New Zealand's Glen Chadwick may be a long way from home racing with his Navigators Insurance Professional Continental team, but that's not stopping him from stamping his mark on the North American racing scene. Cyclingnews' North American Editor Mark Zalewski spoke with the 30 year-old after his stage win in Vallée-Jonction, Québec.
It would not be surprising to think that Navigators Insurance's Glen Chadwick lost a bet or ran over director sportif Ed Beamon's dog at some point - at least by the way he races his bike. Seemingly every stage race Chadwick is entered in results in the Kiwi (with a hint of Aussie) setting out in every other breakaway, and often ending up solo on the front. Most of the time the gamble does not pan out, but not for a lack of trying and usually with the finish line in sight. However, today in Vallée-Jonction Chadwick cashed in those times where the line was too far away with a well-earned solo win from a long breakaway.
"Luck is starting to go my way maybe?" Chadwick said in response today's win, as well as another recent solo win in Mt. Hood. "I did a lot of work for Phil that day to get that break back. I eventually got across to it but it came back together. Then I just found the right moment when everyone is gasping for air. That is the time to go."
Chadwick has become quite a reader of faces, and an opportunist when those faces show the strain of a long day in the saddle. Of course, not long after pouncing, his face too shows the strain. "I got a really good gap but then I saw the 25km to go sign and thought, oh f***!" he said about the second stage of the Tour de Beauce. "But sometimes you think it's worse back in the bunch, especially with the roads here!"
While Chadwick's racing ways did not earn him a stage win at the Tour de Georgia in April, it did win him the week's most aggressive rider award.
"That second stage in Georgia I was just kicking myself," he said. "But you follow a move and I'm not one to sit up and go back to the bunch. But it went and then I ran out of guys and had to go alone. Once you go on your own you set yourself goals. If I just get that KOM..."
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
In his Beauce stage win, Chadwick again looked at the faces of his break companions to choose his time for attack. "I was surprised I got away on my own but guys hesitated," he explained. "Francois [Parisien] just before the KOM said to me, you guys want to sprint today? I didn't lie because Kobz [Kobzarenko] wanted to sprint. But once I said that I attacked. He probably dropped his jaw confused. But I had to get something out of today. I had attacked previously on a climb and then I saw everyone put their heads down. I always look for that."
Chadwick had hoped that this week might be an opportunity for him to add to his racing palmares, in addition to being a breakaway specialist. But the way the first stage went, and the fact that his team brought all of its big guns, means that he is in a supporting role the rest of the week. But this is something that he also excels at.
"I'll look for opportunities again," he warned. "I'll not try to instigate anything because we still got the two guys yesterday. We'll just take turns going with moves."
And even when he is supporting his teammates in the general classification, he often finds himself moving up the classification - though like his solo breakaways that fall a few kilometres too short, his GC results have been with the podium steps just in sight. "I finished fourth in Cascade, Toona and Mt. Hood - I never seem to scramble onto the podium," he said. "I help the guys ahead of me and end up high on GC."
But first thing on the list is dealing with Thursday's mountaintop finish at Mont-Megantic in southern Québec - a stage he and Kobzarenko broke away on last year, riding up the final climb in support of Kobzarenko and helping teammate Sergey Lagutin get the stage win. "It was all to get Kobz back in the yellow jersey," recalled Chadwick.
