An intimate conversation with America’s favorite cyclist in his first Tour de France

Daniel McMahon/Business Insider

McMahon: How much harder is the Tour compared to other races?

Phinney: The speed of the Tour de France — when the speed is high — is higher and faster than any race that I’ve been a part of. But with that said, it’s more controlled and a little bit more predictable at times, whereas the Giro or Vuelta are less predictable and therefore more aggressive. And while the speeds may be similarly as high, they may be higher over a period of time, whereas at the Tour, on the week that we’ve done, we’ve sort of spent a lot of time each day, sort of building up to the finale, and once the finale hits it’s, like, full on.

I love grand tours because people race differently. They’re a little bit more aware of their energy expenditure. So oftentimes you’ll have, towards the tail end of the race, people each day who feel that they want to conserve some energy, and some who feel they’re going to bunch together and preserve some energy. I honestly cannot imagine what it would be like to be Chris Froome, or even Rigoberto Uran on our team, or those guys who have to be in front every single day. It’s like a completely different bike race that I’m apparently doing. But that’s the beauty of cycling, is you have such varied physical capability levels, all in one giant group, one moving amoeba.

McMahon: What’s the vibe of the Tour like, in the peloton?

Phinney: Each race definitely has its own vibe. This own, I mean, when it’s nervous, when it’s stressful, it’s definitely the maximum amount of stressful and nervous, because everyone in this race recognizes that if they perform well here, they completely change the way they’re perceived in the professional peloton, not only by the other riders but in a business sense as well.

No one is here to prepare for anything else. We have so many races on the calendar that some people might be trying to win and some people might be using it as preparation for something else, because through bike racing you can get some percentage more out of your body that you wouldn’t be able to get out in training. But I believe this is the one race out of the whole year where everyone shows up and all they’ve been thinking about is the Tour de France. They’re not using the Tour de France to prepare for some race that’s down the road.

McMahon: What’s been most surprising to you so far in this Tour?

Phinney: I came into it with pretty open expectations. I didn’t want to cloud it too much with what I thought I was diving into. So the whole thing has been bracing that unknown. But the most positive unknown that I had not imagined or experienced or envisioned was the number of people on the side of the road. I think everyone really feeds off of that. So many of the races we do — in Qatar, in Oman — you see, like, two people on the side of the road and you sort of wonder who you’re performing for. And that’s not really how the world works anymore these days. People watch on TV, people watch on the internet, they follow via Twitter, and that has become more of who we quote, unquote perform for. But cycling inherently as a sport is open to the public and has always fed off the energy that the public is able to provide. Whether it’s on a climb, at the start, or at the finish. It feels like this race really has kept a lot of the heart of the cycling of the past. On top of that there’s always way more interest on TV and the internet.