Lets All Ride Harley’s Together

Team Camp 2013. Phoenix, AZ

Team camps are one of a kind. You go into camp a new year just full of high expectations and absolutely ready to take on the world! As a good friend of mine quoted not long ago in his blog “Team camps are so much fun. Ride all day, new team kits, raucous dinners, meet new teammates” He is right. Its like taking grown men and making them act like its Christmas morning.

I had the honor of picking up all the guys from the airport and bringing them over to the house. First I picked up Willy to complete the four man squad living in the condo, always good to see him and his spunky self it of course had been too long.

Next I picked up Griffen, a new addition to our squad this year that I soon found out was a strong one. I instantly found out that he was a good-natured guy who likes to joke around with the rest of us. Then finally I picked up my best friend Sam, and then our lovely British teammate Joss. Was great to see both of these gents as always.

This was Thursday midday and we still had time to ride. I dropped them off so they could quickly build their bikes up and then rode over to meet them. We had a good first team ride/spin to prep us for testing the following day.

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·      Testing: Originally we all thought this was going to be Vo2 test…but we soon found out that we would instead be doing a 20 min power test. There is quite a difference between the two, in my own opinion the 20 min power test hurts waaaaayyyy more. The testing went well. All of us put some power down, it was also very helpful having Kevin Livingston performing the test and pushing us through it, advice from a former tour rider is always welcome. Thank you so much OTR Training Center for forming a relationship with us and opening your doors to your brand new facility!

·      Team Dinner- Dinners allow team to really get to know each other and have some amazing food in the meantime

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·      Long Team Ride- Five hours. We rode the “end of the pavement rout” a good solid ride with plenty of climbs to test the legs on. I pushed hard on every climb trying to get a solid day of riding in and see what my teammates could do. Griffin was eager to climb with me and a few others tested their legs as well. After flipping it we had already gone hard up 4 solid climbs and our legs were feeling it. Little did we know the challenge that was about to be thrown at us. Kevin who had probably just been laughing to himself presented a 50 dollar winnings for the first person to get to the top of the last climb of the day. I was not sure if I had one more climb in my legs..especially to race for it. However the pull of money always makes you dig more then you normally would. First to attack was Danny who wanted to catch us all early, Griffen went with him, soon followed by me and Matt Shriver (our Trek Guy who I found out was a good guy and a darn good rider too).  As we twiddled our way up the climb it soon became me and Matt as the final two. We took our turns hitting each other over and over trying to see who would break first. In the end I crested the top first (even though we both weren’t really sure where the top was) but with no lack of a fight to get ride of Matt. Thank you Matt for pushing my legs and making me feel some serious pain.

·      Team Dinner/Team Meeting- Team meetings are crucial to covering where everyone’s goals lies within races for the season and what conflicts will arise. While these can be a little boring…our director Jim did a great job at keeping us all entertained.

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·      Early Morning Final Spin- The guys were flying out at midday so we wanted to get one final spin as a team to wrap up the camp. Wish the guys could have stayed longer but it was fun while it lasted

·      Crit- Then finally to end a hard block of training at camp we used a local crit as one final snap for training. Danny, Willy, Chris, and I suited up and did quite well controlling the race with a small team. We made sure to be present with every move and did very well to have good flow as a team. Eventually I made the break with three other riders and it stuck till the end. I didn’t have the pop at the end to get the win but instead took the last step on the podium. Was a very fun race and was worth while for sure to get a glimpse at what local AZ racing is.

Training Camp comes to a close. But that only means that the year is opening up. Beyond excited and ready to rage with the boys!

 Morning team ride.

 View from "End of The Pavement"

 Chris (Team Owner) Taking his turn for testsing. Kevin and Jim standing over him cheering him on.

New Swag during camp. Thanks to our lovely sponsors. These are the new Oakleys!

Home Sweet Home

Mesa, Arizona for the next three months is where I will call home.  From a two week impression, it seems to be a very large suburb of Phoenix with a large population of elderly people who do not seem to have had a presence of cyclists in their generation. Beautiful riding consisting of small highways that lead out to non travelled roads in the mountains surrounding the city. After one week I found that Phoenix itself has very friendly people that are willing to welcome you to their city. With that in mind, I have also found that pride for their city is also important here. New to Phoenix? They can tell..and they will remind you of that. We will see if they can still tell by the team says adios!

For those of you who asked for pictures of the new place here it is. I caught these guys in the morning with the camera so the beds are not made, but I am proud of these guys for working to keep the place clean and livable.

Roommate #1. Willy Zellmer. A driven individual that I spent a good amount of good times with last year. Im sure I will be telling a good amount of stories about him in the future.

The master bedroom. aka Willy and I's room. (there is also a master bath)

Roommate #2. Mac Cassin. I cool new addition to the team from CU Boulder. Someone who knows quite a lot about sports nutrition and will be a strong addition to the squad for 2013

Roommate #3. Cameron Rex. aka the youngster. a quirky dude but none the less a strong solo rider who adds plenty to the house.

The balcony. o and there is a heated pool right around the corner there. tho its been in the 70's lately. 

Thank you so much to Team Gateway Harley-Davidson/Trek and all of our sponsors for making this possible for me. Living the dream.

The Diesel Count Up ($)

The Diesel Count Up ($)

Warranty.

Through working in the bike industry for years as a rider, rep, and mechanic, I’ve had to deal with my far share of warranty issues.  The definition is as follows..

“A written guarantee, issued to the purchaser of an article by its manufacturer, promising to repair or replace it if necessary”

If a buyer invests in a company they expect the product to be worth the investment and for that company to back up their word through dark and thin. I have dealt with both good and bad companies recently, Ill give you examples of both.

Example 1: Good.

Kinetic Trainer Systems. I purchased this fluid trainer 5 years ago through the shop I was working at and have no joke put likely 10,000 miles on it throughout the winter seasons of Indiana. The day before Christmas this year I apparently wore through the fluid and it froze on me. I filed a claim and received this brand new unit without question before new years eve. This is a company that I will forever stick with and will now swear by, I fully recommend Kurt Kinetic to any rider that needs a good warm up machine and or something to spend some hours on when it is just too much outside.

Example 2: Bad.

From the moment I brought the team van in they had promised me that the van would be under warranty. They later told me to come over and take a look at what they had found (after I called them, since I hadn’t heard from them in two days). I made the walk over to be brought into the shop and handed a water bottle of what looked like milk. This they told me that is what they had drained from our diesel fluid system, this was not only a very sever problem for it damaged the system (since it smelled of paint thinner) but it also allowed them to void the warranty. Luckily I still had the gallon container of fluid that I had put into the diesel system about 1000 miles back, and the mechanic was able to affirm that it was the right stuff and that we had done nothing wrong…and yet it was still our problem so GM didn’t have to pay for it.

After 4 days at hotel, being promised warranty, a rental car, as well as a likely hood of having our food paid for….and then have all of those promised flipped…Chevy/GM. Not okay. Fix this.

We nonetheless needed to make it to our destination and had the van fixed (we will be following up through the higher ups at GM about this fiasco). So one week after I left Indianapolis I arrived at our absolutely beautiful apartment in Phoenix, AZ.

In every industry there is a set standard for the company to take care of their customers. This trip has made me so happy that all of my great and caring sponsors abide by this standard. They know that is everything in this world to go through life with guidelines, moralities, and standards to take care of their people. Word is everything.

BTW. This is the sweeet van.

The Diesel Countdown

Somewhere, in some official library, in some official book it is written that no person is able to drive across the country without having something of epic proportions happen along the way.

The drive out west was supposed to be a simple ordeal, a three day span that would get us to our destination without a hitch. Well…lets just say we had a little bit of a snag. We did however get very familiar with the Paint Pony Lodge, in the small but friendly town of Show Low (6,400 feet) in Navajo county (which I highly recommend if you are stranded in the middle of no where in the mountains of Arizona).

First a preempt detail.

For those of you that haven’t seen the Gateway Harley-Davidson/Trek Team roll up to a race, you are in for a treat. This is a vary large passenger van that is painted black with skulls and Harley logos all over it…o and the oversized tires actually puts us up higher then a Hummer. If this and nine skinny cyclist doesn’t put fear into your heart, then I have no idea what will…alright back to the story.

Lets start from the beginning.

On Sunday January 6^th my teammate Cameron Rex and I rolled out from Kansas City with about 19 hours between our destination and us. I was oddly awake for having 9 hours of driving on me from the day before, and somehow managed to crank out 12 hours straight. If you want to replicate this feat, my secret is lots and lots of caffeine…I know…where did I come up with that one? (personal Favorite is sugar free rockstar and espresso) Thanks Tyler Karnes for teaching me that one.

With 3 hours to go to Phoenix our diesel engine fluid system was having major issues. It then decided that it must limit our speed first to 65…then 55….then 4 mph! Each time counting down miles till it cruelly limited us once step more. It felt as if a large hand was coming down and doing everything from letting us reach our desert paradise.

So again lets pause and get a visual. A massive Harley van being passed by everyone and their grandmother as its moving down the highway at a snails pace…ya…

First we stopped at a dealership in Gallup, these true Native American mechanics spent 5 hours working on our van to tell us they have no clue and asked us if we wanted to just try to get to our destination…sure I said. Lets try.

Bad move.

 About 30 miles later and 6 miles to go till our van would limit us to a booming 4mph on the highway, we pulled over to see if we could reset the car. So I crawled under the van to unhook both batteries that supplies this massive car with the power it needs. Lets just say this was not successful at all…

Last solution, we had Onstar pull us to the closest Chevy dealership. This just happened to be in the lovely town of Show Low 50 miles away. So now picture our taller then a hummer van, sitting on top of a tow truck, while it wobbles back in forth on pitch black mountain roads…skettttcchhhyyy!

 On the plus side we had a very nice and chatty tow man (good thing Cameron is talkative, since at this point I had had a long enough day where I was in no mood to talk). By the time we got to the hotel it was 11 at night and we crashed at the lovely Best Western/ Paint Pony Lodge next door.

How long can two cyclists entertain themselves in a very small mountain town? Well we did find one training route, and found out how much altitude takes getting used to, but what we didn’t know was that a snow storm was heading our way… and that fixing a car is never just a “simple fix”.

So ill give y'all a little brake from this story. But check back soon to see what happened to our young adventurers! but in the meantime here is a few pics along the way.

The Beginning

The highest elevation in the state of Indiana is at 1,257 feet, the highest elevation in Arizona is at 12,637 feet.

Everyone in this world at some point in their life takes on their dream, the goal of course to succeed and do everything you ever wanted to do. On Saturday January 5, 2013 I will be attempting to just that with mine. I will be making the long trek first out to the team hub in St. Louis, then to pick up a teammate in Kansas City, and then all the way to the team house in Phoenix Arizona. A 26 hour drive.

For the last two years I have been racing against pro cyclists all over the country, but only till last year when great support allowed me to venture out west, and race in the real mountains in races such as Cascades Classic and Mt. Hood, was I able to see what it would really take for me to make a career out of Cycling. I new right away that I would need to take the plunge, move to altitude, and devote my heart and mind to a final go at making this happen.

Climbing has always been something that I have loved, the thrill of every pedal stroke pushing you higher and higher, every breath slow and steady, your eyes searching for the beautiful summit and the view that inevitably extends outward.

For me Im not shooting to be on top of the cycling world, Im just shooting to be the first to 12,637 feet.

My name is Isaiah Newkirk, and this is my adventure, my attempt at making professional cycling my career. I cant promise that it will be exciting, or that my grammar and spelling will be perfect, but for those of you who read...let me know what you think. And thank you for your support, in whatever shape or form.