We have now officially entered, at least for me, the doldrums of grand tour racing. Stages 6–10 of any grand tour are daunting. Gone is the excitement of starting the biggest race in the world, and too distant is the momentum created from knowing you are close to home. By this point, we have already ridden what would be a normal week-long race; however, the morning of stage 7 of this Tour de France, I woke up with the realization that we still have 15 stages left. This thought was particularly confronting, as the day before we flogged ourselves.
Ben Healy took a very impressive win on a very hard and hot day. This was the first of what will now be many hot days on the bike, and we went all out. For the first two hours, on a hilly course, we averaged 47 km/h.
I made my first proper attempts to get into the breakaway and therefore lined up early at the front of the race. As I was doing so, Tim Wellens, the new Belgium National Champion, came up to me and said, “Woodsy, this is the first time I’ve seen you all week!” It was true. When you sit in what I have termed “the safety zone,” there are riders you just don’t see. It was great to finally get stuck into the race, though. In my excitement, I attacked over the second km and the counter attack of my move started the winning breakaway. It was a hard pill to swallow watching it roll away and knowing that it would probably go the distance. Fortunately there are many more opportunities to come, but the big efforts and the heat from yesterday left me feeling a bit groggy. Luckily, I’ve got a good playlist to get my head back in the game.
Since riding grand tours with Mitch Docker from 2018 to 2020, I’ve always been inspired to do little things to boost morale on the team bus. Coming from a childhood spent playing hockey, team events, games, and just goofing around with teammates always felt natural to me. However, Mitch taught me that in a “team” sport filled with athletes who are so individually focused, a bit of effort has to be made to build camaraderie. To this day, my favorite grand tour was the 2020 COVID Vuelta. As a team, we won three stages from three different riders, and Hugh Carthy landed third overall. I still believe the results were a product of the great morale created by our director, Juan Manuel Gárate, and our road captain, Mitch Docker.
Mitch would do simple things — like bring a pack of Uno cards to the dinner table or man the playlist on the team bus. One thing I loved was how he’d get every rider to submit songs for a team playlist. The result was a mishmash of music that would often get riders fired up and chatting about a song they had selected. Since Mitch retired, I’ve tried to keep that tradition alive at every grand tour I’ve done.
In many ways, the bus playlist sets the tone for the day. I don’t judge people’s tastes in music, and I’m pretty open to listening to anything, but — like an acid trip in Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind—music is all about “set” and “setting.” Sure, I love to listen to Khruangbin while making dinner, but not 30 minutes before trying to get into the most important break of the race. A good playlist taps into the right mindset and creates the right setting for a big day on the bike.
In a grand tour, if one man dominates the playlist, things can go bad fast. Too much reggaeton or Belgian techno can fray nerves and turn the one true sanctuary you have in a grand tour into yet another place where you’re counting down the days to be done. Even if the designated DJ has a good finger on the pulse and puts together an eclectic mix that entertains and keeps the vibes high, the pressure to perform becomes yet another burden. Making additions and taking requests while trying to pin your numbers, figure out what to eat, and upload the GPX track to your Garmin can be annoying.
So, prior to each rest day of a grand tour, I set criteria for the playlist. Each rider must select songs based on that criteria. I try to make sure that the criteria keeps the playlist eclectic, relatively high energy, and feel good. Then I take the selections, mix them up, and voilà—we have a hassle-free playlist that keeps the good times going.
Below are my criteria for this week’s playlist:
- A song from the year you were born
- It’s 3AM in the club, what song are you playing?
- A hip hop anthem
- A song from your country of origin
- Electronic banger
- A song you have made love to
- The song you want played when they make a highlight reel at your retirement party
- A classic rock song from the 60s-80s
- A song that you played on repeat in high school
- A song to get the party started.