Victor Campenaerts spent nine weeks in the Sierra Nevada this year, preparing for stage 18 of the Tour de France. Two months of his entire season spent at altitude, just to focus on a single stage of the Tour. It could have easily not gone to plan.
The Lotto Dstny rider might have missed out on the 36-strong break in the first place. He could have made the wrong decision on who to follow when the attacks started happening from the front group. In the end, he could have messed up sprint, or been beaten, up against a former world champion in Michał Kwiatkowski. But he didn't, he passed every test, and he won.
The time spent in the south of Spain at altitude - "not the most inspirational place on earth", as the Belgian put it - nine weeks, is a test of anyone's resolve. But, together with his "heavily pregnant girlfriend" and then his newborn son, Campenaerts stuck at it. Post-stage, after his first Tour de France stage win, he could finally admit it was the right thing to do.
"I got a lot of confidence from the team," he said. "I said I wanted to win a stage of the Tour and this was my main objective. I wanted to do a nine week altitude camp, because nowadays they ride so fast I have to do something different. I was there the whole time with my highly-pregnant girlfriend. She gave birth to my son two weeks before we left.
"Of those nine weeks, I think I had about four weeks with my team there. A lot of riders prepare in the Sierra Nevada for the Tour. I was there first, I left last. I saw everybody coming and everybody leaving. Maybe it’s not the most inspirational place on earth, but now I can say it was worth it."
Campenaerts was seemingly booked into the Hotel California; he could never leave his self-imposed existence in the high mountains. It's one thing for a GC rider, or a specialist, to aim for a specific stage, it's something else for a baroudeur to target just one single stage, close to the end of three weeks of hard racing.
"I decided to be so focused on this stage in December when I checked out the parcours," the 32-year-old explained. "I saw this was the best stage for the break to arrive to the finish, and we already knew that we would go to the Tour with Arnaud De Lie. We wanted to do everything for the sprints, but with a good atmosphere and building up, learning day to day, we achieved good results. I’m extremely happy that I can take the win for the team, maybe as the old guy."
He was not the only one to make a sacrifice, his girlfriend too, who spent the time with him - "heavily pregnant" remember - at altitude.
"I was preparing for the Tour all the time together with my girlfriend and my son," he said. "My girlfriend supported me, you couldn’t imagine how much."
It seemed hard and emotional for Campenaerts to reflect on how much time he has been away from his son, who is just a couple of months old. The first thing the Belgian did when he won was to get on the phone to his partner, something that should be lauded. These people are humans too.
"The time trial [stage seven] to the first rest day wasn’t quite close to Belgium, they could come with the car, so they could travel," he said. "We spent a lot of time together on the rest day, the maximum time we could spent together. I was very happy to do that. I don't know if you're a dad yourself, but you want to be there, and it’s not possible to do the Tour and be there at the same time. Three more hard days to come and then I can go home to our little family."
The intricacies of the stage, even on such a dramatic day as Thursday, pale in comparison to Campenaerts' sheer joy at his family, and his desperation to finish the race so he can be with them again. This stage win, though, was not down to luck, with the Belgian riding a specially designed bike, and preparing specifically for this day over the Tour.
"I was riding time trial tyres, it the rest of the bike was quite similar to what I was riding in the rest of the stages," he said. "I have a special bike prepared by Orbea for this Tour, they have their own testing labs, and they developed it specifically to my needs. A bit less vertical stiffness, and a bit more torque stiffness. The bike was on point.
"Yesterday, I tried to survive the stage as easy as possible. The past days, you could easily spot me in the back of the results. I wanted to save the legs, and also because I’m not a GC rider I had the option to save the legs." In the end, it came down to who had the strongest legs. Campenaerts managed to outfight Kwiatkowski, who was surely the favourite, and a rider the Belgian said he admired.
"I had the impression that he was very confident in his sprint, maybe too confident, and I profited," Campenaerts said.
The win was everything, and with the amount of work and time poured into the effort, it was quite the effort. Now, with mission accomplished, and with the Tour nearing its close, Campenaerts can focus on simply getting home. To Belgium this time, not the Sierra Nevada.
