julian dean it is about the bike it is about the bike julian dean

Tour de France, yellow

jersey, Lycra, chafing,
Vaseline, drugs.
What do you think of
when you think about
professional cycling?
Do you think about
Julian Dean? You
should. Dean has
been part of the
peloton for over ten
years and is one of
the most respected
athletes in the sport.
Yet most
New Zealanders
wouldn’t recognise
him if they passed
him on the street. Why
is the “best lead-out
man in the world”
not “world famous

IS
in New Zealand”?

bike
by ROBERT TIGHE
pictures by alistair guthrie

44  45
julian dean it is about the bike it is about the bike julian dean

“Athletes, especially cyclists, are in the business of denial. You deny

all the aches and pains because you have to in order to finish the race.
It’s a sport of self-abuse. You’re on your bike for the whole day, six and
seven hours, in all kinds of weather and conditions, over cobblestones
and gravel, in mud and wind and rain, and even hail, and you do not give
in to pain.
“Everything hurts. Your back hurts, your feet hurt, your hands hurt, your
neck hurts, your legs hurt, and of course, your butt hurts … In my most
painful moments on the bike, I am at my most curious, and I wonder each
and every time how I will respond. Will I discover my innermost weakness,
or will I seek out my innermost strength? I don’t always win. Sometimes
just finishing is the best I can do.”
 – from “It’s Not About the Bike” by Lance Armstrong

Th e o bvi o us q u esti o n i s why?
Why would you want to put yourself through
such torture? Why would you want to squeeze
into your Lycra shor ts and clamp your feet
into the pedals to spend hour after hour, and
day after day, pounding the tarmacadam and
bouncing over cobblestones? Why, especially
given the scorn that has been heaped on the
sport in recent years by some holier-than-thou
commentators in the media, would you want to
be a professional cyclist?
“It is a tough sport. But what I like about it
is that you get out of it what you put into it. It
all depends on you,” says Julian Dean over the
phone from a training camp in Boulder, Colarado.
“It is a simple formula. The harder I train
the better I go. You’ve got to reach deep within
yourself so it is quite humbling in that regard and
it keeps you very much in touch with yourself. I
think a lot when I am riding my bike. I like my
space and I like the fact that cycling is quite
solitary sometimes.”
Do you love what you do?
“Yeah I do. I don’t always love it. I’d be lying
to you if I said that every day I wake up and I
want to go training or I want to race but you get
that in every job. I feel lucky to be able to do
something that I really, really love and get paid
for it. Not everybody in life finds something they
have a passion for and can make money out of
so I feel privileged.”
Raced over three weeks and more
than 3500 kilometres, the Tour de France is
epic. Yes, over the past few years it seems the
only news we hear about the Tour has been bad,
as yet another rider is kicked out of the race for
pumping his body full of poisons.
But despite the drug scandals and the
doubters, le Tour is still the race that stops a
nation (to borrow a phrase from the Melbourne
Cup) and is still the premier cycling event in
the world. Few New Zealanders have made it
to the finish.
Harry Watson was the first Kiwi to compete,
in 1928. Tino Tabak finished 18th overall in
1972, which remains the best finish by a New
Zealander. Nathan Dahlberg, Stephen Swart and
Eric McKenzie can also claim to have conquered
the Tour de France. If Dean starts and finishes
this year, it will be his fifth, one more than Tabak
and McKenzie.
But don’t expect Dean to go looking for a pat
on the back, just for making it to Paris.
“Competing in an event is one thing, but
being competitive is something else. I look at
some athletes at the Olympic Games and you
can almost see them breathe a sigh of relief as
if to say, “oh, I’ve made the Olympics”. For me,
to go to the Olympics and just participate is not
what sport is about,” he says.
“In New Zealand’s spor ting culture, now
more than ever, we seem to have forgotten
that if you go to the Olympics you need to be
competitive. I have raced in the Tour de France
four times but, to be honest, I don’t see much
kudos in that.
“What is more impor tant is that I have
raced the Tour de France and I feel I have been
competitive in the Tour de France.”
Wai t a m i n u t e. C o m p e t i t i v e? Yo u c all
finishing 110th in the 2008 overall classification
competitive? The thing is, Dean has zero interest
in where he finishes overall. Dean is a sprinter
and his focus is on winning a stage in the Tour
de France, not winning the Tour itself.
He came close to a stage win this year,
recording six top-10 finishes including a fourth
place finish in stage 14. He finished ninth in the
race for the green jersey, the sprinters’ holy grail
and he did it all without any help, without a lead-
out man. A lead-out man does the donkey work
for his sprinter. In the last 10 kilometres of a
race the lead-out man works to get his sprinter
into the best possible position in the peloton.
To win a sprint finish you need at least one
good lead-out man up the front with you. What
Julian Dean needed in this year’s Tour de France
was another Julian Dean.
D u r in g t h e 20 07 To u r, t h e N o r w e g i a n
sprinter, Thor Hushovd, described Dean as
“the best lead-out man in the world”. Dean was
Hushovd’s helper, his pacesetter, for four years
at the Credit Agricole team. Dean didn’t join
the team to be Hushovd’s lead-out man but an
untimely injury at the start of his first season in
2004 changed everything.
Dean broke both his elbows in May, just a
couple of months out from the start of the Tour.
While he was recovering, Hushovd showed some
good sprinting form and with a strong lead-out
man he looked capable of winning a stage in
the Tour. Dean was back riding at this stage and
the team gambled on selecting the Tour rookie
from New Zealand.

47
 julian dean it is about the bike
“I wasn’t going that well but the team took
me on a bit of a whim because they desperately
needed someone to help Thor. I was selected
even though I wasn’t 100 per cent but they felt
that I could do a better job than anyone else of
helping Thor in the sprints. As it turned out by
the time I got to the Tour I was riding really well
and I was able to do some fantastic lead-outs.
And from that Tour de France on I was Thor’s
lead-out man. I kind of fell into the role.”
Dean says on his website that “hitting over
the top of the Fassa Bor tolo and Quickstep
(cycling teams) lead-out trains with Thor on
my wheel was something that I got a lot of
satisfaction from and really enjoyed. Being
a one - man lead - out train was actually
pretty cool.”
Where most teams would use a lead-out
train of two or three or more riders to get their
sprinter into prime position, Dean did the job.
“As a lead-out man you have to make the
decisions, you have to take the responsibility.
48 
You have to decide when to go and where to go.
You have to make the right decisions at the right
time and sometimes you have to gamble. Thor
had 100 per cent confidence in me and what I
was able to do.
“The respect I had from my peers in the
peloton was huge and everyone knew what a
great lead-out man I was. A lot of them hadn’t
seen anyone before who could do what I did.”
Sprinters reach speeds of 70-80 kilometres
per hour and in the frenetic
dash to the finish line, accidents
are common. It takes a special
personality to try and bully your
way to the front of the peloton
in the closing kilometres of
a r a c e. A c c o r din g to D e a n,
sprinters generally tend to be
confident, brash poseurs. He is
an exception to the rule.
“Not all sprinters are showy
and cocky but the majority of
them are,” he says. “That is
just not my personalit y. You
have to have confidence in your
own ability as a sprinter and
“A lot of athletes talk about how they
dreamed of riding the Tour de France
or going to the Olympics when they
were younger. I never did. All the way
through my career I’ve just focused on the
next thing. It was about seeing how far
I could go.”
so much of sprinting is about
testosterone and the push and
shove and the fight and you do
have to be that way.
“But I am who I am and I
don’t want to be anyone else.”
Waihi is a long way from France but
growing up in the Coromandel town Dean
was obsessed with bikes from an early age.
I t w as t h e 19 8 0 s a n d t h e B M X b u g h a d
bitten New Zealand.
Dean and his family got hooked on the
sport but soon the fad faded and Dean looked
for something else to satisfy his competitive
streak. He found triathlon and he started cycling
to improve his triathlon times.
A local cycling fanatic, the late Bevan Jones,
started running time trials in Waihi for older,
it is about the bike julian dean
retired guys. Noticing how enthusiastic Dean
was, he star ted taking him to club races in
Hamilton. Dean revelled in the solitary nature
of the sport but he never contemplated a career
in cycling.
“A lot of at hletes t alk abou t how t hey
dreamed of riding the Tour de France or going
to the Olympics when they were younger. I never
did. All the way through my career I’ve just
focused on the next thing. It was about seeing
how far I could go.”
His first break came in the US in 1996 where
Dean was preparing for the Atlanta Olympics
with the New Zealand track team. He won a few
prestigious road races and was offered a semi-
professional contract with an American team.
In 1998, he won more races in the US than any
other professional to claim the US Pro Criterium
Championship and he was signed by the US
Postal Service team, Lance Armstrong’s team.
Dean spent two years with the Postal Service
team and although he never raced the Tour de
France with Armstrong, he saw first hand just
what made him so special.
“Physically, he is a unique athlete but
mentally he stood out in terms of the way he
pursued his goals. He is so strong and he works
so hard and he did everything with 2000 per
cent intensity. He is also quite cut throat and
some of those characteristics I just don’t have
because it is not my personality. But I learnt a
lot from him.”
The drawback of riding in the same team as
Armstrong was that it was Armstrong’s team.
“Every rider was there to help him and work
for him. Being a sprinter I never really stood
a chance of making the Tour de France team
because the team wasn’t interested in winning
the sprints. They wanted domestiques to help
Lance in the mountains. If I had been in another
team during those years I could have ridden the
Tour de France earlier.”
Dean moved to the CSC team in 2001 but
injuries meant it was a frustrating two years.
Injuries are a fact of life in cycling but Dean has
julian dean it is about the bike
had to contend with more than his fair share. He
broke his collarbone on the track in 1994 and
needed to get a plate.
He has broken both his elbows and his right
elbow needed nine screws and three plates
after a crash in the Giro d’Italia in 2005 which
ruled him out of that year’s Tour de France.
He has torn the cruciate ligament in his knee,
broken his leg in two places, and broken the
knuckles in his right hand.
“Oh and a few ribs and stuf f as well,”
he adds.
The physical toll the injuries take are one
thing but the biggest challenge is getting your
head right again, he explains.
“I’ve had a few serious injuries over the
years and that plays on your mind. Now that I
am older I definitely think about it more. You just
have to convince yourself that most times you
will get up and walk away. You might lose a bit of
skin but you get over it.
“When you are going downhill at 100km/h
and all you are wearing is a pair of Lycra pants, a
jersey and a flimsy crash helmet, you sometimes
ask yourself, ‘what am I doing?’ But the best
thing is not to think about it too much.”
After he left CSC, Dean joined Credit Agricole
where he became the “best lead-out man in the
world”. Last year he decided it was time to see if
he could be more than that.
“I had been doing the same thing for four
years. I knew that when it came to a sprint I
could put Thor in a position he could win the
race from. A lot of the time, people would say to
me, ‘you could win those sprints, why don’t you
do it yourself?’ And I always believed in my own
mind that I could but at the same time I really
enjoyed what I was doing and I got immense
satisfaction from it.”
Dean hoped the move to the Garmin team
for the 2008 season would provide him
with the oppor tunit y to win a stage in the
Tour. But with six rookies on the team and a
young British phenom called Mark Cavendish
dominating the sprints to claim four stage
wins, Dean was left to reflect on what might
have been.
“More than ever now I wonder what I could’ve
achieved in my previous Tours if I had been able
to ride for myself instead of doing lead-outs.
It’ll probably be one of those ‘what ifs’ that will
plague me for a lot of years to come,” wrote
Dean on his website.
“Maybe I would’ve been able to win a stage
in the Tour by now if I’d chosen other avenues
but I’ve always chosen the road that seemed
to take me to the nex t level and into the
biggest races.”
it is about the bike julian dean
Only one New Zealander has recorded a “Yeah I think he is clean.”
stage win in the Tour de France. That was Chris The finger has never been pointed at Dean
Jenner in 2001 who was par t of the Credit in the same way but still it must be tough to
Agricole team that won the team time trial. Dean watch the sport you love get dragged through
believes he still has what it takes to become the the mud.
first New Zealander to win an individual stage In 2006, Bradley Wiggins, the Briton who beat
on the Tour. Hayden Roulston in the final of the 4km pursuit
And he also knows that if he doesn’t win a on the track at the Beijing Olympics wrote that
big race before he retires he will remain one of he was “sick of feeling ashamed because I’m a
this country’s best kept sporting secrets.
“Winning is what gets you noticed. If I
don’t win a stage in the Tour de France I am
not going to get national coverage. I think in
the cycling community there is a buzz about
what I do but outside of that it is a little bit
limited. Spor ts enthusiasts probably know
who I am but they probably don’t understand
what I do or what I have done over the
last few years.”
Would that bother him? Surely the thing
that matters is that he is happy with what he
has achieved?
“If I don’t have a big victory the time may
come when I look back on my career and think
‘I wasn’t that successful really.’ I’ve been close
so many times but at least I know that I did
everything I could to be the best I could be.”
And Dean is hopeful that the best is yet
to come. He turns 34 in January but he still
feels he has some life lef t in his legs. The
hardest part of the job now is leaving his wife
Carole and his two boys Tanner (3) and Val (six
months) at home in Valencia in Spain while he
goes to work.
“I still really enjoy what I do. I still enjoy going for
the eight-hour training rides. So it is not a physical
issue, it is more a mental issue. If you really want to
keep going, physically you can.”
“I still really enjoy what I do. I still enjoy going professional cyclist”. I ask Dean if he has ever
for the eight-hour training rides. So it is not a felt that way about his chosen career.
physical issue, it is more a mental issue. If you “No, I never have. My whole philosophy is I
really want to keep going, physically you can. know what I am about. I have always focused
I mean look at Lance coming back this year. on myself and I have never let what is going on
He is 37.” around me affect me too much. I have just got
L ance Armstrong’s comeback is set to on with my job and doing the best that I can.”
dominate this year’s Tour de France and Dean A nd regardless of who is t aking what,
thinks it is a good thing for the sport. It will be regardless of what other people think about who
unless the unthinkable happens and Armstrong is taking what, the pure, base, simple pleasure
tests positive. Armstrong has been suspected of getting on his bike and getting away from it all
and accused of being a drug cheat throughout for a few hours means that for Julian Dean it will
his c a r e e r b u t n o t hi n g h as s t u c k to t h e always be about the bike.
Teflon Texan. “I’ll always ride my bike. I love to get out on
‘ D o y o u t h i n k A r m s t r o n g i s c l e a n? ’ I my bike and as long as I am fit and capable I’ll
ask Dean. always ride my bike.”
51