Carcassonne: Zak Dempster has learned a lot during his Tour de France debut, especially how to manage the pain and suffering of racing the three-week event that finishes in Paris on Sunday.
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The former part-time Carlton AFL fitness trainer, whose grand tour debut was in last year’s Vuelta a Espana is using a simple thought to keep himself going: “I try and tell myself calming thoughts that everything will be alright.
"You get to the top [of one climb] and have another climb to go. I reassure myself that at one point it is all going to be over.
“When I look around and see some are having worse days, I draw a bit of confidence from that. You can go day-to-day and have a worse day or a really good day … The main thing is try and keep up my recovery processes, to try and stay calm and don't waste any energy I don’t need to.
"If you can fight through the bad days and not lose the plot the good days will come round.”
Dempster, 26, from Castlemaine in Victoria, rides for the second division Pro Continental NetApp-Endura team that was granted a wild card entry to the Tour by race organisers.
The German-registered team has shown that their invitation to the race has been more than warranted with their leader, Leopold Konig from the Czech Republic, nicely positioned in eighth place overall at 9m 32s to Italian race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) heading into Tuesday’s 16th stage – the first of three in the Pyrenees bordering France and Spain.
Going into the 237.5km 16th stage from Carcassonne to Bangeres de Luchon, Nibali’s overall lead is 4m 37s on Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 4m 50s on Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r).
Tasmanian Richie Porte (Sky) is 15th at 16m 19s. Although, his focus now is on recovering from a chest infection that ruined his overall ambitions and, apart from wanting to finish in Paris, Porte hopes for a chance to try for a stage win.
For Dempster, Konig’s strong place means that he and his NetApp-Endura teammates will be kept as busy trying to protect and position him as they have been since the Tour started in Leeds on July 5.
For helpers – or ‘domestiques’ – like 190cm and 77kg Dempster, it is a selfless and exhausting job, as he has been reminded day in and day out during the Tour such as in last Saturday’s 14th stage - the second of two in the Alps.
In that stage, Dempster and his teammates rode at the front of the peloton for a significant spell on the descent of the Col du Lauteret and for the start of the Col d’Izoard to ensure the gap between them and the day's breakaway did not widen.
“I did the first five kilometres of the [19km-long climb up the] Izoard pretty close to full tilt, to keep good enough tempo so the break didn’t roll up to the top,” Dempster said.
“It took me a long time to get to the top after [the sustained effort]. I was in a world of pain. It wasn’t easy, but I got through it. I had a lot of hate for the Izoard that night though.”
Nevertheless, Dempster and the NetApp-Endura team are committed to throwing all they can into the rest of the Tour to help Konig reach the Champs Elysees finish line on Sunday placed as high as possible.
“We didn’t come to France for a holiday,” Dempster said.
“It would be really disrespectful if we didn’t go for it. I don’t mean going up the road [in attack], but to race it.
"There is a difference between getting through a race and racing a race.
"There haven’t been dumb arse moves by us. It’s always been for a purpose. That justifies our place here even more.”
