Post-ToC interview with Team Type 1’s Phil Southerland
Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by lyne in interviews
Phil Southerland
For Team Type 1 co-founder and professional cyclist Phil Southerland was faced with many unknowns before starting the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Not only had he never raced at this level but as a Type 1 diabetic, he had never put his body through this high intensity 8-day of racing.
But it was a tough one. The hard racing and the weather conditions took their toll on a suffering Southerland, when faced with worsening tendonitis, pulled out of the race on stage 4. The next day, under sunny skies finally, we sat down for a quick chat where he answered my questions about his experience at the big show. One thing to note is that not only is Southerland planning on returning to the race but he is not deterred in his focus of bringing his team to the Tour de France in a few years.
“It was tough the first day, tough the second day, tough the third day and that’s just the riding. Then the weather, it was cold, wet, a million layers of clothing. It was just brutal in all aspects but also the racing was an experience of a lifetime for me. I got to chat with some of the best racers in the world, that’s pretty damn cool. Now when I come back and bump elbows with the best in the world in the last kilometers in the race, I’ll be a little bit more of a fighter than a survivor.”
Read interview on PodiumCafe.com
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