Julien Taramarcaz resting his legs in a BMC Racing Team car in Richfield, Utah
[updated September 13, 2013]
August 6, 2013 marked a different kind of first for this 25 year-old cyclist who knows what it’s like to touch the highest podium step.
On that day Julien Taramarcaz competed in his first professional road race as a stagiaire with BMC Racing Team in stage 1 of the Tour of Utah. He came to help the team in a domestique support role and learn from the six day event.
The lessons and hard work began with stage 1 from Brian Head into Cedar City when the team decided to help chase down a two-man break-away so Greg Van Avermaet could contest the finish.
Taramarcaz found no time to cast his brown eyes over the hayfields and colorful rock formations.
“I just had to go on the front and pull like 100 k with my teammate,” he said two days later in Richfield, Utah. “It was a good day.” With the team fighting for a win – which Van Avermaet delivered, it was a day packed with opportunities to learn as a trainee on the road.
Where he began
Taramarcaz is a member of the BMC Mountainbike Racing Team. He’s also the current Swiss national cyclocross champion and has won that national title in the junior and U23 categories as well.
About the age of sixteen he began mountain biking and riding cyclocross during the winter. But it was the doyenne of road races that set in motion the dream of becoming a professional cyclist. “I think since I am maybe 15 or so I was on my sofa watching the Tour de France and I said, ‘One time I’d like to be there.’”
As a 16 to 17 year-old he claimed ten junior cyclocross victories, second place at junior cyclocross Worlds, and a Swiss road championship. Wins and podiums continued in both cycling disciplines into his U23 years, with cyclocross the focus. He signed his first professional cycling contract with the BMC Mountainbike Racing Team for the 2011 season.
Fitting in
In Utah the stagiaire worked to defend Van Avermaet’s best sprinter jersey. He finished the Utah race and went on to complete the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado where he helped Tejay van Garderen earn and keep the overall leader’s jersey.
BMC boys at Starbucks before racing the Salt Lake City circuit
He seemed at ease with his new skinny-tire teammates who have more experience on the pavement. When asked in Utah what it was like as a stagiaire in their midst, he said all of the guys were motivated, fun to be around, young, happy to be there, and doing their best. Just like him.
The young rider’s demeanor mirrored his biography on the mountain bike team website. It reads: “Young, ambitious and fearless are the words that describe Julien Taramarcaz precisely. He doesn‘t get intimidated or even impressed by the palmares he lines up next to. He is not afraid of throwing himself into the deep end.”
Taramarcaz believes road racing will bolster his continued ambitions in cyclocross, which include a world championship within the next two years. “…for that I have to ride maybe on the road a bit more,” he explained, “because I need more power and maybe also a big basis for all the winter long. And I think the best way to get this condition is on the road.”
Like cyclist, like farmer
Conditions for forming a successful pro-cyclist surrounded him from his earliest days.
Ever since he can remember, Taramarcaz helped his father outdoors on the family farm, tending apple, pear, and apricot trees as well as a vineyard. When he retires from the sport, he intends to grow fruit.
“It’s a very nice life,” he said, working with and learning from the earth that supports the trees that yield fruit. “And you have always to work to have some salary. It’s the same in cycling – if you don’t work you don’t have a result.”
The Swiss champ left the interview for this story to head to the Tour of Utah stage 3 start. Grasping his BMC road bike in a cyclocross carry, he hurtled a ditch on the side of the road, hopped on the bike cyclocross style, and pedaled over the grass to join the peloton, ready for another day’s work.
ttt
Julien Taramarcaz
- age: 25
- born: Fully, Switzerland
- results highlights: 2013/2012 – Swiss cyclocross champion. Prior years: former Swiss national U23 and junior cyclocross champion, junior Swiss national road champion, and 2nd U23 time trial championships
Julien Taramarcaz shows off his cyclocross skills
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This story is the first in the ProVéloPassion stagiaire series. See also the story about Fu Shiu Cheung.
[updated 9/6/2013]
Silvan Dillier, the 23 year-old Swiss rider on BMC Racing Team who won the Tour of Alberta’s Stage 2 yesterday, races for the World Tour team as one of its three stagiaires.
The French term stagiaire means trainee or intern. Starting August 1 and through the end of the year World Tour teams can bring on up to three stagiaires in addition to the current roster to assess their mettle in pro races. Elite or under 23, the athletes must meet certain criteria as described in the UCI rulebook, such as the type of team they raced for previously. They can only race on the UCI continental circuits. Pro-continental and continental teams may also engage trainees.
In addition to Dillier, Julien Taramarcaz and Jakub Novak have already participated in North American races with BMC Racing Team. Taramarcaz and Novak both competed in the Tour of Utah and Novak is also racing in the Tour of Alberta. Typically a stagiaire provides support, riding for a more senior teammate or team leader. That’s why Dillier was surprised to be in a position to win in Alberta.
A stagiaire’s initiation can suddenly involve a significant level of responsibility in his support role. Call it trial by fire.
Jakub Novak in Utah
In Utah Novak found himself approaching an intermediate sprint line on the final stage in a break-away group with Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE). As the only BMC rider in the break, it fell upon Novak’s shoulders to defend teammate Greg Van Avermaet’s best sprinter jersey against the powerful Australian who could gain the jersey with the day’s intermediate points.
It was a task even a seasoned rider would find challenging. Novak latched onto Matthews’ wheel but couldn’t get around the Orica rider when he launched his sprint 700 meters from the line. Those points gave Matthews the jersey.
In the coming days ProVéloPassion will feature mini-profiles on World Tour team stagiaires, starting with Taramarcaz.
Jakub Novak
- age: 22
- born: Pardubice, Czech Republic
- results highlights: 2013 – 4th overall, Cascade Cycling Classic. 2012 – Czech Republic U23 time trial champion. 2011- Czech Republic U23 road champion.
- teams: 2013 – BMC Development Team. 2012 – Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli.
Melissa Ross gets a personalized water break 29 miles into the Grand Junction Off-Road pro race
[updated 10/3/2013]
The inaugural Epic Rides Grand Junction Off-Road race, an event fashioned after the Whiskey Off-Road in Arizona, took place over Labor Day weekend and attracted nearly 300 mountain bikers to western Colorado trails just southeast of the Colorado National Monument.
On Friday and Saturday at least 222 amateurs tackled 15, 30, and 40 mile courses consisting of single-track and slick rock while Troy Wells (Clif Bar) and Chloe Woodruff (Crankbrothers) won the top prizes in the pro fat tire criterium.
A 70 degree Fahrenheit temperature on Grand Junction’s Main Street greeted the women and men starting the 40 mile pro course on Sunday morning. Scheduled riders included 24 women and 36 men. By the pre-noon finish time the temperature rose into the low 80’s downtown, but in the unshaded gray and rose-colored sandstone canyons where riders faced terrain that Amy Dombroski (Young Telenet Fidea) said required constant focus, temperatures ran higher.
Dombroski felt the heat starting with the first climb a few miles out of town. By the top of the seven mile climb past mid-way through the race, another rider’s first words were, “I am on fire.” Pua Mata (Sho-Air) and Ben Sonntag (Cannondale) won the women’s and men’s pro races. Dombroski placed fourth. Full results are posted on the Epic Rides website.
This first-time competition in an area locals have long known for great trails achieved success by more than the numbers. Fifth-place men’s finisher Chris Baddick (The Gear Movement) explained how: “This is what mountain biking should be,” he said.
The Grand Valley Trails Alliance, an organization that works to bring together all kinds of trail users, played an important role in the conception and launch of this event.
Gallery (in progress)
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- Men’s pro field 4 miles into the race on the Tabeguache Lunch Loops trail
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- Rotem Ishay from Utah led the men’s field up Tabeguache
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- Chris Baddick #32 on the Tabeguache trail
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- Sam Morrison #6 (left) started strong, walked his bike after a mechanical, and finished
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- Sepp Kuss #28 would come in second place
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- Fernando Riveros #35 would get five flats and be forced to abandon the race
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- Pua Mata #22 pulled away from the women’s field early and won
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- Chloe Woodruff #18 led the early chase after Mata
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- Jari Kirkland #20 led the second women’s group early on Tabeguache
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- Canyon scenery behind Ben Sonntag, men’s winner
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- Ben Sonntag near mile 29
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- Sepp Kuss on his way to the podium
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- Pua Mata, unstoppable in MTB endurance events
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- Kris Sneddon would pass Decker and Baddick to take third
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- Erin Huck finished second
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- Colin Cares would place ninth
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- Amy Dombroski near mile 29 of 40 miles at the 2013 Grand Juntion Off-Road
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- Carl Decker followed by Baddick at mile 29
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- Chris Baddick chasing Carl Decker
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- The Gear Movement’s Deidre York
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- Josh Whitney later said his expression was part grimace, part smile
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- Thanks to the lighting model
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- Christine Jeffrey
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- Rotem Ishay finished in the top ten
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- Amanda Carey on her way to fifth place
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- Troy Wells of Clif Bar
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- John Klish
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- Heidi Rentz always smiled for the camera
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- Jamie Busch traveled from California to race in Grand Junction
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- Jari Kirkland, sleeves rolled up, near Bangs Canyon lot
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- Pua Mata and her first place check
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- Amy Dombroski after the Grand Junction Off-Road event
Winner Tejay van Garderen thanks teammate Mathias Frank on the 2013 USA Pro Challenge podium in Denver, Colorado
From the time BMC Racing Team’s Tejay van Garderen eased into the leader’s jersey after the conclusion of Stage 4, the story of the 2013 USA Pro Challenge’s final days became the change in van Garderen that enabled him to win this race on his third attempt.
He was more relaxed. He had matured. Four Grand Tours had provided invaluable experience.
But something else aside from a change within helped him to finally take the yellow jersey home — his teammates, their hard work over seven days of racing, and quite simply their presence. In particular, that of Mathias Frank. During the post-race press conference van Garderen called him “one of my best friends.” Frank finished second overall which put him in close proximity for a big bear hug on the podium.
See the SBS Cycling Central website for my race wrap-up story which focuses on the aggressive Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Tom Danielson’s (Garmin-Sharp) wish for the 2014 edition of the Pro Challenge.
Tom Danielson razzed Porte for giving it a dig at the front on the finish into Aspen, Stage 1
This week my pieces about the 2013 USA Pro Challenge will appear on Australia’s SBS Cycling Central. I’ll cover Aussies, GC contenders, and other great stories.
Check out the preview piece, Multiple motivations inspire Colorado contenders, for comments from Garmin-Sharp’s Christian Vande Velde, Sky’s Richie Porte, and Saxo-Bank’s Michael Rogers.
Cheers!
Champagne battle between Danielson and Acevedo presages USA Pro Challenge fight?
The 2013 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah delivered dynamic and exciting racing with five riders wearing the yellow jersey during six days of racing.
Stage 6 saw a reward for Franciso Mancebo’s (5-Hour Energy p/b Kenda) aggressive riding with the win in Park City as the race concluded and Tom Danielson won the overall. It also showed Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) had finally recovered enough from the effects of his Stage 1 crash to put in an attack and finish second on the stage with a time that unseated UnitedHealthcare’s Lucas Euser from third place on the overall podium.
Gallery
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- Mexican champion Luis Lemus gets ready for Stage 6
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- Joe Lewis
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- Jason McCartney and Ben King chatting at Park City start
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- Pre-race visiting
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- Damian Howson’s Giro shoes
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- Julien Taramarcaz, stagiaire on BMC
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- Chris Horner arrives at Park City start
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- See you after the final stage
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- Casey Gibson shooting from moto during neutral laps
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- Wave bye bye to the riders
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- Francisco Mancebo wins Stage 6, Danielson celebrates up the road
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- Danielson across the line ahead of Horner wins Tour of Utah overall
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- Danielson’s roar
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- Lucas Euser wins sprint for fourth on Stage 6
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- Bissell’s Carter Jones finishes ninth on Stage 6
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- Jasper Stuyven finishes tenth on Stage 6
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- Michael Matthews showed he can climb
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- Kiel Reijnen was in the break again on Stage 6
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- Lachlan Morton learns Danielson won
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- Chris Horner got second overall
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- Janier Acevedo came in second on Stage 6 and third overall
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- Final 2013 jerseys: Michael Matthews, Michael Torckler, Tom Danielson, Francisco Mancebo, Lachlan Morton (l-r)
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- George Bennett got a reluctant champagne bottle
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- RadioShack-Leopard won best team, Ben King masters the spray
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- Chris Horner gets headstart on beer spray
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- Tom Danielson wins 2013 Tour of Utah
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- Tom Danielson’s autograph on yellow jerseys
Lachlan Morton and Tom Danielson celebrate after Danielson wins the 2013 Tour of Utah
[updated 8/12/2013]
Today in Park City Tom Danielson proved there’s still a chance for firsts for a 35 year-old pro-cyclist.
“I’ve never done something like I did today ever in my career,” the Garmin-Sharp rider said after clinching the overall in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah by smoking Chris Horner (RadioShack-Leopard) on the climb up Empire Pass before descending into the Park City finish.
Danielson has known he has the physical gifts to be a winner. But he’s had trouble feeling like one.
So he needed a shift in his head. It turned up as a result of this year’s disappointing Tour de France when, while he suffered on the roads of France, he asked himself why he makes cycling his career.
The answer came to him after he returned home to Boulder. “I’m doing it to try to win races. I don’t like to just be a guy in the peloton,” he said in Park City. “So I decided [Utah] would be a good race for me to try that.”
Danielson has won stage races before – Qinghai Lake in 2002, Langkawi in 2003, and Georgia in 2005. But the Utah victory stands in a league of its own with his mountaintop finish win and domination on today’s significant climb.
Exhilarated after the race, Danielson enjoyed what his Utah results meant for him: a payback for all the years of training in the cold and the wind, dealing with physical problems, and rebuilding form after crashes.
But in the end he dedicated his stage race win to the Garmin-Sharp team.
“It would have been really easy for me to just sit behind and try to hang on but I owed it to myself to try to be that person I want to be and just take the bull by the horns and do it…I dedicate the win to my teammates who have basically stuck with me the last years, tried to help me do that many times. I didn’t do it so I’m happy to finally do it.”
All he had to do today, aside from spinning his legs off on Empire, was believe.
“It was so cool for me to tell my team, ‘I want you to light it up at the bottom of the climb and then I’m going to ride away from everybody.’ And I did it. Holy shit, I just did it. I like that. I like that way better than getting dropped or riding in the grupetto.”
Lucas Euser, George Bennett, and Matthew Busche (r to l) arrive at Snowbird 5th, 4th, and 6th
Lucas Euser third overall
The uphill finish at Snowbird and 10,611 feet (3,234 meters) of elevation gain ferreted out the best climbers with energy to spare in the fifth day of the Tour of Utah.
The names included UnitedHealthcare’s Lucas Euser. The Boulder, Colorado resident finished fifth and preserved his third place overall, positioning him for a podium result when the tour concludes tomorrow.
Euser and teammate Phil Deignan kept pace as the number of lead chasers dwindled along the roads to Snowbird. When it comes to when and where to attack, those are questions Euser weighs carefully. “I’ve worked really hard to stay calm, and not get too crazy, and not go with moves I’m going to blow up from,” he said after the finish.
Four kilometers from the arrival line he jumped in an effort to bridge up to Horner and Danielson. He estimated he’d closed the gap to about 15 to 20 seconds.
With eventual stage winner Chris Horner’s RadioShack-Leopard mates Matthew Busche and George Bennett for company, closing the gap proved too difficult. Reflecting on the final kilometers, Euser thought the better choice would have been to stay with Deignan.
Euser counts lessons like blessings and it’s taking him closer to the podium at this year’s Tour of Utah.
“I’m making fewer and fewer mistakes now. You saw last year that making less mistakes got me top ten [in Utah] and making less mistakes now is keeping me in the top three.”
Last year Euser summited the steep Empire climb second. He’ll have another chance at it Sunday on the last day of the race.
Chris Horner wins Stage 5 at 2013 Tour of Utah, Tom Danielson 2nd
Tom Danielson finds his fire
On day one of the Tour of Utah at Brian Head resort Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) reflected on his “not very good Tour de France.” Injured early on, he said he subsequently rode a conservative race. Now in Utah he hoped to be “more in the mix.”
Four days later he got his wish in the Wasatch Mountains around Snowbird. It kind of snuck up on him.
Garmin-Sharp set a hard pace during Stage 5 to protect teammate and yellow jersey Lachlan Morton from attacks. Danielson continued that charge as the race reached Little Cottonwood Canyon. He chased down Tiago Machado of RadioShack-Leopard and continued to maintain a high pace, thinking he might discover Morton behind him.
But when he looked back a group of five guys chased without Morton among them. Danielson attacked and shook RadioShack-Leopard’s Bennett off his wheel.
“To be honest I’ve been trying to get into the mindset to be at the front. For me it’s been probably one of my weaknesses is racing for the win,” Danielson said. “I have not been very good at that the last few years…In the end again I was still racing for Lachlan until I found myself off the front and then I guess that kind of automatically forced me to be in that kind of race winning mentality.”
Then Horner bridged up to Danielson and stuck to him. The pair caught BMC’s Yannick Eijssen at about 3.5 kilometers to go. Eijssen had escaped off the front of the breakaway, motivated by his teammates’ confidence in his ability.
Long-time friends Danielson and Horner made their way to Snowbird in the lead. With Busche and Bennet behind, Horner sat on.
That left Danielson at the head of the race for the remaining three kilometers. Even towing Horner up to the line for the RadioShack rider’s almost sure win failed to dampen his high spirits.
“To be honest I just wanted to feel what it feels like to be at the front of the race. I haven’t done this in my career, really, just attacked and then dominated a mountain stage like I did today from the front.
“It was a lot of fun. I think Chris and I were also together last year but towards the back of the front guys so it was cool to be the first guys and be doing 390 watts at 9,000 feet as opposed to 280 watts at 9,000 feet like last year.”
Danielson moved into second overall. His efforts today signal a good USA Pro Challenge lies ahead of him in Colorado later this month.
Gallery
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- Tanner Flats BBQ in Little Cottonwood Canyon
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- Tanner Flats brings out the costumes
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- Soigneurs wait for riders at the finish
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- Tom Danielson’s pendant
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- Do Skratch and Bud mix?
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- BMCs Yannick Eijssen finishes third after a solo effort
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- Danielson and Horner after the finish line
Michael Matthews, bib 23, searching for teammates to thank, after winning in Salt Lake City
Sponsor Orica could have used the power from Michael Matthews’ emotion after winning yesterday in Salt Lake City to blast away tons of rock in one of its mines. In the run-out beyond the line after dismounting his bike the Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter stomped on the pavement as he unleashed a few choice words. He pummeled the air with a clenched fist.
Earning his second stage win for the team he joined this year seemed to set off a dynamite stick of elation and perhaps still more relief of the sort that bubbled over after winning Stage 2 two days earlier.
“It’s definitely been a long process this year,” Matthews said after Stage 2 in Utah. “I haven’t had a win yet. I’ve had lots of seconds…It was really a goal for me this year to come into this tour with good form.”
Matthews started Utah after a seven week break from racing. According to Director Matt Wilson, a couple of injury problems excluded Matthews from some races earlier this year.
The twenty-two year-old and former U23 road world champion Matthews joined Orica for 2013 as the sole new recruit. He came to a team packed with young sprint talent – Matthew Goss, Leigh Howard, Aidis Kruopis, Jens Keukeleire, and veterans Allan Davis and Baden Cooke. Cooke appears to have taken Matthews under his wing in Utah, looking out for him during the event and leading up to the big hill on the Salt Lake City circuit.
“I moved from Rabobank to GreenEDGE this year and it was difficult. I had to find my way in the new team,” Matthews stated after Stage 2. “Obviously we have a lot of sprinters on the team, so everyone wants their opportunities. I’ve been working a lot and had a few opportunities but didn’t quite pull them off; I was always second. So it’s really nice to get my first win for the team, especially when the team worked so well for me all…”
The two-time 2013 Utah stage winner had a lot to celebrate on Friday’s Stage 4. That included the hard work of his four teammates with the squad down two men after a tough day Thursday. Immediately after winning Matthews wove this way through the finish area littered with riders catching their breath to search out his teammates who one by one trickled across the finish line.
Gallery
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- BMC at Starbucks before the race
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- Cannondale bike carpets
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- Jasper Stuyven will get another axe after third in Stage 4
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- Joe Lewis takes a lot of guff for leaving his jersey open
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- Yes, Baden Cooke, Matthews is still there
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- Christian Vande Velde on the State Street hill in Salt Lake
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- Mancebo in the break
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- Damian Howson, Orica stagiaire, after Salt Lake City finish
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- Craig Lewis finally in a Jersey after 10 years racing in the U.S.
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- Michael Matthews, gladiator
Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp) wins Stage 3 Tour of Utah in Payson
Anyone who loves bike racing admires the guts and glory that go with a solo win.
Here’s to Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp) for his solo victory on Stage 3 into Payson all the way to the six guys who fought hard on the final climb up Mount Nebo, missed the time cut, and will not start Stage 4 in Salt Lake City.
Gallery
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- 5-Hour Energy p/b Kenda rides to Stage 3 start in Richfield
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- Orica-GreenEGDE street-side bike stand
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- Sean Weide, BMC Press Officer, is up early to cover his riders racing in Norway
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- Chris Baldwin of BISSELL checking for a straight saddle
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- Lachlan Morton and Rohan Dennis, two young Aussies on Garmin-Sharp
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- The national anthem plays before Stage 3 start
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- Jens Voigt fans are everywhere
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- Hats off to Garmin-Sharp’s Lachlan Morton
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- Janier Acevedo finished in the chase group
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- Morton wears the Stetson prize well
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- Lucas Euser practices his champagne spray technique with Sierra Nevada
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- Tour of Utah Stage 3 jersey holders
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- Chicks love Lachlan
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