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89th Tour de France - Grand Tour
France, July 6-28, 2002
2002 Tour de France rider journals
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Bradley McGee
Nationality: Australian
Team: La Francaise de Jeux
Bradley McGee can ride a four kilometre individual pursuit faster than some elite squads can ride as a quartet, averaging close to 60 clicks an hour for four minutes, all on his own. Scary, isn't it? No surprise then the good-looking New South Welshman has now matured to become a feared prologue and TT specialist, recently winning the prologue of the Dauphiné Libéré from his compatriot Baden Cooke - over a distance you might say was rather familiar to him: 3.6 kilometres. However Brad doesn't just want to be master of the chrono; he wants that and more.
Stage 8 - Sunday July 14: St-Martin de Landelles - Plouay, 217.5 km
Battle of the Titans
Hello again from Brad McGee. Sorry I couldn't post my diary from yesterday, but not every hotel in France is internet friendly, it seems. So that one is coming and meanwhile I called one of the journos from Cyclingnews and dictated my diary for today to them.
Today was the first long stage. It was an impressive day. You could tell the fatigue had set in. Lots of riders were lacking freshness. Once the break was finally gone, very few teams wanted to try to bring them back. Ag2r tried for a while but that was that.
USPS and ONCE gave us a glimpse of the upcoming battle of the titans today for who will wear the Yellow Jersey in the Pyrenees. First USPS would send a rider in a break, then ONCE would send a rider in another. That game of cat and mouse is why we covered the first 100km in two hours.
Meanwhile, you had teams like us (FDJ.com) trying to get up the road any way we could. But today, for us, it just didn't happen, even though everyone on the team attacked at one time or another. We just missed the right move and when it finally went we were glad since we were just wasting energy. After the stage, it was the first time that Tour fatigue had set in for me.
Tomorrow I want to have a good crack at the TT. I hope I don't fade over the distance or blow up like I have in the past. If I time it well and pace myself, I'd really like to be in the top 10.
Time for bed!
Thanks for reading,
Brad
- Bradley McGee's official website - www.bradleymcgee.com
- pre TdF interview - Watch out here I come
- Brad's 2001 TdF diary
- Bradley McGee: A Profile
