American cyclist Larry Warbasse has taken more than his share of punches this year between breaking his pelvis in a hard crash at the Tour of Wallonie and Covid diagnosis at the Tour de Suisse.
Warbasse rides for the French AG2R CITROËN Team. He had been hoping to race his first ever Tour de France this year and to compete in the Vuelta a España for the fourth time in his 10-year career. Now 32-years-old, Warbasse was a leader among young American cyclists to get to Europe early in their careers, and live and race there. While he has suffered painful crashes at inopportune times, he’s continued to race at a high level for a long time. His work ethic and talent have gotten him this far; now all he needs is a little bit of luck to garner WorldTour success.
A Crash and COVID
Unfortunately, it’s not the first time Warbasse has been knocked out of a Grand Tour. In 2017, he was forced to abandon the Vuelta after breaking his thumb on one hand and wrist on the other in a crash. Back then, he wrote about that experience for Rouleur. This time, his injuries allowed him to test his skills as commentator and analyst on The Cycling Podcast with Daniel Friebe.
Warbasse offered sharp and cogent analysis of how a particular stage unfolded and why. When he retires from cycling, he could become to cycling what Tony Romo is to the NFL: A former practitioner of the sport who is highly skilled at boiling down complex information into easily digestible soundbites that offer critical insights. (It’s unlikely he’ll be making Romo-like money.)
Subscribe to the ‘RIDING WITH KAPLAN’ NEWSLETTER
In the episode discussing the final stage of the Vuelta, Friebe allotted Warbasse 90 seconds to summarize the stage and race results. Warbasse finished with a cool 15 seconds to spare.
For now, Warbasse, a native of Traverse City, Michigan, and a University of Michigan graduate, is back on the bike training for late season races.
He told The Cycling Podcast that he was given the chance to travel to Australia to participate in the World Championships this week, but given his past injuries and recuperation, it was not worth the expense and travel time for an uncertain result.
Looking ahead to 2023
Warbasse’s contract with AG2R has been extended through 2023, but with the season coming to an end, Warbasse is looking forward to another travel adventure with his friend, Conor Dunne, a former professional cyclist turned GCN presenter. Last year, the pair biked across the Canary Islands. This year’s trip isn’t planned yet—they’re considering Greece—but wherever they travel, it will be epic. Earlier in October, he vacationed through Egypt.
“I try to do something at the end of a season to get my mind out of the sport…where I can totally shut off,” Warbasse said in an interview from his home in Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France.
A US national road race champion in 2017, Warbasse had a heavy race schedule earlier this year and, if not for his injuries and illness, he would have been training and racing for all but three weeks this year. He’s used his off-season to travel to Egypt and has planned a bike packing trip to Greece.
An American in Paris
Warbasse is among a new group of American riders who have gone all-in on living and working in Europe. A few years ago, for instance, it might have been possible for him to spend October and November back home in Michigan. But, now, taking the time to travel back-and-forth across the Atlantic just does not make sense (TeJay van Garderen used to travel back and forth between Europe and Colorado in the winter and it did not serve him well in terms of either training or jet lag.)
Warbasse has made that sacrifice of living abroad away from family and friends. He’s toiled in greater obscurity than van Garderen or other American riders who are better known, but perhaps not as successful as Warbasse has been.
The biggest change since Warbasse joined the World Tour a decade ago is its intensity. Riders today have to commit as much to the culture of France, Spain, or wherever they are living in Europe as they do the racing itself.
“The margins are so much smaller now and the level of racing is so high that you cannot risk losing training time to jet lag and things like that,” he said. “So for me that’s the biggest sacrifice—being so far from home and not having the comforts of the US. But it’s pretty cool over here at the same time and if you can enjoy it, it’s not so bad.”
“I try to do something at the end of a season to get my mind out of the sport…where I can totally shut off.”
In 2019, when Warbasse joined AG2R, he spent a month in a French immersion course. Six months later, he was nearly fluent and bantering with his teammates and shouting back at the coaches in the team car. It was important that he did that because adjusting to living in Europe—even though he became a pro cyclist in 2013—is as tough if not tougher than the bike racing itself.
“You’re trying to adjust to this totally different environment and trying to race at the highest level you’ve ever raced at,” he said.
So what does it take to ride at his level?
“I think it takes a lot of motivation and commitment because it’s one thing to be into the cycling and being good at it. It’s another thing to make a life over here and really commit to being in Europe full time,” he said. “When I turned pro, I would say that the racing was the easy part. Adjusting to life in Europe and a different culture, so far from home where I didn’t speak language—that was infinitely harder than anything on the bike.”
The Euro difference
But it’s not as if the racing is easy. In fact, Warbasse and other cyclists interviewed for this newsletter have said that the racing in Europe is much, much harder than in the United States.
Warbasse said Europeans are more comfortable riding at the front of the peloton and descending much faster on roads that are much older, narrower, and windier than they are in the US.
“You could be a really strong guy in the US and go to some really small race in France and everything from positioning and placement in the bunch—being really good technically—that’s what is the hardest thing to learn,” he added. “That’s the biggest learning curve and difference. It’s a lot more difficult to position in a bunch [on narrower roads] and you have to be an incredible descender to be good in these races or you need to be insanely strong to overcome that.”
Warbasse lives in a great area for cycling. The sea, where he can paddleboard in the summer, is five minutes from his house, and the mountains are nearby, too. Some fellow cyclists live nearby in Nice and Monaco — convenient if he wants a riding buddy (including his friend, Joe Dombrowski.)
As Warbasse looks ahead to 2023, despite hitting a string of bad luck this past year, he has the confidence and wherewithal to bounce back. He’s displayed an impressive level of resilience and adaptability throughout his career by choosing to forgo the comforts of home and moving to Europe early in his career. He’s got a keen intelligence as well – having learned a sophisticated level of conversational French in a short period of time and practicing in the broadcast booth for a career after cycling. Warbasse has got what it takes and hopefully some good luck will follow.