Going full-time in the Far East

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Paul Griffin wins(Image credit: Giant Asia)

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Racing in Asia is not the same as competing on the ultra-competitive European circuit but, as Griffin states, the standard is pretty respectable all the same. "I think there is a misconception out there that the standard over here isn't very high," he told Cyclingnews this month. "I think it is as high as the equivalent level in Europe, though... any of the 2.2 races we do in Asia are as hard as those over there."

Following a spell with the French ACBB club in 1997, Griffin competed for many years as part of the Irish national team, working full-time but still managing to put in some decent rides. These included a stage win in the FBD Milk Rás [now the 2.1 ranked FBD Insurance Rás] in Ireland, plus mountains classification wins in races such as the Tour de Hokkaido and the Tour of Hellas in Greece. Then, out of the blue came the chance to join fellow Irishman David McCann on the Giant Asia team for 2005; for the recently-married Griffin, it was a big move, a leap in the dark, but an adventure all the same.

Of course, 2005 was a year of big change in cycling. The ProTour came into being and the restructuring of the calendar saw distinct Continental Calendars being set up. One of the aims of the latter is to effect an improvement in the global standard of the sport, encouraging the growth of cycling outside Europe. And this is what appears to be happening; an expanding race programme in Asia has attracted riders from Australia and the Netherlands to the region, while the quality of the riders from there has also improved.

For his own part, Griffin has settled in well. He had already shown a good ability while working full-time and now that he had the chance to really apply himself, the results started to flow. He opened his season with a good sixth-place finish in the Tour of Siam, then followed that up with strong results in other 2.2 ranked events. He won stage five and placed eighth overall in the Azerbaïjan Tour, then took a stage and finished second overall in both the Tour of East Java and the Tour of Indonesia.

Griffin also put a lot of effort into supporting Giant Asia riders in other races, riding for team-mates such as Ghader Mizbani, Hossein Askari and David McCann. He helped the latter to overall victory in the Tour of Milad du Nour in Iran earlier this month, but also went painfully close to winning a stage himself there. However he was sent the wrong way with about 200 metres to go, losing out on certain victory. Since then he's spent time in Ireland training hard in preparation for his end-of-season goals. That work seems to have paid off; a couple of days after talking to Cyclingnews, he won the Giant Cup which was stage one of the Tour of Hualien. Griffin then placed sixth on the second day and took the overall. He is now gearing up for a good ride in the Tour of Taiwan, which began last Saturday.

Paul Griffin: I suppose one of the main differences is the heat. It is obviously very warm and humid over here so that is a big issue. Also the terrain is very different - you have a lot of big, high mountains, unlike a lot of the equivalent 2.2 stage races in Europe. They tend not to have such big mountain stages. But in Asia you are going up big climbs 50 kilometres long in 39 x 23; the terrain in more like something you would see in a Grand Tour. Okay, the standard is a bit lower in these races [than in the big Tours] but they are not afraid to use the terrain that they have.

PG: Well, I did an awful lot of racing in Asia before 2005 while racing with the Irish national team. I think there is a misconception out there in Europe that the standard over here isn't very high. I think it is as high as the equivalent level in Europe, though... any of the 2.2 races we do in Asia are as hard as those over there. Quite a big percentage of the Asians are good now, and obviously the Japanese are of a high standard. You get a lot of Australians too, guys like David McKenzie are doing a good bit of their racing over here. McKenzie is a former Tour of Italy stage winner, so he's pretty good. And then there are the Dutch... a lot of those guys on teams like Marco Polo get invited to races here.

PG: I had the jersey since the first stage and held onto it the following day. The third stage was the long one, with nearly six hours' racing. We decided that day that the best way to defend yellow within the team was for my team-mate Hossein Askari to attack. He was second overall going into the stage. At that point there was only three of us left as two of my team-mates were out of the race. So we decided the best thing would be for him to go for it and to make the other teams chase. But he stayed clear and ended up taking the jersey that day.

PG: Yes. That particular day, I think that David was fourth overall going into the stage. We happened to get into a break of about eight riders about halfway through the stage, and the two of us just drilled it. I had no thoughts of winning the stage, I just drove it and drove it and drove it as he was going into the jersey on the road. In the last kilometre, a guy who was sitting on the break attacked. I was on the front and I went to shut him down. David let my wheel go, and I went straight across to the guy, caught him, and jumped him. I thought, "wow, I am going to win this" - it was in the last kilometre. I dropped him and with 500 metres to go, I looked back... there was a big gap and I had the stage won.

But it didn't work out. I was following the lead motorbike and there was a left hand turn with about 200 metres to go. The motorbike didn't take it, the driver went straight on and I followed it. The lead motorbike was in the wrong, though... it should have gone all the way to the finish. He thought he was going the right way, but didn't. By the time that I turned around the three guys who were behind had gone through and fought it out for the stage win between them. I was fourth.

PG: I wasn't too bad, to be honest, because David was going into yellow and it hadn't even crossed my mind about winning the stage until the inside the last kilometre. It is just worked out that way. I suppose the adrenaline was flowing as well, because we had just drilled it and drilled it all day to try and get the jersey. We knew we took the lead that day there was a good chance that the team could defend it for whatever time was left, three days or something. So the fact that he took the jersey took the sting off it.

PG: Yes, it has worked out better than I thought. Especially recently, in the second half of the year. In the first half of the year I was doing an awful lot of riding on the front, such as in the Tour of Korea, which David won, and the Tour of Kerman in Iran. One of the Iranians on the team won that. I was just riding on the front all day in those races and didn't get much opportunity to do anything else. But since the Tour of East Java I have come on a couple of percent, getting stronger, and in the last two or three months I have been winning a lot of races and finishing well up overall in some others.

PG: Well, whichever one of us on the team is strongest in the Tour of Taiwan will be protected. I've been working hard to get ready for that - I went back to Ireland after the Milad du Nour race, doing some specific training on the Connor Pass in Kerry. I did hills, hills, hills - regular intervals on the mountain at high cadence. There are two mountain-top finishes in Taiwan which are pretty incredible. They go up to 4,000 metres above sea level and are 40 or 50 kilometres long. On paper, that kind of climb suits me well if I can reach 100 percent form.

PG: Yes, it has been good season. And it is great to be still improving at this stage of my life. This is the first year in a long, long time for me to ride the bike for the whole year. The last time I did it was 1997 when I went to ACBB. I have been working ever since, racing at home in Ireland and getting time off work here and there to go away on national teams. For the first five or six months of this year I was pretty much at the same level that I had been every other year, but I found that once June or July came along I started to get an awful lot stronger. That was possibly related to all the stage races I was doing, obviously, and the fact that every time I came back from abroad I wasn't heading straight back into work. I was getting stronger and stronger.

PG: Yes, I am hoping that nothing clashes with it. This year was a bit of a disaster in that we had a race in Iran that was on at the same time. I suppose I will just have to wait and see when the Asian calendar comes out... that should be available in the next month or two. If there is nothing on around that time, I would certainly be thinking 100 percent about the Rás for the first few months of the year.

I have won stages and had two podium places in races this year that were every bit as difficult as the Rás. The only thing I can say about the Rás that doesn't suit me is that there isn't enough mountains in it. In Asia we have climbs 12 to 15 kilometres long, where you would be using a 39 x 23 or something like that, which really does suit me. You are climbing for nearly an hour at a time. It would be great if the Rás had those climbs but unfortunately there isn't anything like that in Ireland. I'll be certainly trying to win it, though... that is for sure.

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