The latest issue of Cycle Sport is out with a cover story by Ed Pickering on Wiggo. There’s also a profile by yours truly on Sky’s neopro Joe Dombrowski.
Here are a few out-takes from the interview I did with Joe in early December that didn’t make it into the final edit. He’s a great kid, super talented and has shown already in his first pro stage race, the Tour of Oman, that he learns fast. As we said in Cycle Sport, mark him down as the winner of the 2019 Giro d’Italia.
On Diet And Training
“There’s a lot of bike racers that are overly analytic. I don’t see it as much in racing but in training and diet. Some guys have such a hard time with food — well, don’t think about it — you’re hungry, eat something. If want to get ice cream, get ice cream, it’s not gonna kill you. Or like with the power meter — some guys are constantly looking at their meter. It’s a good tool but you don’t need to stare at the thing.”
“One of the riders I talked to before coming was Richie Porte. I talked to him in July. I really liked talking to him, seems like a really nice guy. I roomed with Ian Stannard — nice guy. It’s definitely a bit different. Being on a development team, we’re all young. We’re all friends, we grew up racing together as juniors. On Bontrager we did everything together. We’d go out to for ice cream. Those guys on Sky are older, they have wives and kids. I’m not used to that. It’s more like a job.”
On First Year Goals
For me, the number one thing. … and it lines up with what Brailsford said — the number one thing is integrating into the team. That means getting comfortable living in Europe, figuring out everything from training in a different place to doing your grocery shopping and also performing on the bike. But making sure everything is lined up. Results wise, no pressure. That doesn’t mean I can slack off but we have star riders, it’s their job to win races and for me, that’s not the case.”
On Bobby Julich’s Departure From Sky
On Time Trialing
“I can climb well, I can TT okay. I need to get my TTing up to my climbing. At least good enough that it’s not a big weakness. Part of TTing is just needing the watts to go fast on a flat road. I can see where over over the next few years I’ll put on a little more muscle mass. That could be helpful.”
(Check out the rest of the profile in Cycle Sport.)
[…] Sky’s Joe Dombrowski. The Cycle Sport out-takes. […]
I see a lot of excellent qualities in young “JoDo.”
He reminds me of one of cyclings’ greatest climbers; Robert Millar, a “Bike Dancer.”
JoDo is a Bike Dancer. Bike Dancers are a very rare breed, like South Paws. Dangerous! A pure and simple climber of elegance and grace.
There’s a YouBoob video out there of him pacing behind a scooter.
Watch it and you will see what I mean.
There once were other Bike Dancers; Jaques Anquetil! Bernard Hinault. Rebecca Twigg.
Thats how rare they are…
Super, you gotta get the April issue of Cycle SPort. I did 3400 words on Joe. Great guy and I have plenty of quotes from his coach Jeremiah Bishop and former DS Axel Merckx. They both firmly believe he will win a grand tour someday, most likely the Giro. Matt