Having had a strong debut season with Team RadioShack, the promising 25 year old Portuguese rider Tiago Machado said that one of his top ambitions for 2011 is to make his Grand Tour debut.
If possible, he’d like that to be in the biggest race of all. “My goals for next season are to win races, help the team and be a better rider. I also hope to do one or more Grand Tours. The Tour de France would be great, but we will see what the team management decides,” he said in an interview on general manager Johan Bruyneel’s website. “There are a lot of talented riders on this team, so I know it won't be easy, but I will try very hard to earn a spot on the Tour team. I will know more when we meet during the training camps and talk with Johan and the directors.”
After spending two years with the Madeinox-Boavista team, Machado moved to RadioShack at the start of this season and quickly made an impression. He was arguably the most consistent of its riders prior to the Tour de France, finishing second on a stage and sixth overall in the Volta ao Algarve in February, then second on a stage and third in the general classification of the Critérium International in March.
Depending on whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty, those were either strong performances or else near misses. Still, he didn’t have to wait much longer to spray the champagne, as on April 7th he raced to a fine time trial victory in the Circuit de la Sarthe. He beat former Paris-Nice victor Luis Leon Sanchez by two seconds over the 6.8 kilometre distance, digging deep enough to edge out the Spaniard. That speed against the clock helped to earn him second overall in the race behind the Caisse d’Epargne rider.
Other strong performances then followed, including seventh in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, sixth in the Tour de Romandie and sixth in the Portuguese national championships.
No Tour de France selection:
Despite that consistency, he was passed over for the Tour de France team. Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong preferred to focus on experienced riders rather than newcomers. It was thought that Armstrong had a chance of winning the final Maillot Jaune, and so they wanted riders who had a history of defending a race lead. In the end, that didn’t work out and with the Texan not planning any more three week Tours, it is likely that the team will look instead to developing the up and coming riders.
Machado has already shown that he is one who deserves the chance. “My season was good and I'm happy,” he said, looking back at 2010. “I would have liked to have done a Grand Tour, but we didn't do the Giro or Vuelta. But I won a race, was on podiums and finished a lot of times in the top ten. I like to think that I was also a good team-mate and tried to always be supportive. It was a good first year and hopefully I will continue to get better.”
Unsurprisingly, he was nominated by Bruyneel’s readers as the best new ProTour-level debutant on the team. The voting saw him finish with over double the votes of the next-nearest rider, the sprinter Daryl Impey, and he was touched by the outcome.
“This award is very important to me,” he enthused. “The ProTour was new for me - a new team, a new structure, new races. There are 200 riders in the peloton instead of 100 or 110 in Portuguese races. The difference with the level of Portuguese races is very big and it's not always so easy to make the change.
“My teammates and directors really helped me. This is a nice recognition from the fans and shows me that I am doing a good job.”
His early successes have already been mentioned, but his good form continued after the national championships. While his team-mates were competing in the Tour, he was riding strongly in the Tour of Austria and ended the 2.HC event fourth overall. He was then ninth in the Tour of Poland and 12th in the Eneco Tour of Benelux, despite the absence of the long climbs that would have played to his favour.
Best moments:
Reviewing his season, he has a couple of highlights in mind. Remembering these gives him pleasure, and will also spur him on during the dark winter months before the new season begins. Dealing with cold, damp weather is made easier when you believe there will be a reward for it, and looking back at past successes will help him in the months ahead.
So what was the highlight? “It's hard to pick just one, but I would have to say winning the Circuit de la Sarthe TT,” he said. “It's a competitive race and I was really happy when I had the fastest time in the time trial. I would also have to say that the Tour of Algarve was great too because it's in my home country.
“The Portuguese fans were amazing towards me and the team. It was nice to win the Best Portuguese Rider of the race and also to finish in 3rd place behind Alberto Contador on the final podium. I think I was about 30 seconds behind him. Everyone knows Alberto is the best rider in the world so that gave me a lot of confidence for the other races.”
He also got a kick out of racing with the team leader in three different events. “Racing with Lance was a dream that came true for me. I watched him when I was younger and then to one day be racing with him was very cool,” he explained. “We raced together in Corsica, la Sarthe and Luxembourg. He's a very nice guy and I learned a lot from him.”
Bruyneel feels that he also learned from two other experienced riders on the team, pinpointing those as playing a part in his growth.
“I'd like to recognize Sergio Paulinho and Jose Azevedo for their work in mentoring Tiago,” he said. “It's always nice to have veterans to go to for advice and I think Sergio and Ace played a big role in his development.”
He described the transition to the elite level as a challenging one, due to the speed of the races, the responsibility on each rider’s shoulders and the pressure they are under.
“Our philosophy has always been to give these first year riders time to adjust and adapt to the new environment,” he said. “Having said all that, Tiago is a rider who adapted very quickly to the ProTour. In one of the first races of the year (Tour of Algarve), he finished in 3rd place overall, only 32 seconds behind Alberto Contador. It doesn't matter what race, if you finish 32 seconds down to Alberto, that's a very good sign of things to come.”
Machado will keep that in mind in the weeks and months ahead. Whether or not he gets to compete in the Tour next year, it only seems like a matter of time before he will be riding the race, and fighting for stages. The Portuguese rider has a natural aggression and if he continues to make progress, he’ll be winning a lot more than reader votes on the internet.