's only 50 per cent, not sizewise, but powerwise it is 50 per cent of the right leg.
 
RG: Does your weight or exercise program have to be specific?

RMc: If I can get up to doing really proper weight training ... I am doing specific exercises that Victor Popov has given me. It's a tendon strengthening exercise, a type of one legged squat where you take the strain on the injured leg through the injured tendon on the way down, but use your good leg to assist to come up so you are only putting pressure on in one direction. The direction of loading is very important for the healing of the tendon. I am still using a high altitude machine, so I can add some inetsnity to my training. There are also other benfits on the metabloism and the healing process.
 
RG: In the criteriums you were second to Mark Cavendish at Aalst, eighth at Dicksmuide but first in the main group, then second in France to Thor Hushovd and in the derny criterium you were third behind Hushovd and Jurgen Van den Broecke ...

RMc: Aahh ... I take those [criteriums] with a pinch of sault. They are exbibition races.
 
RG: Would you learn more of those sprinters from racing against them in the Tour, or can you learn enough from watching a bike race on television?

RMcE: I would much rather learn from within the race, but by being forced to be on the sideline and watch you can learn a fair bit about your rivals.
I wouldn't say I followed the Tour closely. I wasn’t watching it live every day. I did see things that can be useful in the future.
 
RG: Want to elaborate on what they are?

RMc: "No, no ... Of course not; but that has always been a part of my tactics. You have got to be fast, have the teamates but it also helps to know what your rivals are likely to do. I have always been pretty analytical of my sprint rivals. It's all in my head. They would have to have a set of tweezers [to get it out]. They say know your enemy. That is what it is like on the bike, you have to know your opponent and know what their strengths and weaknesses are and try and take advantage of either if the situation lends itself to that.
 
RG: Thor Hushovd, Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar ... there is a strong crop of sprinters out there. Can you compare this wave to past waves ..

RMc: Every generation is different. It's hard to say there are specific generations. When I started there were Cipollini, Zabel, Steels, Svorada, Blijlevens. Then it was Steels, Zabel, then came Petacchi. Cipollini was still there, then he faded. Then it was Petacchi and a couple of others. Hushovd was coming up. Cookie was there for a year or two. Then it was Petacchi, myself, Hushovd. And now you [over the] have last two years Cavendish and now Tyler Farrar. He [Farrar] has won one or two races. I wouldnt call him a top sprinter yet. He has potential, but I see him more as a ... he is not a pure sprinter, put it that way. He will win some sprints. He may finish in the top three of the green jersey [competition in the Tour de France]. But he is not a top sprinter. He lacks the real top end speed, or real punch. As an all roudner and as a classics rider he can be very good. But he will win bunch sprints against good riders.
 
RG: Is there anyone that Farrar is like?

RMc: More like Hushovd, although Thor has won more bunch sprints. He is also only very young too. What I notice is with guys coming through like Cavendish and Farrar [is that] ... talent always come through, but guys at a young age are getting more chances in big races with more support from their teams. That comes from the more established riders and the team direction and management. That gives them these chances and how the team is built around them. That is probably different than when I turned pro, and in a foreign team you really had to establish yourself. And even then it was really difficult to get any help. They would be so many different agendas in a team.
 
RG: In your own early Tours, you were fourth or fifth and spoke of how hard it was to back up day after day in a sprint ... winning a Tour stage took several years ...

RMc: Yeah, because I rode every sprint on my own basically. It is pretty hard to lead yourself out and spirnt. It made it really hard. Guys then were a bit stronger, I wouldn’t say faster. They also had a lot more help. These days, had I come into a team now as a 23 year old with the same speed, I think I would have got a lot more out of myself early on my career in the big races because I think I would have had a lot more help. Teams these days don’t have that same sort of national emphasis [saying:'oh, it's a Dutch team. I want to ride for the Dutch guys.' Or that type of thing. Cycling has beecome a lot more interanational. It doesn’t matter where you come from ... it's the team that wants the result. That is the feeling I have about the evolutiuon of cycling in the last 15 years. It has become a lot less nationalsied. It is a more international sport. iIt is going towards what soccer is now.
 
RG: Is the Columbia team, under the discipline of Allan Peiper, an example of that?

RMc: That is what the best teams do ... get the best results and get the best out of their riders. They have that philosphy that it's all for the team. It's the team that wins and it doesn’t matter where someone is from. It takes also good management to get the best out of everybody because communicaiton is a part of it, and making sure that everyone’s job is valued and appreciated. I think it's that type of leadership that could have got a lot more out of me in the early years when you think that I didn't start ccyling until I was 18, turned pro at 23 and had soooo much to learn.

RG: What are your goals for next year? Do you have an eye on the world titles in Geelong?

RMc: That's one of my biggest goals for next year. I want to ridel at the Tour Down Under, go through to Milan San Remo and then again ride the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. And then the world championships. That are my big goals for the year. That's a once in a lifetime world champship on home soil on a course that suits me. I think the same is also true, not only for myself, but for Mark Renshaw, Allan Davis, Matt Goss, Stu O'Grady.
They we could have guys to work like Rogers, Hayman and Lancaster [for] an incredible sprint train. That's the type of course it is. Then you put in someone to mark the moves like Gerro [Simon Gerrans] who has a bit of speed at the finish in case one [break] stays away.
 
RG: So Australia could a very strong nine man team. A top result with that would help stamp Australia on the cycling map in Australia ...

RMc: We have done it before. We have had good world championships and good results. I got the silver medal in 2002.  I ran fifth in '06. That year Stuey was sixth - two guys inthe top six. It would be great advertisement for Australian cycling to have a powerful worlds in our own country and I think at least come away with a medal, if not win it.
 
RG: Your usual program of the Giro, Tour has worked well before ...

RMc: It has. That is why I was disappointed I didn't race them this year. I had a pretty heavy fall in mid-April and had a littie problem after that and they ruled me out of the Giro. But as it turned out, a couple of days after I was 100 per cent, but basically left out because a director making the decision was not completely informed about the situation. That's what led to me being in the Tour of Belgium and breaking my leg. It was a terrible set of circumstances. It works well for me to do the Giro, Tour de Suisse,  ride the Tour, have a little rest and build up to the world championships when it is a suitable course and in Geelong will be. This year Mendrisio is a course for Simon Gerrans, Matt Lloyd, Cadel Evans, Mick Rogers ... those type of guys.
 
RG: Looking back at the 2002 world championships in Zolder where you were second, do you think it was a race in which you had it in you to win?

RMc: I had a huge battle with Zabel to get the wheel of Cipollini who was the strongest and had the best team; but I think if I could have had a clear run, just had his wheel and not have to fight for it, I think it would have been a lot closer battle. I was probably the only one who had beaten him that season in a spirnt. I had beaten him in the Giro and I had the feeling and legs. But there is a lot more to sprinting than just doing the sprint ... alot of [it is] what goes on before. I used a hell of a lot of energy getting Zabel out of the way. And we ran second and third. Other than that, my biggest chance to win the worlds was at Sazlberg where I ran fifth. There were four away and I won the bunch sprint at four seconds. That was disappointing because a former teammate  from another country was in an ideal position to chase those four in the last kilometre and shut it down, but he chose not to. I asked him to but he chose not to ... He had a right to ride for his own country. [We were] in the same professional trade team He would have been very well financially rewarded ...
 
RG: What about Milan-San Remo? Alot of people believe that is a classic you could win.

RMc: It for always difficult and depends on the weather. I have this breathing problem early in the season and in Milan there is a fair bit of pollution.
This year I had really good condition, but with the weather conditions - smog and pollon - I couldn’t breath. It's no coincidence that when I got my best  result in Milan-San Remo was when I was fourth - and I had great legs and the legs to win - it was raining. It washes everything out of the air. That is the best I have felt in San Remo. I have to hope for the right clamatic conditions to be a good chance there.
 
RG: How do you see the restructuring of the international racing calendar?

RMc:  I still don’t understand. I wouldn't have a clue in which race I can score points for which competition. I tell you what: I would love it to go back to the the old fashion UCI points [system]. There is one set of rankings and that is it. The one of this histocial calendar [and the] Pro Tour calendar, bloody hell ... it's just bullshit really. Before you had UCI points and you had the World Cup competition. In the World Cup you had World Cup points for the World Cup comeptitition and also UCI points for the yearly ranking. I thought it was pretty good. You had the major classics, then you had the rest of the calandar. I thought it was a great calendar. [Nowadays] you have the Pro Tour which is meant to be the top flight. But where is the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta? Nobody really bothered about the rankings before, but it was easy to keep a track of. [It was] easy to have an overview of those who are the best riders. Now a lot of the best riders are at the top, but there are some guys who don’t feature in the top 10 who probably should.
 
RG: Do you think Mark Cavendish is beatable?

RMc: He is beatable. Everybody I beatable. He is a fantastic rider and he is really, really fast. But everybody is beatabe. I think one huge advantage he has had this year is that his his team has been really organised every single time. They are really well drilled. When you put him on the back of them going into a sprint totally relaxed - not wasting any energy and all the others basically trying to fight for his wheel or ride with one or two teammates against the eight of Columbia - that is a massive advantage. You have to first try and match the team work which is probably the hardest thing to do. After that, as far as speed goes, there aren't many that can match him for speed. I think there is probably only two - or possibly three - guys that can. I would say myself, Petacchi and ...
 
RG: How does the longevity of a career effect the top end speed in a sprinter?

RMc: The older you get the more you have to train it ... that explosiveness because it's that that gives you the top end. You can go fast, but the difference is between going 70 and 71km/h, that extra bit of turbo over a very short distance.
Another big advantage that Cavendish has is actual his positon on the bike. In sprints he is super aerodynamic. He sprints almost with his nose on the front wheel which, for him, is quite a natural position to assume while he is sprinting because he has got quite short arms, and a long body and short legs. He has the perfect body for sprinting in that position. Others can try and copy it, but you can’t comfortably get in that position and output the same power as you would in your normal or natural sprinting position. Not many have spoken about it, but when you think about it ... in the time trial how important it is to be aerodynamic on the aero bars. Think about going another 20km/h quicker and what a differencre it makes aerodynamically. With most guys you can see their chest and shoulders. When you see 'Cav' you see his back from head on. And that is a massive difference. That is something you can try to do, you can train it; but someone who naturally has that position and can get the maximum power has a big advantage.
 
RG: In the Tour's team time trial Cavendish rode very strongly too ...

RMc: That is something sprinters are naturally quite good at. Cipollini was was good at team time trials. I am not a good time triallist,  but I am not a bad team time triallust. I am totally comfortable in the team time trial. For sprinters, it is [about] going fast for a few hundred metres on the front, then back into the wheel and recovering. That is what sprinters are good at. Quite a lot of sprinters are good at team time trials. It is the same following the lead out in a train. You sprint, go 70km/h for a couple of hundred metres. In the team time trial you go maybe 58km/h for that couple of hundred of metres. For us to go 58km/h is a lot easier than 70km/h. All you are doing is sitting on the wheel, you do it and go back again. That's pretty basic for the physical make-up of a spirnter. It is something sprinters adapt well too.

Thanks to Rupert Guinness and Sysney Morning Herald

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