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James Melville - On Winning the Tour de Monde

 After 1 hour and 40 forty minutes of almost constant climbing James Melville and Kenneth Vansina rolled over the finish line together, the former as the winner of the first edition of the Tour de Monde. Now, almost a week after, Melville has hit the ground - and has had some time to reflect on his achievement on the virtual asphalt.

James Melville in his Glasgow C.C jersey

"The achievement of winning TdM reminds me of real racing. I have won lots of races, but my favorite memories are of my club getting 1,2,3 on the podium in a big cross race with Hans and my teammate Stevie winning the overall series for upcoming riders. We are a small club and friends who all work hard for each other, so the Team overall is a great joy for me" Says Melville about winning the TdM. The win was indeed an overall team performance securing both the individual and the team GC.  

The team gave me a focus and a new buzz for racing.

Glasgow United C.C is a Scottish-based team consisting of Stevie Couper, Hans Forhaug, Alasdair Mcalpine, and Ian Hepburn in addition to, of course, James Melville. Four of them are racing in the real club Glasgow United C.C. and Hepburn is from Fife club Team Andrew Allan Architecture. The outstanding teamwork may very well be correlated with the fact, that the team knows each other well, and are used to race together, also in the real world. "I would love to keep racing with the team but I know how hard it was keeping it together this time with work commitments and other races clashing. I will do my best!" Meville promise, and with such a strong effort this time around, we might see the team again, when tour Taith de Cymru, almost puts them on home ground in March. 

"The team gave me a focus and a new buzz for racing. Also, the TTT was a joy and gave the big engines in the team a time to shine. In the last mountain stage, Alasdair looked after me, keeping me in the chasing bunch and worked to keep the gaps in check." 

Melville won the race because he is a brilliant rider on all terrains. He managed to hold on to the very best in the mountains and to put pressure on his competitors in the flatter territory. "My favorite stage was actually the Milan San Remo stage - even though my chain jumped off when I reacted to an attack in the break of 3 with a couple of km to go. My avatar stopped completely and took a few seconds to get up and running again and the leaders were gone." Meville says, and adds: "I loved all the rolling, attacking courses though. I can't say that I enjoy the mountains but I'm a very determined racer and can suffer pain quite well. They are a necessary evil like individual TT's. I love tactical racing so the hilly stages where the group gets smaller all the time suits me. I'm always consistent and can recover well, which might have helped me win" 

The ability to consistently perform is probably the most important thing for a stage race rider. Melville ended in top 10 in 9 out of the 11 slots he rode in, which is a clear sign of that ability to recover, and consistently put in the effort needed. 

The feared d'Angliru stage, where James Melville just managed to hang on to his rivals, and secure 6th place on the day. At 1:43:17 you'll see Melville riding the last hundred meters, losing just under a minute to overall 3rd Andrzej Krajewski.

A lot of discussion has been adressing a few of the riders above Melville in some of the stages. With wattage output of above 5 w/kg for long durations, you can't blame the regular cyclist for being a bit suspicious. "My take on the 5w/kg debate is if you can push those numbers online then your strava account should be open for all to see. It should show many KOM's and not only ones you have made up with 1 or 2 people in it. Or a palmares you can google of real life results?" Meville adds to the discussion. Asked about his results he replies: "I have been lucky enough to qualify to ride the Pro Echelon series on RGT where you do a video weigh in and show evidence of your power sources each race. It is good knowing the guys there with huge wattage hammering you are real." It is clear that Meville is a talented cyclist, and for those who doubt wether his results are real, his strava profile is open, and it is possible to see the watts and w/kg ratios for the duration of the entire TdM. 

After 4th place in Our Giro, 3rd place in Vive le France, and 2nd place in the Tour of Britain, all on RGT, it's great to be on the top spot in Tour de Monde.

Even though James Meville is an experienced cyclist, he is not that used to racing indoors. "In 30 years of racing, I had only been on an indoor trainer once in my life before last March. There has been no racing here since March because of the pandemic and that's why I race indoors. Not being able to race outdoors has been terrible but RGT has kept me fit and sane." Like a lot of us, the pandemic has been the starting point for Meville in the virtual world. And it seems like he is getting better and better at it.  "After 4th place in Our Giro, 3rd place in Vive le France, and 2nd place in the Tour of Britain, all on RGT, it's great to be on the top spot in Tour de Monde. " He said after winning the Tour de Monde. Time will tell, whether he will be able to continue his upwards going trend, as he is now, one of the very best riders on RGT. 

The final GC of the Tour de Monde

  1.    James Melville          12:31:41  
  2.    John Sammut          00:14:10  
  3.    Andrzej Krajewski  00:15:23  
  4.    Kenneth Vansina  00:16:50  
  5.    Steve Taylor          00:21:53  
  6.    Tim Davies                  00:24:48  
  7.    Phil Marler                   00:28:48  
  8.    Jurgen Janssens          00:30:44  
  9.    Lee Marshall          00:32:38  
  10.    Mark Rowbottom   00:34:53  

[photo Michael Martin, Instagram: michaelamartin]

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