I close my book and drift into a day dream. I must've read it ten times before so I know the part that's coming up; how Adam Hansen would win the team's very first race. Yet a lot questions still remain. Most questions start with a 'how'. Was Sir Robert Westwood truly a genius, or did he get lucky more than once? From the very start, it was obvious that he wanted to bring cycling into a new era. His way of managing the team and opening a race was ground breaking yet as old as the street stones themselves. In the wake of The Cannibal, Sir Robert Westwood reinvented cycling with its historic attacks, spectacular battles and its absolute beauty.
My aunt lived in Australia, so it was purely by accident I happened to be at the very first race of Bunzl - Centrica Racing Team. Not a lot of people remember that day and it barely gets a mention in Sir Robert Westwood's memoirs, but the Australian Road Race Championship 2014 remains one of the most impressive races I've seen to this date. I was placed on mount buninyong, just 200 meters away from where Adam Hansen launched his mid-race attack. After a 84 km solo, Adam Hansen had beaten the chasing pack by 4 minutes, paving the way for more of these kinds of efforts from the new British cycling team.
As I walk to my kitchen door, I suddenly remember my scrapbook. It must be laying around here somewhere. After checking several drawers, I remember leaving it in the car, after taking it with me to London for the funeral.
I clutch the book between my arms, but tripping over my door mat, it falls open on one of the last the pages. I suddenly find myself staring into the eyes of Emma Westwood. Her picture takes up half the article that I pasted in. The article itself is insignificant. It was printed days after the death of Sir Robert Westwood and deals with the relationship between Sir Robert and his only daughter, Emma. But it was the picture that grabbed my attention. It shows Sir Robert Westwood, sitting in front of his house, next to a swingset. He's got a faint smile on his face, but his eyes glare into the distance. His daughter sits on his lap and he's clutching her closely. A picture nearly twenty years old, this shows who Sir Robert Westwood truly was.
I pick up the book and bring it back inside, where I put it on the coffee table. After remembering why I was looking for it again, I open the scrapbook on the very first page. 40 years ago, I pasted the very first picture in. Here it is, what a memory. Bunzl - Centrica Racing Team's first race and first victory. Adam Hansen, after his amazing solo effort.
It's a memory to hold onto, but it was only the beginning of the reign of Bunzl - Centrica and - more importantly - Sir Robert Westwood...
Edited by Ian Butler on 15-07-2014 17:26
The Schleck Fan - Now he has a whole year to continue this in a nice jersey!
Thanks for reading & commenting, guys
What I forgot to mention, I think, is that I don't plan to report every single race here. That's why I also opted for this concept (memoirs etc). I'll mostly report on the biggest races, the great victories, the terrible losses and other important stuff. When I race a mediocre race, it's only natural that Westwood wouldn't include that in his memoirs, right
So I'll be going slower than you're used of me (playing more PCM than reporting), but I think that's not a problem!
Everyone was ready for the first World Tour race of the team. It was hard to say who was the most excited: the riders, the staff or myself. The fact was that we had a good squad ready at the start of the first stage in Australia.
Looking back on my career as a team leader, I have very few regrets. I did the best I could and I can look back a very happy man. However, my first months as a team leader did not go quite as smooth as I had hoped for. I was inexperienced, I admit, and the choices I made early in my career were not the best overall. I tried to send a diverse squad to Australia - in which I succeeded - but we didn't manage to get into the picture at all. It was a rough first race and it opened my eyes: I still had a lot to learn.
But it was not all bad. A week after his National Road Race Title, Adam Hansen raced a great Tour Down Under overall and finished 18th overall, while Japanese champion Yukiya Arashiro went into two breakaways and sprinted to a top 10 place in the first stage.
Returning home from Australia, I got to work even harder. If my dream was managing a cycling team, it was very much time to start sleeping deeper. Step 1 was completed: we had a team filled with talent. Step 2 was to put this talent into practise and start winning on the road.
The wheels were set in motion. Now it was time for me to grab the handlebars and steer the team into success!
wow, I like it, great story again so far. I really like the style and the team looks promising as well, nice to see remy return
hopefully it lasts long!
We weren't off to the best start with our team. The first races were tough and we were barely getting any results. But there was something in the air, I felt it. At the end of February, we finished a terrible month with the real start of our team. Our talent came to the surface and reared its beautifully ugly head!
He forced the pace up the big climb and made way for his team mate, Gonzalo, to win the race, still finishing fourth himself. I was there that day and I realized this was a turning point for our team. Our morale changed, we were suddenly a winning team!
The next success came in the Strade Bianchi, where I was at the wheel of the team car. I had one order and one order only: make war! And so we did...
His early uprise climaxed in Tirreno - Adriatico, where he climbed with the best of the world, riding around aggressively. 21 years old and he was already building himself a big name, along with our team. He finished 4th in that Tirreno - Adriatico, as best Young Rider and with a stage victory, after a final steep climb, of course. Not since Peter Sagan had the world seen such a young talent.
But it wasn't just Jean that was doing great. Bradley returned to Paris - Nice and came out on top on the overall classification. Without a time trial, this was a true achievement for him. It was one of his last stage race victories.
Reading the Memoirs of Sir Robert Westwood, I get to the famous chapter of Paris - Roubaix of 2014. He describes his first Paris - Roubaix very detailed and with such passion, it's inspiring. He talks about Julien Duvivier - how he was in the front group and - only aged 22 - surely would've taken a podium spot with his famous finishing sprint. But he punctered, twice in 8 kilometers. It was the hard reality of Roubaix. With Wiggins finishing 6th, however, Sir Robert Westwood still talks about that day with a sort of delirium. He knew he had two strong cobbles for the next season, now, with the revelation of young Duvivier.
I get another drink from the kitchen. I know what chapter is coming up now... Giro d'Italia 2014. Bunzl's first Grand Tour. Sir Robert's big weakness would soon be revealed. Looking back on it, it must've been a real drawback for someone like Sir Robert, who had a certain vision and thought his way was the only right way.
Warren Barguil had begun to move up impressively after a mediocre opening Team Time Trial. When he hit place 7, the individual time trial put the entire team - and its directeur sportif in particular - down. At that time, the papers were full of it. Only now we look past this and see Sir Robert Westwood for the genius he was, but back then, his lack of interest in time trialing was unique. Despite building a team with riders like Durbridge and Downsett, Bunzl was barely interested for a time trial. Sir Robert Westwood expected his stage racers to perform in the mountains. "That's where the war is won," goes the famous quote.
It didn't help him in that first Giro, though, where Warren Barguil bumped from place 7 to place 21 in one simple time trial. It took him the rest of the Giro to move into the 15th position overall in the end. The damage was done. Now it was up to Sir Robert Westwood to prepare the team for the Tour de France. He would end up taking some controversial choices, but without those choices, cycling history would've been completely different.
Also worth noticing is Adam Yates' Grand Tour debut exactly two years before he would win the biggest triumph of his career, the very Giro d'Italia of 2016.
Giro d'Italia 2014 - Overall Classification
1
Nairo Quintana
Movistar Team
86h15'12
2
Rigoberto Uran
Omega Pharma-Quick-Step
+ 3'17
3
Richie Porte
Team Sky
+ 4'27
4
Rafal Majka
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 5'25
5
Domenico Pozzovivo
Ag2r La Mondiale
+ 5'34
6
Wilco Kelderman
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
+ 7'20
7
Bauke Mollema
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
+ 7'21
8
Fabio Aru
Astana Pro Team
+ 8'06
9
Tanel Kangert
Astana Pro Team
+ 9'05
10
Beñat Intxausti
Movistar Team
+ 11'54
11
Ivan Basso
Cannondale
+ 12'05
12
Joaquin Rodriguez
Team Katusha
+ 12'24
13
Daniel Martin
Garmin Sharp
+ 13'37
14
Robert Kiserlovski
Trek Factory Racing
+ 14'16
15
Warren Barguil
Bunzl - Centrica Racing Team
+ 14'50
16
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 15'09
17
Adam Yates
Bunzl - Centrica Racing Team
+ 16'19
18
Dario Cataldo
Team Sky
+ 17'50
19
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
+ 19'08
20
Peter Velits
BMC Racing Team
+ 19'19
I've read through this book many times before, but some answers remain unanswered. The book goes into great detail on some events, but it doesn't delve into the depth of the mind of its writer: Sir Robert Westwood. In London, there is a private collector and lifelong fan of Bunzl - Centrica. I need some answers. This weekend I'm going down there...
Three days before the start of our first Tour De France, the tension in the team was high. A bunch of riders had been fighting for a team selection for months now. Contract negotiations were not going well, with teams like Team Sky and Omega Pharma - Quickstep offering the big money to some of our riders.
We were just over halfway the season now, in race days. To be honest, I was proud of our team. We had performed well and pulled off some great achievements. But the fact remained that we were only 15th in the UCI team standings and 14th in the CQ team ranking. It was clear what we had to do: we had to up our game. I did the best I could to relieve the team of any stress, though. It was my job as the team manager to ensure our riders the best environment to reach their maximum potential.
Jean conquered the King of the Mountains jersey on the second day of the Tour de Suisse, coming over the two HC climbs first. He made the race so tough that 10 riders missed the time limit that day by making war on those 2 HC climbs. Losing time on the next two stages, he had full focus on keeping the KoM jersey. On the final day, he was 15 minutes down on the General Classification and therefor no threat to the leaders at all. He went into a break with 3...
With 90 kilometers left, on the first climb of the day, it was obvious Jean was the strongest of the group. Without a real acceleration, he pulled away from the others.
I pulled up next to him and asked him what he was doing. His answer was short: "Trust me." Many of my collegues would've told Jean to ease back and stop this madness, but I was no ordinary DS. I saw the boy for what he really was and I let him go on. I trusted him. "Go for it!"
And to this day I'm still glad that I did. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful victories I've ever seen. the Tour de Suisse was turned upside down. Winning the stage after a 90 kilometer solo was impressive enough, but Jean did more than that: he won the stage with 8 minutes on his breakaway companion and 10 minutes on Alejandro Valverde. This moved him back into the top 10, after being in a lost position.
He almost did the exact same thing in the National Road Race five days later. Breaking away with team mate Reichenbach, they soon got a 5 minute gap on the peloton.
With 53 kilometers left, he attacked. And that was the last they saw of him until the finish line.
Around that time, I found myself facing one of the most difficult tasks in my career: selecting a team worthy of the Tour de France. Selecting 9 guys and leaving home the others. What were my options?
Choosing between these guys would be very, very hard. Adam was a GT legend, Maxime had won 2 stages in the Tour de la Mayenne earlier in June, Julien had won the French National Time Trial... Everyone had shown something in the months leading up to the Tour. But in the end, only 9 riders could start in Leeds for the 2014 Tour de France.
