Off the Beaten Road: Timmy Duggan of Liquigas-Cannondale

Timmy Duggan, Dominik Nerz, friend of Ted King, in Lucca (l to r, photo by Ted King)

[updated 5/28/2012. Timmy is the new U.S. road champion for 2012.]

Timmy Duggan is brave.

He recovered from a traumatic brain injury and returned to professional cycling. After just one year on the Liquigas-Cannondale Pro Cycling Team, he completed a video in Italian during the team’s first 2012 season camp in Passo San Pellegrino. He’s building a house in Nederland, Colorado, a town that’s best known for its Frozen Dead Guy Days’ coffin races. Mama mia.

And as if that’s not enough, he agreed to beta test the first set of Off the Beaten Road questions. The purpose of Off the Beaten Road is to provide original interview content that offers insights into athletes’ personalities. All of Timmy’s replies are via email.

Timmy’s first race of the 2012 season will be the Tour de San Luis in Argentina in January. He should know more about the rest of his 2012 racing program during Liquigas-Cannondale’s second camp, which is underway in Sardinia. Be sure to check Timmy’s journal and tweets for more about the team’s camps.

Before digging into the test questions, Timmy described a typical day at the team’s training camp: “Wake up, breakfast, yoga, suit up and go on a ride, usually in a couple smaller groups. Return, lunch, nap. Then I go to lift weights in the gym. Get some computer work/emails done. Dinner. Bed. Also camp is the time to get equipment issues ironed out before the race season gets underway.”

Q: Do you all do yoga at training camp? What’s your favorite pose?

“I just do my own yoga at camp. My Italian team doing a group yoga class would be comical. We can barely do basic stretching all together ha ha. Fav pose…I’m working on my head stand right now.”

Dolomites, near Passo San Pellegrino (photo by Timmy Duggan)

Q: What is one of your passions outside of biking and why do you love it?

“Passions…my wife/dog/family, the mountains, skiing, going fast. Food and wine. I love how food and wine is a window into the culture of every little region or town. We have a cattle dog/black lab mix named Karli we got from the humane society. She’s awesome.”

Q: Do you have a business on the side and what is it?

“No business on the side other than the Just Go Harder Foundation.”

Q: When you think about life after you retire from pro-cycling, what does it look like?

“Life after cycling…I want to stay involved in sport, but not necessarily cycling. Sport politics…governing bodies, Olympic committee, anti doping. I think I will be back into alpine ski race coaching in some manner.”

Q: As a climber specialist, what do you think about in the start house before an individual time trial or prologue?

“I’m not only a climber, but a pretty good time trialist as well. Since my brain injury in 2008 I haven’t time trialed as well as I used to. But I love being in the start gate. It’s really familiar to me from ski racing. A really intense moment when it has to all come together in 3,2,1 go! I like the mental aspect of that moment because your mind could be in so many places and it’s really satisfying to be in the place you need/want to be in.”

2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge Denver, Timmy Duggan won Most Aggressive Rider for stage 6 (photo by Mary Topping)

Q: What’s one thing you don’t like about wearing lycra so often?

“I’m pretty used to it…any sport I’ve done since I was about 8 has involved lycra. I’m probably in lycra or my pajamas and sleeping more time than I’m in proper street clothes!”

Q: The night before my first pro bike race I ___ (fill in the blank with first thought).

“The night before my first pro bike race…I don’t remember. That was probably Redlands or something. So we were in someone’s house probably getting a home cooked meal. That’s not too bad a start. The dining only went downhill as the competition level went up!”

Q: What is your favorite electronic toy and what do you use it for?

“My favorite electronic is my Blackberry. I can get so much done all over the world at any time with it. And most importantly communicate instantly, easily, and cheaply with my wife back home.”

Q: What’s the funniest / weirdest thing you’ve ever seen happen during a race?

“At the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, we were like 5 km into the race and on the side of the road is a motorcycle cop, off his bike, waving his nightstick at this giant cobra that was all reared up and hissing to get it off the road and away from the race.”

Timmy Duggan cooking in Lucca (photo by Ted King)

Q: What is your favorite, I’m out of the training table mode, guilty pleasure food?

“My favorite guilty food is ice cream from Glacier Ice Cream in Boulder.”

Q: Do you have a good luck charm that you wear / carry to races? If yes, what is it?

“I carry a picture of my wife and dog in my jersey pocket in the race.”

Q: As a teen, what celebrity did you have a crush on and why?

“I didn’t really care much for celebrities I guess.”

Q: What’s the happiest moment you’ve ever experienced on or off the bike?

“The happiest moments on the bike are when the whole team comes together to pull off a big win. Everybody does their job and it works because of the team effort. Those are definitely the most satisfying days.”

Q: Is there a bike you don’t race and really like to ride?

“I really like racing on my Cannondale EVO Supersix. If I wasn’t racing, that’s the bike I would ride anyways.”

Timmy Duggan (photo via JustGoHarder Foundation Timmy Duggan)

Q: What piece of clothing have you owned for the longest time that you still wear?

“I still wear a pair of Adidas warm-up pants with the three stripes that I wore when I was like 13. I haven’t grown much I guess.”

Q: What is the slowest, longest ride you’ve ever done and who did you suck it up and ride slow for?

“Slowest longest ride ever was the Triple Bypass Charity ride in CO. I was riding with some team sponsors. Luckily they eventually quit early and I rode on. I was on the bike for 9 hours.”

Q: What’s your favorite place to be a tourist?

“My fav place to be a tourist is some random little town in the middle of nowhere off the beaten path when on a road trip with my wife. You find the coolest things and people and things to do where you never expect it.”

Teams

• Liquigas-Cannondale Pro-Cycling Team 2011 to present
• Slipstream Sports program beginning 2005 as Team TIAA-CREF through 2010 as Team Garmin-Transitions

Career Highlights

• USPRO Road Champion — 2012
• Multiple time member USA World Championship Team
• USPRO Time Trial / U-23 Championship Podiums – 2008, 2007, 2004
• 2011 – 7^th overall, Tour of Utah; Most Aggressive Rider Stage 6, USA Pro Cycling Challenge
• 2009 – 2^nd, Stage 8 Dauphiné Libéré
• 2008 – 1^st , Stage 4 TTT Tour de Georgia; 2^nd overall KOM Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana
• 2007 — Colorado State Road Race Champion; 2^nd overall, Tour of Elk Grove
• 2006 – 5^th, overall Volta Ciclista a Lleida
• 2005 – 1^st, Stage 1 Tour of Puerto Rico
• 2004 – 3^rd, U.S. U-23 National Road Race Championship