“I thought it might work out, so I was a little bit mad with the world in general”
Caught just 2.5 kilometres from the end of yesterday’s third stage of the USA Pro Challenge after being off the front for almost the entire stage, Jens Voigt has pledged to try again in his efforts to repeat his stage win of twelve months ago.
“Next month I’m going to be 42 – give me some rest here; I’m an old man,” he joked after the stage, when asked if he would give it another shot. However, his fans need not worry; he’s not taking his age seriously, and neither is he going to sit around in the bunch.
“Tomorrow [Thursday] is a hard day and probably when the GC will be decided, so I will just hang on, then the TT, so after that we will look at things and go again.”
Voigt went clear on the first climb of Swan mountain, which came very early in the stage. He was joined by Davide Villella (Cannondale), Tyler Wren and Matt Cooke of Jamis-Hagens Berman and Serghei Tvetcov of Jelly Belly p/b Kenda, and together they worked to open a gap.
“I had it in mind this morning that this would be a good stage for me,” he said, recognising the opportunity. “I told the boys in the team meeting what I had in mind and that I was up for it. From the profile I thought maybe the breakaway could survive. So I made sure I was in the break.”
Voigt was initially satisfied, but the chemistry of the move soon disintegrated. “We worked well together for quite a while,” he said. However that didn’t last. “I saw the group falling apart, everyone riding with different interests and tactics. I think the Cannondale rider got orders from his team car to stop pulling. So with only five riders in the break, if you lose one-fifth of your work force, that’s a big deal. I decided an attack would be the best defence.”
Before he went, he gave Villella another change. “I asked the Cannondale rider if he was going to work and he didn’t answer me, so I went,” he said. “The group came back to me and I asked him again with no answer so I went again. It was a long ways but I knew my best chance was to go alone. There was no reason for me to hold back.”
Voigt’s move happened with over 50 kilometres to go, leaving him with a big task on his hands. He gave it everything, but was finally reeled in inside the final three kilometres.
He admits that he wasn’t happy at all. “I was angry and disappointed to be caught. I thought it might work out today, so I was a little bit mad with the world in general,” he said. “But then I heard about the crash [behind] so I figured being in a crash was worse than being caught so oh, well.
“It didn’t work but I gave it a go. I realized at about five or six kilometres to go that the gap was coming down too fast. I was pretty sure I didn’t have enough time. I saw it coming.”
Still, it hasn’t deterred him from giving it another shot. “There is always the chance to win if you are out there. If I had just had a little bit more speed I could have made it, but they caught me with 2.5km to go and once I was back in the peloton it was so easy to ride along with the tailwind,” he said. “But if I survive tomorrow and then the TT, I will try again if I have something left.”