Publishers note: We are happy to present the first in what we plan on becoming a long running series of conversations with the people involved in bicycling and who make the sport what it is. The Bakers Rack is comprised of Tom and Betsy Baker of Phoenix AZ, Tom is an engineer by trade and a multi times finisher of Paris Brest, Betsy is the hardest working fan of cycling you could ever hope to meet. It is with great pleasure that we present the first in the series of conversations as the Bakers Rack sits down with Jens Voigt. We tried to catch up with Jens during the AMGEN Tour of California, but as you know it is very hard to slow this man down. We present this conversation in honor of Jens winning his third straight Criterium International.

Photos © Celia Cole and coutresy Bakers Rack

The Bakers Rack a Conversation With Jens Voigt in Two Parts

-by Tom and Betsy Baker

Jens Voigt of Team Saxo Bank is a favorite in the worldwide peloton who is known for his propensity to attack and his seemingly always positive attitude. He has fans everywhere he races and the people of the United States have adopted Jens as one of our own, which is why US Cycling Report chose to sit down with Jens for an evening’s conversation about a wide ranging variety of topics.

One would be hard pressed to find a better role model in professional cycling.  Jens took some time out of his busy evening to talk with US Cycling Report.  The Bakers Rack spent time talking with Jens, and as a result, we present this interview in two parts, first the technical and second, the personal.

Tom Baker (TB):  At the AMGEN Tour of California, one thing that I noticed is that your skin just glows from your fitness.  You don’t look like the usual 37 year old, you look like you are about 25.

Jens Voigt (JV):  Thank you.  I take that as a compliment.  I work hard on that (laughter in his voice).

TB:  The thing is, I have been riding for forty years and my skin shows a lot of premature skin aging.  I wonder what you put on your skin to protect yourself. You are out in the sun 6-7 hours a day, what is it that you guys do?

JV:  We use sun protection like cream, you know?   We try to use something that is based on alcohol and not on like on some wax or fat because when you spread it out, it blocks the pores in the skin and you sweat it out.  If it is alcohol based, it gets quickly absorbed by the skin and it doesn’t disturb your transpiration.  We have high protection 20 or 30 because as you say, sometimes we are out in the sun for hours.  In the mountains you are much higher because of the altitude, so you need protection.

TB:  The problem I face in riding long miles is a lot of lower back pain.  Do you do a lot of weight training for your lower back and your abdomen?

JV:  Yes.  We have a fit ball, a big rubber one like pregnant ladies use, do you know which one I mean?  We use that a lot.  We have a set of exercises that we do on it for the core muscles, like the back, lower back and stomach muscles.  It is incorporated mainly into a daily routine in the off season.  Bobby Julich did it all year around.

TB:  Do you have to work on your abdominal muscles to help in your climbing?

JV:  Well yes.  I don’t know if it helps in the climbing but it does help to prevent the muscle soreness. We climb for very long time; there is lots of pain in the lower back muscles.  It doesn’t matter how hard you train, nobody is ready to climb four times up to 1500 meter altitude.  I think you can help that with training on the fit ball.

TB:  Do you ever think about being 40 or 50 years old, being able to still maintain some fitness on the bike so you can go out on some small time rides and just hammer people to death, and set records?

JV:  My stand is that after I stop my career, I do not touch the bike any more because it gives me so much pain and that I just don’t want to hear it any more.  I will lock it up in my garage and watch the spiderwebs growing on it.  I don’t think I will have a license.  When I stop my career, I think I am done with it.  I might do an easy cruise ride on the weekend to the next, I don’t know, Luca’s Ice Shop or, maybe the next pub…that’s about it.

TB:  I have heard other pros say that over the years.  The bicycle to them is just an instrument of pain.

JV:  Yes. I mean probably after four or five years after stopping I recover my passion for it and I train maybe a little more.  I might do a little running.  I like running, I am not good at it but I like it.

TB:  Do you have a lot of trails around where you live to run on?

JV:  Yeah, we have a big city forest here with accessible trails.

TB:  You have a lot of energy gels and liquids in your musette bags.  How does your body react to having all that high calorie, high sugar stuff that you are eating during your racing.  How do you handle that?

JV:  Boy, you get used to it.  Sometimes you are racing so hard you don’t have time to chew something, like some bars you need to chew many, many times.  Then you need the bottle to wash it down.  So it can be tricky, if you are going over the top of the mountain and before the first descent comes up you can just quickly squeeze the gel goes into your mouth and its done.  When you have some sort of bar, you need a lot of time to get it into your hand and get out the wrapper…the gel you can just open with your mouth, with your teeth, squeeze it in your mouth and its done in like 5 seconds.  So we can always find a spot to do that and sometimes that’s what keeps you alive in the race.  Racing is stressful and you don’t really want to chew and eat something.  That is something in your mouth and it stops you from breathing.  And the gel is done in 5 seconds which is a big advantage.

TB:  Yes, that is the big advantage of these new gels versus 10 or 12 years ago when they didn’t exist.

JV: Yeah, I mean, okay, it is a lot of high carbs and sugar for you, so if the race slows down a little bit you need to eat something solid as well.  I would not want to do a 200 kilo stage only on gels.

TB:  Well I had a question also on the AMGEN Tour of California, in the last stage going up Mt. Palomar.  You were with the Schleck brothers and Levi Leipheimer was kind of isolated.  I was just wondering, even though you are a super loyal team member, you were up there hammering, and were sitting 4th in the GC.  Frank Schleck was sitting 7th or 8th…

JV:  Further back.

TB:  Farther back.  Is it even possible, even though you are a super team player, to possibly that the strategy might could have been that the Schlecks work for you.  Then you take off…

JV:   No, no no.  Sometimes typing is not rocket science.  It is really simple.  Then sometimes it is a little bit more complicated.  We had obviously the two Schleck brothers there plus me, that is three riders.  Every other rider was isolated.  We had the top three there.  We had the first, second and third place with us and me, number four, was also there.  So obviously they wouldn’t work with us.  So I would have to sacrifice my two team members completely to stay away from the chasing peloton.  Even then it wouldn’t be sure that I can drop the others as it was flat towards the finish.  So where should I drop DZ (Dave Zabriskie) or Michael Rogers?  They are good riders.  They know that I want to go, that I want to improve my position to be on the podium, so they are just sitting on my wheel.  So there was no chance that I could drop them because they wouldn’t work with me.  So I would sacrifice my two teammates for maybe small chance but I didn’t get the chance.  That was originally the plan, that we keep attacking them, but it didn’t work like that way so we changed the plan and go for the stage win.  We were okay with that.

TB:  Okay, that makes sense.   I thought it was predicated upon how the top three riders react if you tried your strategy and that makes sense.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition of the Bakers Rack as Betsy Baker takes up the conversation with Jens Voigt.