Simply finishing the grueling three-week Tour de France is a career achievement for any professional bike racer.
But Bend’s Ian Boswell did much more than finish his first Tour de France — he rode impressively in the Alps and the Pyrenees to help Katusha-Alpecin teammate Ilnur Zakarin to a top-10 overall finish and also finished 79th overall himself in a field of 145 finishers.
Boswell, 27, was the third-highest placing American overall (five Americans finished) and third-highest on the Katusha team after the 21 stages and 2,082 miles of cycling’s greatest race.
“It’s one of the few races as a professional where you kind of feel a sense of accomplishment just in finishing,†ÂBoswell said this week, reached via phone in Biarritz, France. “There’s a lot of races you do and finishing is an expectation almost. But to finish it (the Tour de France) is something of a landmark of your career. I was happy to not just be there participating, but actually be part of the race and have the success of putting a rider in the top 10. We faced a lot of adversity, like a lot of teams do in the Tour, having half our team left in the race.â€
By the last few stages, Katusha had just four of its original eight riders still in the competition. On Stage 19, the final mountain stage of the 2018 Tour, Boswell helped Zakarin launch away from the yellow-jersey group on the climb up the Col du Tourmalet, the highest paved mountain pass in the French Pyrenees.
Zakarin ended up finishing 10th in the stage and moved into 10th place overall, and by the last day in Paris he had advanced to ninth overall.
“We had a task we were trying to achieve and to hit it in the front and cause a split in the peloton kind of stands out for me as a performance-based achievement of the race,†ÂBoswell said. “To be there on Stage 19 and attacking from the front to set up Zakarin to get into the top 10 is something I’ll remember.â€
Boswell also recalled rising to the occasion during the first two days in the Alps. On Stage 10 in those mountains, he said, he found himself in the lead group, surrounded by 15 or 20 of the best climbers in the world.
“I was looking around and I was like, wow, this is pretty cool to be up here in the front group in the Tour de France,†Boswell said. “Just realizing I had arrived in the Tour with the shape and the fitness I wanted.â€
Boswell said there were a couple of chances for him to consider going for a stage win himself, but his main job was to stay with Zakarin late into the mountain stages. He said it was a job he was more than happy to do as he helped his Russian teammate finish in the top 10.
“I feel like we salvaged our Tour and came together as a team,†Boswell said. “I had some standout days. I think if anything it kind of motivated me for the future to be a bit more risky and pick a few days to go up the road and be a bit more aggressive.â€
Boswell said that he met most of his aspirations for his first Tour de France, but he came away even more motivated for next year’s race. He said that his goals for the 2019 Tour include targeting a stage he could potentially win and trying to get Zakarin on the overall podium (top three).
A year ago, Boswell left the British Team Sky and joined Katusha, a Russian-based team, hoping to earn a spot in the Tour de France. Because the Sky team was laden with exceptional cyclists — Sky riders Geraint Thomas won the overall and Chris Froome finished third overall this year — Boswell figured he had a much better chance to race in the Tour with Katusha.
The transition to racing with Katusha has been smooth, ÂBoswell said, and his friendship with Zakarin has blossomed on and off the bike.
“I’m super happy to be on this team,†Boswell said. “As Americans, we’re a bit curious about Russians. In the media there’s a stigma of suspicion or curiosity. But as riders and friends we’ve really bonded and we work well together. (Zakarin) is a rider I really enjoy and really value working for. He’s a Muslim Russian and I’m a Christian American and it’s cool that sports kind of defy the political and religious and cultural differences that we have and bring us together.â€
Boswell also took some inspiration from Thomas, with whom he has been friends for several years stemming from their days on Team Sky together. Boswell said they spoke quite a few times during and after the Tour, and he noted that “the whole cycling world†was happy for Thomas.
“He’s a real deserving winner of the Tour,†Boswell said. “It’s an inspiration for me that he’s 32 and won his first Tour. I’m still 27 so there’s a shimmer of hope for my future as well. His attitude toward racing, that hard work does eventually pay off … I guess be persistent and everything comes around in the end.â€
Boswell said he took two days off in Paris after the completion of the Tour de France to enjoy the city with his fiancée, Gretchen Kaija, but he is already back racing. He was scheduled to compete in the Clásica de San Sebastián in Spain on Saturday, a one-day race of 137 miles. He plans to race in the Vuelta a España, another Grand Tour that starts Aug. 26 and runs through Sept. 16.
During the Tour de France, the support from fans — and notably some from back home in Bend — was considerable, said Boswell, who graduated from Bend’s Summit High School.
“School teachers from Cascade Middle School and Summit High School reached out to me and said congratulations,†Boswell said. “All those times in science class, messing around and talking about bike racing, they’re a little more understanding now.â€
— Reporter: 541-383-0318,
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