The first of many Q&A style interviews giving an insight into the riders on the GP team. We start with none other than Jono Hales...
What's currently in the stable? (bikes & equipment)
Like a lot of things you’ve mistaken, sorry Lance, it is about the fucking bike actually…
In a nutshell? More than anyone in their right mind should have tied up in machinery given ones ability but, as I’ve learnt quickly, there’s more to cycling than talent and hard work. There’s so much temptation in the form of carbon, titanium, various alloys and other precious materials to help ease the suffering and lets face it, it looks so good and like all things manmade, there is always something new to be had. When all is said and done, few things are more satisfying than a nice, very clean bike, is there?
The early seeds for this affliction were sewn when I was a teenager, Davis and Andrew would show off their latest piece of Italian alloy sculpture at their folks place in Karori. It all seemed so jewel like, looked better suited behind a glass cabinet than pedaled in anger on filthy Wellington roads.
Even then, I knew that Campag was spoken about with the same reverence as a religious sermon and marveled at the kit. I struggled however to grasp an endurance sport where one could use descents and gravity to recover, a trait I believed amounted to a form of softness..... now understood as a hard earned and welcome relief from the relative brutality of the thigh bursting practice of pushing a machine with you sitting upon it, uphill.
The current lineup couldn’t be more diverse and ranges from a pretty dated (by todays standards) Cervelo R3 with 10 speed Chorus and Eurus wheels. My first ‘proper’ race bike, it's probably still the most hardcore bike I’ve owned. Uncomfortably stiff, nervous on the descents, not exactly suited for training, but it’s the bike that won Paris-Roubaix twice and a lighter version was under Sastre when he took victory in the '08 TDF and hasn’t been updated, so it must be OK.
Next is the latest acquisition, a BMC SLRO1 with Super Record and Shamals. I doubt anyone hasn’t heard me blubber on about it, it’s the complete bike, so benign yet when it’s summoned, capable of about as much madness as I can will from anything two wheeled without a motor. Hincapie reckoned it made Arenberg forest almost bearable in 2010 so that says it all.
And the race bike remains the trusty Prince that struggles to outmatch the aforementioned Swiss watch but, with Super Record and Boras aboard, still provides a feeling of equipment confidence rolling up to the start of a race. Sure, its been surpassed by the Dogma, which Rick Armstrong has one in two cities and in other assorted colour schemes in case he gets bored with any of them, but it's still a bit special, in my eyes at least.
Favourite item of cycling equipment?
Aside from the usual suspects, the advent of 11 Speed etc., I can’t mount a bike without lashings of this stuff, Chafe-Ease smeared liberally around my nether regions. Preventative medicine for riding as fundamental as a helmet.
Can't live without....
Too numerous and too shallow to mention, but since you asked, in no apparent order; The Wine cellar, the Espresso machine, My Sky HD, Asko washing machine and good cooking knives.
Favourite training ride
Aka’s on good legs and a good day. Still an epic and puts the lead back in your pencil every time.
Favourite local race
Rice Mountain Classic – Wellington's best one day race and the most honest, there's nowhere to hide. Admirals is as hard as anything you can do running. Loved Rick's race in Christchurch late last year too, great to have some proper climbs to sort things out.
Favourite pro race
Just about any of the Ardennes classics, always madness to watch and pure entertainment. How those guys get up those cobbled bergs at that speed blows my mind. Way beyond mere mortals.
Favourite training partner
All the GP make for great training and racing companions, except Glenno of course.
Day job
It says ‘Group Account Director’ for an Advertising Agency on my business card. Forget anything you’ve seen on Mad Men, I ain't no Pete Campbell, and it sure ain't that much fun. Still, it funds this obsession I guess.
Favourite coffee
Good old trustworthy L'affare Primo in a long black, thanks.
Average number of coffees a day
I do my absolute best to avoid average coffee, but since you ask, 2 before I can function in the morning and one in the afternoon if work is gong pear shaped or for a pick me up.
Claim to fame
Beating Laurent Jalabert by 6 six minutes in the 2005 New York City Marathon. Take that Ja Ja!
Best race result
Too soon to say in cycling, maybe the nationals last year to make the bunch sprint in 14th and Rice Mountain late last year year where I beat some good people by my humble standards. Still waiting for the elusive perfect race where everything clicks, still so much to learn.
Running wise, a 2.37 in my first marathon, a 1.09 half and 31 minute 10K and making the top 1% in New York in '05 in what is believed to be the most competitive marathon field ever assembled.
Favourite recovery food/beverage
A raw steak washed down with a cold Peroni.
Where do you reside?
Remember what happened to Dave Zabriskie when he was at the Tour of California? I don’t fall for that old trick so easily. But then, I don’t have his superhero models, bikes or other ‘toys’.
Favourite PRO/s
Valverde, I don’t give a rats arse what he took, look at the way he climbs and sprints, pure class and he rides a Pinarello, free one at that. Basso, yeah, he got nabbed, should have called his dog after something else than give it the same name as his blood bag, but watching him beat Armstrong in a straight fight at the 04 tour uphill? Magic. He can also legitimately claim to have made the greatest post ban redemption, forget Millar or Vino, his Giro win last year in what is labeled one of the toughest and most competitive grand tours in ages was brilliant.
Favourite Cycling magazine/book
The death of Pantani by Matt Rendell, gripping account of a wasted life and all you could ever hope to know about EPO and other performance enhancing products. And while we’re on the subject, when is the GP going to get a pharmaceutical company logo on our kit? Who the hell is about to test any of us, except Slim maybe.
Cycle Sport and ProCycling – the former for never being afraid to speak their minds on the usual pro issues; drugs, team bosses, dopers and racing but they overdo the British thing and always proclaiming with massive over-confidence that…insert name here-Wiggins, Thomas, Stannard etc. etc. is the next big thing, let alone that Cavendish is the best cyclist of all time, when he is really a mouthy wanker. The broom wagon is always good for a laugh though and we met Ed Pickering in Annecy last year and he is a hell of a nice guy and writes well.
Favourite website
VeloNews is read everyday...
Inspired by...
Antosh, the man is a genius, I hang on his every word like a disciple and to watch him ride is to be in the presence of cycling perfection…
Best cycling memory
Easily the GP Europe trip in 09, the epic climbs and descending with Barney at 90kph one warm Saturday evening in the Rhone Valley after watching the stage at the foot of Ventoux; Alpe D’Huez, Glandon, Izoard, Ventoux itself, Como, watching the tour come through in Flumet and Annecy. Etched in my memory, hope we go again this year!
Other sports?
Oh yeah, I still run cross country and road racing in the winter season and remain competitive though the allure of wading through knee deep frigid streams in the middle of winter with a bunch of bearded old loonies is waning with each passing season. Beats the layoff in the off-season and keeps me motivated and the multi-sporting thing is good for the aging corpse. While I’m not exactly improving at running, my best races well behind me, I can only get better on the bike, especially with Tosh’s patient quiet wisdom guiding me forward.
Words to live by
Jizzlopper, just one more bike I promise, clean yourself up woman - don’t let the kids see you looking like that, look at all this piss, isn’t it nice to relax, what fucking rest day? Rest from what, sorry?
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