DZ is nuts…
As some might know Dave Zabriskie has his own line of chamois cream called DZ Nuts, well after yesterdays Paris-Tours I can truly say DZ is nuts, haha. If you saw pictures of the race you will have noticed Dave wearing his speed suit(super high tech skin suit), super aero Zipp 1080 wheels and if you look extra close you can see that he dropped his stem almost 2 inches. It all started some what jokingly that Dave was going to attack off the gun and go for the long haul in the break, though he didn’t initially make the move it was only a matter of time before he snuck off the front of the pack and make the junction to the break. When I say he snuck off the front I am really being quite literal, it was probably one of the slowest attacks in history and in his words “I have been trying to teach guys how to attack for years now”.
How the DZ attack works is you have to ride 1-2 kph faster than the pack until you have gotten a small and what seems an unthreatening gap, then you hit the afterburners. “They are like animals(the pack), any sort of violent movements and they go crazy”, referring to the most common form of attacked used by cyclists, the hard fast acceleration. Once he had snuck off the front he quickly bridged the 4 minute gap to the 4 riders ahead, including our own Lucas Euzer, leaving many riders wondering what had just happened and once the break hit 11 minutes many teams started panicking a bit knowing that if there was one rider who could stay out there until the end it was going to be Dave. With the break up the road and Garmin well represented we got down to the job of keeping our 2 team leaders, Steve and Tyler, well protected, making sure they had everything they need and never letting them hit the wind. This being the longest race I have ever finished everything was going well until with about 25 km to go, 2 riders near the front of the pack crashed on a narrow bridge, bringing everyone behind to a standstill as the front runners sped away.
That was really a bit of a bummer as with most of our guys getting caught up it meant Tyler was left to fend for himself over the last part of the course, none the less winning the field sprint for 5th. A good result yes but had we made it past the crash we should have been able to help chase the 4 riders that slipped away for win and ultimately we could have won the whole race. Now 2 days here in Girona before heading to Italy for Giro Piemonte and Lombardy, then HOME.
This was one of the best blog posts I have ever read. Thank you! Even though I sometimes miss DZ’s humor, this story had me laughing out loud. Great stuff!