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!