by Lyne Lamoureux

Before stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California, Justin England of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling team, took a few minutes during his time trial preparation to answer my questions.

Jutin England answering a few questions
Photo c. Velothien

Justin England took up cycling in 2002 after a collegiate distance running career at East Carolina University. In 2004, he joined Webcor Builders, his first pro team, and worked for Chris Horner as he dominated the domestic cycling scene. Justin quickly emerged as one of the sport’s top mountain climbers, crushing the sixteen-year-old Mount Tamalpais Hill Climb record by nearly two minutes. Justin joined the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team in 2006, and was sidelined for much of that season when he suffered a broken collarbone after a crash at the CapTech Classic.

Lyne: Walk me through your preparation this morning.
Justin: Get up in the morning, have a good breakfast and try to get a lap in on the course to check out all the corners. We make sure that the corners are all safe and that we can take them as fast as we can. Then come back here (note: team bus area), relax for a little bit and then get on the trainer and warm up for about one hour.

Lyne: Do you do anything different or special for an ITT compared to a road race?
Justin: Just a little more attention to how much I eat so my stomach is not upset because it is an all out effort. Generally in a road race, you usually start leisurely for a little bit, it's never too hard off the bat. For a time trial, you have to be ready to go at 100% from the gun, so you try to eat well and warm up well so you're ready to roll.

Lyne: What is your goal for today's ITT?
Justin: I'm hoping to just have a good time trial, as flat time trials generally are not my specialty. But I'm hoping to have a good ride and maybe pop into the top 25.

Lyne: What are your expectations of your directeur in the follow car? What do you want him to do?
Justin: (laughing) Lean on the horn and yell at me.

Lyne: So you like to be yelled at?
Justin: (still laughing) Sure, it keeps me motivated and concentrated on the effort at hand.

Photo c. Mark Adkison Ph.D.

Lyne: How is the form? (Note: Justin was sidelined for most of 2006 with a broken collarbone).
Justin: I'm glad to have made it through so far without crashing as that's always good for me. I'm just trying to stay healthy and have a good finish.

Justin finished 37th at the Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California.
Photo c. Velothien

The morning after the ITT, Justin gave us a review of his stage.
It was good, it wasn't great but it was good. Tough course, headwinds all the way out. It was brutal. I was just fighting to make headway and tried to keep the pace high on the way back. Crosswinds in many areas, the winds were coming at one angle or another.

Thanks to Justin for taking the time to answer my questions.

Ciao.
Lyne