Herriott Sports Performance

The last morning workout for the Dec camp was on Wednesday morning at 7 30. On Thursday I planned to move all or the training equipment that i/we had been using: 2o Dynamax med balls, 20 × 65 cm swiss balls, 20 resistance bands, 20 tennis balls, and 20 Trigger Point grid foam rollers into storage and then in the afternoon I planned on a short ride and then planned to meet with 4 riders for movement screens. Then in the evening I was scheduled to be taken to Valencia where I would spend the night in a hotel close to the airport. My flight to Paris was scheduled for a 7 am departure and then my flight to Seattle would see me home by 1 pm pct. Awesome, I may even be able to make the rocket ride on Saturday morning. Change of plans. I was told on Thursday mid-morning that I would be leaving for Valencia at 2 pm. Not the worst news but because I had carefully planned out my schedule for the day, I was forced to be adaptable when quite honestly….. I really liked my plan!!! The new plan meant packing up my room quickly, not meeting any riders for movement screens after their 5-6 hr day and not…………… well I guess really It wasn’t that big of a deal. The biggest “issue” was not being able to kick back after lunch and enjoy a coffee as was my post lunch standard during the camp. When I go back and read that I think…. “really man?” I moved all of my training gear to the storage room out by the team trucks- simple. It meant approx.. 7 trips back and forth with a cart but that made for an excellent morning core work out. I took some video of the team busses to give people an idea of how off the chain these euro pro transports are and then proceeded to the task of organizing my personals and getting everything back into the suitcase. It’s so nice not to have to travel back with a bunch of gear and but I am already dreading the pack up and ship at the end of the January camp….. woah, that’s coming up soon. Super bonus that Stefano from BMC brought me a bike to use for both camps, so no packing up and transporting a bike back and forth. At 2 pm I met my ride in the lobby, social media overlord and BMC Racings media man at large, Sean Weide. Steve Cummings was also coming with us as he had a flight later that afternoon to Italy. So far so good. I got dropped at the hotel around 3 30, checked into my “premium room” (premium rooms have internet……I also made a point to take some video footage of my “premium room” to share when I get back home). I hooked up to the web, turned on the TV and started answering e mails. Scott Nydam was in the room next door and we planned to meet up at 7 for some drinks and then dinner. So far so good. Scott and I had an excellent night out, eventually ending up back at the hotel restaurant where we feasted on some paeia and drank some local red. By 11 we were back to our “premium rooms” and off to sleep. My alarm went off at 5 am as planned and I met Scott in the Lobby and by 6 10 we were at the airport- which was across the street from the hotel. And then…………………… it all went pear shaped. Our Flight was delayed an hour and then…..another hour. And that meant for sure I missed my connection in Paris and that meant my plan to be home by 1 and even maybe into the office by 3 is/was done-sky. The reason was “maintenance”. Scott is on the same flight with me (I’m typing this on the plane to Paris), so we took our time in the airport coffee shop. 2 hours later we finally boarded and here we are. The REAL catch is that when I was showing the gate agent my boarding pass, she handed me a NEW itinerary for my departure from Paris. Turns out I’m heading to Helsinki before Seattle. Ok. I’ve never been to Iceland, so the pro Is that I visit a new country. The con is that I won’t be there for more than 90 minutes. I’m hopeful that I can at least find an interesting souvenir in the airport to bring home to Thea. I’m supposed to get in at 5 30 pm oct, but I have no hope that any of my flight will be on time today. And to go along with that I ate a big bag of peanut m and m’s and e a big baguette with ham and cheese that Scott passed up to me from the seat behind mine on the plane. I ate it all in about 20 seconds and now I have a stomach that nearly has me doubled over in my seat. On top of that I ordered a coffee from the beverage cart and was told it would cost me 2.50 euro……….. whatever lady, keep it. Soon I’ll be home where it makes sense to spend that much loot on a coffee. What a ride it’s been. TH

PS: HOLD ON, things got way more out of hand. Long story short,, it took me 2 hours to get to terminal 1 due to a massive strike by airport personnel. JUST in time to catch my flight. I was told to take a shuttle that didn’t exist, met up with a French guy (who was on his way to Kuwait……) and hopped a cab- he paid because I was out of Euros. I bolted towards the gait, got held up in the security line and just had enough time to visit the men’s room before we were called to board.
I drank an Icelandic Christmas beer on the plane and ate my weight in cookies. I watched 500 Days of Summer- which was an erie reminder of a college romance that went…… away and “Kingdom of Heaven” which was….. not awesome. I pulled out a new book on exercise phys that I have been trying to reed for a month but I just wasn’t feeling it. I picked up 2 super-sized bags of Haribo gummy candy and a BIG dark chocolate bar with a name on it I cannot pronounce (so it must be good) for Thea.

I have no idea what time it is in Seattle and I really need to brush my teeth. There you have it. PSS- and now my flight to Seattle is delayed. AWESOME. Time for vodka. Move ahead to Sunday morning……. I made it home, the je leg is kicking in hard AND to add insult to injury, my bag is still MIA. Perfect. Can’t wait to do it again in January……… I’ve eaten all the gummy bears.

Best,
TH

I only did 3 rides with the team during the December camp and all of them were very memorable experiences. I wasn’t at the camp to get in good training for myself but rather to assist the team in getting more mobile and more stable so as to help optimize their training and racing performances. BUT OF COURSE, when I had the opportunity to get some riding in I did. After all, Stafano, the technical advisor from BMC who works very closely with all of the riders and the engineers that develops new frames, was kind enough to bring an SLR01 from Switzerland for me to ride during both the December and January camp and I didn’t want to be rude and not ride it! It was Dura Ace equipped and I must admit that I was very happy to be back on DA. First of all, the weather was EXCELLENT for the entire camp. The sun was out every day and by 11 you could comfortably ride without arm and leg warmers. Each ride the team was split into 2 groups. Group 1 was the classics guys and the Tour Down Under, Qatar and Oman guys and group 2 was the grand tour and not classics guys. The rides left every morning at 10 am and each group was followed by a team car with a director and a mechanic. Sayers was with group 2 most of the time and John Lelangue was with group 1. Fabio and Rik came a few days after the start of the camp and they took over when Mike left on Monday. My first ride was with group 2 right at the start of camp, it was low key and around 3 hours long- nothing intense just moving the legs. However , it was AWESOME to be riding in the sunshine and I always get a kick out of riding with classy riders who really know how to ride a bike. The double line was tight, and the and the speed was always steady- no issues (at least no major issues, just some basic “woah, I don’t ride that fast by myself ever). The second ride was a few days later, again with group 2. This ride was NOT as easy for me. And it wasn’t that the guys were railing it or anything, the constantly rolling terrain just took it out of me. And although they weren’t hitting it hard, I can tell you that if I had a meter on my bike I would have been seeing 320-350 on many of the “rollers”. And what goes up comes down. The roads get pretty narrow and when I don’t know what’s coming up around the bend on a descent, I get……….. scared. The guys are very experienced and excellent bike handlers and when they go downhill, they do it next to one another and they do it fast- without even trying to go fast. I’m just not used to that and I’m not comfortable siting right on the back of them so I open up a little bit of a gap every now and again and if I’m not careful that gap grows QUCIKY which means I have to put in a pretty good dig to get back on. So when you add up a lot of descents and a lot of little digs, that starts to spell trouble for me. I was able to hang without too much hassle until……. We took a coffee stop late in the ride that day and it was planned that the group would do an up tempo rotation for about 20 mins on the flats leading back toward town. That Seemed straight forward enough . I would just sit on the back no problem, flat roads, nothing to fear and hone for lunch. ALMOST. When we rolled out of the café it was pretty much false flat downhill right away and guys were starting to get on it immediately. But some of the guys stopped for a nature break, and I needed to do the same and I figured if I stopped with them they’d pull me back to the group up the road. It made sense. The problem was that when we started rolling, Mike came back in the car and the 3 guys I was with got onto the bumper to get paced back up. I made the mistake of sitting a little too far behind them when the car started getting up to speed. These guys ride RIGHT on the bumper when the care car is going FAST. No, that’s not really safe. But that’s a real part of bike racing. There was enough room for me to get on the bumper too but I didn’t want to get in the way- the last thing I want to do is be the cause of mishap. From there things went downhill fast! When the care started pulling away and I was putting out WELL above a “hard” effort (I was on the LIMIT), I knew that I was going to be riding hone alone. The only issue is that I wasn’t sure exactly what direction that was. Mike was driving and he actually did end up waiting for me a few miles up the road. I got on the bumper in a last ditch effort to rejoin the guys up the road but after a few minutes I knew it wasn’t happening. I told Mike I’d figure out how to get home and thanks for the hand up. Lucky for me I ran into an English speaking rider a few minutes later who happened to be heading in the same direction as the team hotel. We got to talking and I told him what my deal was and he asked if I could show him around the service course etc.. I explained to him that that was not even a remote possibility but THANKS for the assistance in getting back. I was COOKED. The guys were pretty low key about giving me a hard time, but I know that probably enjoyed it just a little bit. After all, every morning at 7 30 am I got to tell them what to do and what I was telling them was not always comfortable for them. Karma is a bitch. My last ride with the team during Dec. camp was on the day before I left and it was with group 1-.THIS ride put me in the BOX. These guys were doing more intensity than group 1 due to their big events coming earlier in the season. I knew this before leaving the parking lot and for whatever reason I assumed it would be fine, 4.5 hours with some “tempo” efforts and some big gear work on a mtn.- repeats on the mtn. The first “tempo” effort was about an hour in and up a 3% winding road and the cross winds were serious. Being the last guy and sitting on the entire time should be pretty straight forward and not THAT tough since it was only a “tempo” effort. Whatever. I didn’t have a meter on but I was for sure putting out 310-320 ish on the back and every time I hesitated for even a moment and a gap started to open, the number went UP. I settled in and it ended up being “fine”e but that was pretty early in the ride and I had a long way to go. The mtn they used for big gear work was about a 15-20 mins climb on narrow smooth roads and amazing views. I rode up it twice NOT in a big gear and the descent off was twisting and FAST and I did my best not to hold any of the riders up on the way down. Blythe unclipped and dragged his cleat while riding behind me which made for a loud, freak-me out sound, but one that I heard before. He sensed my unease on the fast drop and was happy to add to it. Adam is one of my favorites, one of the new guys with a great sense of humor. One of those guys that make riding look effortless. After the hill reps we stopped for a coffee- my favorite part of every ride and then it was back to another “tempo” effort. More favorable winds and no 3% uphill grade and FASTER speeds. And that’s fine, it was more comfortable on the back but when we went around and through the many roundabouts at speed it was really un nerving for me. But no way was I going to get hung out to dry again- I made it back to base with the group this time. A few of the guys went off to motorpace for another hour…… very pro. I rolled in the last few miles in the small ring (it was about 70 degrees at this point) with Stefano, Philip and Klass. Not a bad way to end my riding at camp. And yes, I was blown up. Amen to the lunch buffet. The rest of that day I met with riders for movement screens and I think I did a pretty good job of hiding my INTENSE fatigue. Respect to these guys for the training and racing that they do.

I rode a handful of times on my own and basically rolled 2 hours at a time, some hill repeats etc. Not big hours but some consistent riding. No complaints- any riding at all is really a bonus. And to have the opportunity to sit on the team rides and observe these guys in action is really awesome. I plan to get in some good riding before I go back in Jan and should I end up out on a long ride with the guys, I will hopefully have a little more gas in the tank. That said, they will not be stopping training between now and then so I suspect that it won’t matter how much I ride, the results will be similar. So be it. There are definitely worse jobs.

Best,
TH

The first BMC training camp is officially underway here in Spain and I finished up with my first morning workout with the team a few hours ago. This is my third year with the team and I’m still super nervous before the start of the first session but as always, after the first 5 minutes I settled into my rhythm and got it done. I won’t lie, it’s a bit overwhelming when I’m looking around a room filled with some of the best riders in the world and telling then to use their hips more and to not forget to breathe. The evening session is at 6 pm and I will be meeting with riders throughout the camp and administering a functional movement screen and learning more specifically about their individual situations and what we can do to help improve their mobility and stability. Seems pretty straight forward…….. I admit it, I really like this job.

I left Seattle on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Paris at 10 am on Sunday and then caught my connection to Valencia, where I met up with John (BMC director sportif) and got a ride to the hotel . I slept 0 hours on the flight over but did watch 3 terrible movies- “Friends with Benefits” being the worst. I laughed out loud watching “Bridesmaids”, but then again they were serving a lot of wine on the flight to Paris. I was amazed that all 3 checked bags arrived with me. 1 bag had 75 lbs of physio balls in it, 1 was a ski bag filled with my movement screen tools and tennis balls (for some exercises) and 1 bag was just clothes and shoes- I basically wear t shirts and sweats everyday but I also packed some cycling kits because I have time to get some rides in. My med balls, all 27 are still stuck in customs, but the 40 TP grid rollers and 40 Powerbreathe units arrived to the hotel just before I did. I’m hopeful the I can get the med balls today but I won’t hold my breath, they’ve been stuck in customs for 2 weeks now. I can certainly manage without them but I can do a lot with them should they arrive. I kept the first session with the team pretty low key, just some fundamentals to see how they all move and as the camp progresses, I’ll spice things up a little bit. I’ve worked with a lot of the riders before so they know what to expect to some degree, but it’s really important to ease the news guys in as many of them won’t have done the kinds of movements that I teach and I don’t want them to feel overwhelmed, aka, want to leave the session.
So far my phone has not worked 1 day. Verizon did a good job of leaving me in the lurch so I am going to venture into Denia today and TRY to get a sim card for the bb and hopefully be able to call home and end text messages. BMC set me up with a team machine to ride for both camps so I’ll be able to ride everyday- I may go out with the team tomorrow but I may just go In the car and get some video footage, either way I win. I ran with Sayers my second morning. He complained that I was running too fast and I laughed at him. And then that afternoon I had a hard time walking, so I guess he ended up with the last laugh. I might run again….. that might have been the last run of 2011. The sun has been out every day and the temps have been in the 60s so no excuse not to ride. The pool looks pretty good too but I don’t want to appear lazy and have the management catch me poolside drinking a beer in the middle of the day. I’d be reading about conditioning of course but never the less- not pro.

So the update is that things are going smoothly- with the exception of the phone not working, but it seems reasonable that I will overcome that. I’ll continue to update every few days on the happenings. And yes, I did meet all of the new guys and it was great to reconnect with the riders as well as the staff from last season and the season before that. This is truly tight knit group and you can tell after being in a room with all of them for a few minutes that is a very special program and it’s an honor to be part of it. The last 12 years of work have led me to this place and I don’t take a minute of it for granted.
Best,
TH

I had to re-up my CPR certification last week. As part of CSCS wtih the NSCA…. (certified strength and conditining specialist with the National Strength and Condtioning Association) which I have to re-certify every few years, and a current CPR cert if required. I can’t really argue with that. In all of my years of working with clients in the gym and on the field I have never had to call on any life saving tehcniques, but you know how that goes? You say someting like “that” and the next day someone pases out and needs rescue breaths and chest compressions. I’m ready- at least the info. is really fresh in my mind.

I got my CSCS cert in the Spring of 98’ in NYC but a year prior I took the ACE exam (your basic study for a week or so type personal trainer test- I admit it!) and needed the cpr for that too, so I have been fluent in cpr speak for quite some time now. And when I sign up for one of these classes, it’s usually a weekday late in the afternoon set-up, for 5 hours of classroom and practical led by a cerified cpr tech. It’s always interesting because you get people from ALL walks of life- but other thatn that, the materail takes about 2 hours to cover but for whatever reason I think “they” think of the class is longer is will be more meaningful With the dawn of the AED (automatic external defibraltor), you don’t really need to do much, just open the case and listen to the robot voice tell you what to do.

Last weeks class had a 55 yr old, 300 lb “security” gaurd, a gent who was trying to get a job as a high school wrestling coach, a woman who runs a homeless shelter, a woman who spoke such bad English I have no idea what her reason for being there was, but she needed a larger shirt (I’ll leave it at that), a guy in a golf shirt, golf pants, golf hat and who talked about golf- he might have been a little drunk, and another woman who worked with disabled kids. And then me. I didn’t bother saying what I did other than that I operated a small business- it didn’t seem worth it to go into detail. And so the class went on. And as is often the case with these refresher courses my mind wandered and I thought about the times in the past- crashes in bike races, where I witnessed some life saving techniques in action and never are the situations as contained or straightforward as the “real life” videos they show in these classes. I thought of 3 crashes that I witnessed or was a part of in the past that I’ll mention, not because I like re hashing bad crashes but most people like a story and I can tie it/them into the fabric of my cpr re-fresher course material.

At Redlands in 2004 there was a nasty crash on stage 2? Maybe 3. We were descending a pretty shallow grade really fast and it was really hot out. I was in the front middle of the group and Dave Zabriskie- riding for Postal at the time, hit a crack in the road and lost the front end of his bike causing a massive pile up at aorund 40 mph. I had nowhere to go but into the pile. I remember hitting it without even coming close to braking and flipping over the bars, landing on my right forearm and having my legs fold over me and then having someone land on me- grinding my arm into the pavement. SUCK! When I finally got pulled from the pile there were guys all over the gound. Dave was bleeding from his ears and mouth and totally passed out- really not good. Mechanics and directors were running all over the place. It was mayhem and probably 25 guys where a part of he mess- none as bad off as Dave. I seemed ok, except for the gusher in my forearm. I basically had a hole up near my elbow and the pain was setting in. FLASH: to the video in cpr clsss on heavy bleeding. I was definitley light headed, not feelig right and bleeding heavy. I needed a compress. I got a rag from my mechanic, which he tied around my arm and put me back on my bike- we were 10 miles form the finsish and did not want to be out of the race. I don’t rememeber riding to the finish but I made it and went right to medical where I got what I needed. No stitches for the hole, just a big ass gauze. Zabriskie got air lifted out and lived to fight another day. A month later I showed up at the tour of Georgia with a rollerblade elbow pad on my arm- the hole was not all good just yet. Seems like whenever I crash, I land on that same area.

At the 2005 Fitchburg Longsjo Classic I witnessed the crash that almost ended Henk Vogels’ career. It was the Wachusette Mtn RR day- again it was HOT and I was in a group with Henk and about 6-7 others about 1 min up on the field and we were bombing the long and pretty straight descent on the course at around 50 mph. I was towards the back of the group and I saw Henk look back while in full super tuck to see where the group behind was at. As he did that he drifted to the right a bit and crossed the rear wheel in front of his and CRASHED……. hard. He bounched up and into a gaurd rail and did a serious number on himself. The race was stopped and he was hospital bound, but it took some time to get emergency personel to the scene. FLASH: back to class and the video of the person in an auto accident. In the video things are pretty calm and no one is screaming or really bleeding all over the place. Having the skill and where with all (is that one word?) to put it into practice right then and there is something you hope someone has- you might night actually save someones life. That was scary. I had the skills to get involved but someone else did. To this day I kick myself for not being more pro active but Henk got the care he needed and a year later (long time) , he was back in the group. As a side note, he is one of the top 3 toughest bike riders I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.

In the 2006 TOC, stage 3, there a a crash RIGHT at the end of the neutral roll out, on the day we were heading down the PCH right next to to the ocean- big cross wind day. My teamate Zack Grabowski went down hard in the pile up and was totally (I guess he either was or wasn’t- totally just sounds more extreme) knocked out- he looked dead to me. I missed going down but came to a halt behind the stack and saw Zack on the ground. I straight up panicked because he looked dead to me. I stopped and waited as medical personel rushed to the scene. The peleton led by Gerolsteiner was NOT waiting and was ripping down the road. Noramally the roll out and the first few miles are pretty low key so I figured I would be able to ride back through the cars and back into the group. My Teammate Davide Frattini was with me and we both waited to make sure Zack got what he needed. FLASH: I should be checking his airway, checking him for bleeding, etc etc. That’s what my mind did NOT go to. I was freaked out and even more so when I realized we had to bolt to get back into the race. Long story, or short story short, Davide and I chased like mad men to get back on. The field was flying down the road in the cross winds and guys were getting shelled. Our team car was back with Zac so we had no one to give us an illegal draft back up! I went into panic mode and my legs were LOADED. I was really ready for this race- meaning i was hopefull that I could maybe do a top 30 (20-30) place- just keeping it real, the field was pretty stacked.
Our team car finally came up to us, Zack was fine, and we were on the bumper at 45 plus. AND… that was not enough. The moto judge kept coming back and giving us a hard time and eventually just left us so we grabbed onto the car and were instructed to “NOT let go” by our director. I’m not sure how fast we were going but I can tell you that it was not safe for me at all. In fact, I started to panic a little, especially as we were rounding some bends by the ocean and the g forces were adding to my panic. I let go. Davide made it back to to the group. I was left in no mans land and rolled up on a random rider every few miles. My TOC was over. I can’t be mad about stopping for a friend in need but the reality is that my stopping made 0 diferrence, it only made for the excuse as to why my race ended early. Maybe I would have won the stage and gone onto ride for some euro team. But probably not. Things happen so fast sometimes, even when they happen in slow motion that you can’t always make the “right” move. Maybe I did. Regardless, Zack ended up just fine. I got to go home early. Not awesome.

The 5 hours went by pretty quicly when I factor in all the day dreaming. there was no written test but I can honestly say I walked out of there with my cpr skills up to date. So don’t hesitate to let me give you emergency care should the situation present itself.

Best,
TH

Last weekend Richter and I along the the Saris NE regional rep, Eric Wallace, boarded an EARLY morning plane to Wisconsin to visit Saris/Cycleops hq in Madison, Wi.. A few months earlier Eric had asked us if we’d be interested in going on the trip and mentioned that the weekend would kick off the the Nebraska/UW game Saturday afternoon, which would lead into the Greenbay/Bronco game on Sunday which would lead into a Saris hq tour on Monday. It was pretty easy to decide. Yes. We’ve been selling Saris/Cyclops powermeters and trainers since HSP opened the doors, even before the Pro Shop was opened. I’ve used powertap off and on since 2001 when TUNE was making the meters. As excited as I was to see some football games- and I will admit to being a fair weather fan, I was really excited to see Saris up close and learn more about the company.

I picked Richter up at 4 30 am on Sat. Tough start to the day. We met Eric at HSP and off we went. When we landed in Madison we were greeted curbside by national sales rep., Mike Blang and others who were waiting with vans to take us to our first stop: Casa de Blang for early tailgating before the drive to Badger stadium. Our group consisted of about 25 all in as reginonal managers from around the country brought 2-4 select retailers to the event. It was a friendly crew for sure and Richter and I were the only Pro Shop style retailers on board, which made for some interesting conversations with some of the other attendees. Ron Kiefel, former junior worlds team member, 7-11 journeyman, Coors Light heavy hitter, and Wheatridge Cyclery owner was on the trip which had me geeking out a little. I’m not sure many of the others realized what a player Ron was/is, but whatever. I’m always pretty excited to meet the guys I followed when I got into cycling back in 84’. Moving on. We tailgated at Blang’s, headed to another tailgate party at the stadium which required a special pass, and watched an underwhelming performance by Nebraska- I’m a Nebraska native so I felt a need to cheer for my people. The highlight of the game was being asked at least 3x by different people if we- Richter, Eric and myself, were in a band. One guy thought we were the goo goo dolls…..really? We should’ve run with that one. After the game we were pretty blown and packed it in and drove to hotel by a lake and got some rest.

Sunday we left around 10 for historic Lambeau field and the Packers game. We had another tailgate party to attend pregame, put together by our Saris hosts, that had me stuffed with brats and beer by 2. Richter had been talking about getting a cheese head for weeks leading up to the trip and his dreams were realized about halfway through the game when he got up and said, “I’m going to get my cheesehead”. He came back 20 mins later with it on HIS head. Pro. We spent the second half of the game in a sky box that had plenty of food and drink- super bonus. What an amazing stadium and although football isn’t my sport of choice, I’m always impressed by the skill of professional athletes- and these guys were no exception. After the game it was back to the hotel and some dinner.

Monday was an early rise and we were off to Saris hq and a factory tour led by Mike Blang and company owner, Chris Fortune. We started with a brief overview of what the morning would hold and then we split into groups and got down to business. The factory tour was really amazing. I had no idea that pretty much all of the manufacturing was done right there on the grounds and the manufacturing that’s done off site is done close by in Madison. Saris/Cyclops is a made in the USA company and you just don’t see much of that anymore. It’s one reason why the customer service is so great. If there is an issue they can track down the reason pretty quickly. We’ve done a lot of business over the years with the company and the customer service has always been top notch. We also spent time hearing about and seeing new product and it’s great to see that they continue to listen to the retailers and customers about what they want. The upgrades to the powertap line are fantastic. If you’ve been on the fence about using a meter- especially if cost is the issue, they’ve lowered prices and improved the product. We’re looking forward to the new stuff coming in and I can honestly say that I was going to use a different meter on my bike for 2012, but after this visit I decided to roll a powertap- I was that impressed.

What a great weekend. Whenever we get the opportunity to meet the people behind a brand we work with, we do so. Chris Fortune is a genuinely great guy who believes in the products he’s producing. He takes pride in making his product in the US and he is leading the bicycle advocacy charge in Wisconsin and beyond. Aside form that, he’s very generous- I think I spent 20 bucks the entire weekend. And you can also see that his employees are happy and believe in what they’re doing, and that’s not always the case these days. Bottom line is we’re as excited as ever to be doing business with a great company that is constantly working to produce even better products. We will be carrying the full line of the 2012 Cyclops powermeters featuring updated hub and head unit designs and of course we will continue to use the Powerbean indoor trainers for our classes- we’ve even added a few super magneto’s just for good measure. I’m still bumming about Nebraska getting blown out but after the trip my desire to learn to play the drums was reignited. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be in a band.
Best,
TH

The inner tube is one of the most unassuming parts of your whip. But hidden under your tires is the product of the year…if you are running Specialized’s new Ultralight Turbo tubes. Why am I so impressed with this product? First off, the tubes come packaged pre-talc’d. Talcing the tubes (only a couple manufactures do this) allows the tube to move freely & not adhere to the inside of the tire. The next reason these tubes stand-out are because the valve stem is only threaded half way. This allows ease of taking the pump head on & off. And it also prevents ripping your pump head gasket up. I think we’ve all pumped our tire up & tried pulling the head off, ending up slamin’ our hand on the spokes…ending in blood-shed. Not a minor issue. The next thing these tubes have going for them are the weight. They’re 40 grams lighter than the standard Specialized tube. The 48mm road tube comes in at 70 grams…and it’s butyl, not latex so it holds air better.
All of the mentioned points make for a great tube, but the thing that sets this tube apart is the way the valve is attached to the tube. The valve/tube interface patch is 48mm. wide. Most interface patches are 25-30mm. This wide base prevents wear & tear on the rim-to-valve interface. What this equates to is ~13% less rolling resistance drag per wheel. Woah. Seventeen bucks for a huge performance increase. It’s not carbon fiber, but it is my product of the year.

-Rocket

I got back on Monday afternoon from my first ever trip to the Tour de France, what most call the biggest bicycle race in the world. Since I’ve been back at HSP I’ve been asked over and over about what the best part of the trip was, and honestly, there simply wasn’t one specific moment that stood out above all others. Simply put, the trip ranked in the top 3 life experiences I’ve had to date- I won’t bore you with the other two right now.

This was no ordinary trip to a bike race. About a month ago I got a call from the GM of BMC USA, asking me if I’d be interested in going over to Switzerland to check out BMC hq and then take a train to Paris to see the final stage of the Tour on the Champs Elysees. It would be a 4 day trip and all I had to do was let the travel agent know what city I wanted to fly out of and the rest would be taken care of, VIP style. Hmmmm. Let me think about that for a few minutes……The only caveat was that I would be in Northern Minnesota fishing with my parents in the middle of nowhere and the travel out would be a little complicated (another story there as well). That small issue was easily figured out and I ended up flying out of Duluth last Wed morning and arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday morning.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the BMC team for the past 2 seasons as strength and conditioning consultant. Which means that I have attended training camp the last 2 seasons and worked with the riders as a team and individually on improving their stability and mobility on and off the bike. Working with top caliber athletes has been a dream of mine since I started in the coaching/conditioning business back in 1996. ANYWAY…… I also work with a few riders on the team in the coaching/consulting capacity so needless to say, having the opportunity to go over and see the final day of the tour was an exciting proposition. And arriving in Europe to the possibility of Cadel taking the yellow jersey and winning the overall made the trip that much more over the top. Here’s a quick run down of each day.

Thursday: Arrive in Switzerland and meet up with the other dealers in our US crew- there were 9 of us in total. We were picked up and taken to Grenchen (hq) were we got a tour of the Impec factory and saw the end of the stage on TV. I could write an entire story just on the Impec and the robot that builds it, check it out here. Had dinner in the hotel, drank a little wine, passed out HARD.

Friday: Up early and into the BMC showroom to see and hear about the entire line for 2011 including road, mtn and lifestyle bicycles. There was also a round table discussion with the engineers, PR and design team about what we liked/didn’t like in the current line and our thoughts on the new line- pretty cool. These guys actually listened to what we had to say. Then we had a presentation on the new TM01- check it out here. And then it was back to HQ and watching another stage of the Tour. TENSE moments for Cadel and the team and lots of yelling in the room. We then had a dinner out and consumed much wine….maybe too much.

I should add here that all of the people that I shared the trip with were exceptional. Lots of fun- added bonus.

Saturday: Up early and feeling the affects of the wine…a lot. Checked out and headed to the train station and on to Paris. Had a hard time keeping down breakfast. I had a beer with my crew, hair of the dog style, which set me up for about an our of pretty serious misery. The 2 gents sitting in front of me on the train were drinking a large bottle of whiskey and every time they took the cap off for a gulp, the smell sent me into a tail spin. From the train we cabbed it to the Hotel California just off the Champs. I checked in and picked up a bag of BMC goodies and headed to the hotel bar with 100 plus other BMC folk form around the globe to watch the TT. THAT was awesome. What a dramatic stage that basically wrapped the Tour up for Cadel. The bar erupted and the champagne poured and poured. After that we headed out for a boat ride on the Seine (sure, I do that all the time) which was followed up with a dinner out at a renowned Bistro. More wine and more champagne. WOW. Any Rihs arrived and thanked us all for coming- what a great guy he is. We feasted and then our crew stumbled back to the hotel and then to bed. We all knew Sunday would be off the chain with Cadel riding into Paris wearing yellow- I just didn’t expect it to be SO off the chain.

Sunday: I was up around 8 and rolled out to the champs to find some food and coffee. The entire BMC posse, about 100 plus sporting team jerseys, met in the lobby of the hotel where we traveled as a group to our VIP tent about 70 yards away form the finish line. THIS tent was not for camping. In it were many tables, an open bar and view right on the race course. As soon as I walked in I was handed a glass of champagne- standard for this trip it seems- and the festivities kicked off. For lunch I had a duck breast stuffed with foie gras, just like back home….. We were “tenting” for about 3 hours and THEN, they showed up. It was great to see the race that up close and personal and when the race ended and Cadel was officially the winner, we waited to see the team as each team road a parade lap around the Champs. When the team made it to our tent, they were greeted with champagne and about 100 photographers- it was pretty overwhelming. It was great to see Brent, who looked happy, tired, relieved and ecstatic all at once. We chatted back and forth every day of the tour on bb messenger and I knew how busted up he was. I got a few pics with Brent and I even got a hug with Cadel – pretty sick. 3 weeks of hard racing and the V, what a time to be hanging out with the team and the extended BMC family.

We then made out way back to the hotel, changed, met up again in the lobby and headed over to Club 1515 for THE after party. And what a party it was. Long story short, there were plenty of introductions, dinner at midnight, an open bar, a DJ and a lot of very happy people. I limped back to the hotel around 3:30 and called it a night as the flight out in the am was early-ish and I was sharing a cab with some of my new friends from the US. Sure there was some moon walking etc, just use your imagination.

It’s Thursday and I’m not 100% back on track after a very festive 4 days. My experience with the BMC company and with the riders and the staff have been nothing but outstanding. Any Rihs talked a lot about the BMC family and it really felt like a family. When I stared working with team in 2010 at the Ca. training camp I could not have imagined having the opportunity to work with them again in 2011 at their training camp in Spain. I knew the team was capable of winning the Tour but if you would have told me I would have been in Paris celebrating their win I would have been skeptical. Wow, what a trip. It’s always inspiring to be around people who are focused on being the best. Based on this year, I can only imagine what next year will bring.

TH

Hibros is an Italian company that puts out some of our favorite products. One of our all-time favorites is the shower gel. I’d heard that a lot of professional teams were using the Soprasella chamois cream, or as Hibros says, protective softening cream. We carry the classic Assos, Sportique Century & DZ’s Nuts chamois creams. To carry another cream, it has to be better or different from the others. So, Giancarlo sent us some big 500ml. pro tubs of the Soprasella. The big tubs dwarf the 140ml. Assos cans, and you get a better deal by committing to the giant Soprasella tub.
The Soprasella has a nice subtle smell, not the polarizing menthol smell common in chamois creams. It has a thinner consistency than Assos. What differentiates Soprasella the most from the pack is that there is no residual waxy film left on you, or your shorts after riding. The other creams we carry do a great job, but there is a waxy residue after. It really is not a big issue, since a shower usually follows a ride.
Hibros Soprasella has passed Pro Shop muster. Bang-for-your-buck, subtleness, easy of application (no toothpaste tube squeezing) and softening properties puts Soprasella in a nice spot on our shelves.

I always get excited when I test out a new tire, especially a tubular. Schwalbe has produced tubulars for a few years now. But this year they are different. The previous version was produced by Tufo. I’m quite familiar with these, because I was contracted to ride Schwalbe one of my years as a professional. Tufo makes tubulars different from most manufactures. They integrate the casing and the tube. I remember riding the Tufo produced Schwalbe’s and never being able to dial the pressure to get the perfect balance of a smooth ride and enough pressure to prevent flatting. And the smooth tread and hard rubber compound never hooked-up ideal. But they were light (under 200 grams). The new Schwalbe tubulars use classic construction with a latex tube and a classic diamond tread pattern, weighing-in at a claimed weight of 290 (but we weighed them at 280). The Ultremo HT (handmade tubular) passed my non-scientific (but highly effective) compound touch test, so it was time to ride. They glued-up nicely…round, with little imperfections. The test tires were 25mm. big-boys. But they look much narrower than the claimed 25mm. They are also available in a 22mm. (claimed).
I pumped the tires up to a typical 25mm. tubular pressure I usually prefer. I recommend going even a bit lower than typical with these treads. They come with a flat protection barrier they call RaceGuard. I’m not sure this is necessary. I wonder how much lighter they’d be if it didn’t have this extra protection? But this does make this a tire a potential great choice on roads where flat tires are more common.
The ride on the Ultremo’s was great. The tread/compound hooked-up as good as any tire I’ve ridden. I tested them at Seward Park, so comparison was easy…I’ve done a lot of laps there. The ride was not harsh. The tires gave that rubber-band like quality, with little road noise. A ride I’ve experienced with top-notch tires like Veloflex. So, the first impression of the Schwalbe Ultremo HT tubulars is great. It’s nice to have another manufacture produce a good race tubular.

A few weeks back, maybe it was even a month ago? I did my first ever masters race. I competed (that even sounds like a master!) in the Wa. state masters road race championship in the 40-50 age category. I’ve been planing on writing this post since the race took place but it’s taken me this long to put myself into a masters race so whats a few weeks to get to writing the story?

A brief history: I did my first bike race in 1985 as a junior, I was a Nebraska resident a the time. I turned professional in 2003 and from 1993 to late 2000 I was out of racing pursuing this that and the other- from loading cameras in Hollywood (long story) to studying the ins and outs of strength and conditioning. I never imagined the day when I would enter a masters race- not because masters racing is not challenging and extremely competitive but simply because I never imagined that I would be old enough or time constrained enough to consider it. In fact I can remember saying that I will start racing masters races in my 50’s, 50 just seemed like the right time to call ones self a master- and that was based on nothing more than 50 being what I considered the start of being “older”. One can actually start doing masters races at age 30 but that just seems to young to me- I base that on nothing other than the fact that 30 seems young.

I realized this Spring that the residual fitness from those many years of training and racing was starting to fail me, meaning that it was getting very difficult to be competitive with the local fast guys without actually riding more than a few hours per week- still doable but very difficult. I also found myself wanting to do more than just train and race. The business was getting busier aka time constraints and I like sleeping in until 7 30- sometimes even LATER…. on the weekends and spending time at home with my wife and doing things around town. OF course when you start doing that, the training time gets seriously compromised and 8-10 hours a week of riding- which was once considered a sleeper week in a training cycle, becomes a real struggle. The reality was/is that I had/have gotten to that stage. Peter Pan has reached a real cross roads.

I still get in the longer rides every now and again but unfortunately those rides are happening on race day. The idea is to show up on race day ready to conquer, not just with the hope of making it too the finish line. When you get to that point I think it only makes sense to look into the Masters racing scene. And by that I mean shorter races with gents dealing with the same time constraints, not that the racing is any less competitive I’m a believer that just riding around in the group hoping to make the finish is not actually racing- but that’s my opinion and the great thing about bike racing is that if can be whatever you want it to be. I’m obviously struggling with the realization that masters racing is where I“m at these days. I“m not full on throwing myself into the 40-45 (or however the categories are broken down) age group full time just yet as I can still mix it up (now I’m defending myself) with the younger lads. But because I still very much love racing and want to be competitive I“m simply paying more attention to the distance of the races and being honest with myself. Anyway, the point of the post was a race report on the masters state road race championships.

The race was 3 laps on a 15 or 16 mile rolling course. I have done the race in the 1-2 category the past few years and have been 4th and 2nd.- and that was with 6-7 laps. I figured I would fair pretty well regardless of not having prepared specifically for the event and without having any teammates in the race. Lots of guys were asking me how old I was when we were standing on the line, with a tone that doubted that I was actually 40 plus. I guess that should have made me feel good but it actually made me question what I was doing there…… even though I was very much qualified to be there. I was on a really nice carbon bike, with really nice carbon wheels, dressed in a quality kit with a snazzy pair of shoes, Oakley shades etc etc…… I was THAT masters guy…….and the gun/whistle went off.

At the end of the day I found myself in a 2 up sprint for the line and like many times before when I have been in this situation, I got over anxious and ended up leading out. I“m not sure why I continue to make this mistake every year knowing that I have 1 good sprint in me per season and that usually comes around in late July- I proved that to be true again. I straight up got smoked for no other reason than that the guy that did the smoking sprinted faster than me. I won’t say that I was happy about it, in fact for a about 30 seconds I was beside myself with “WTF” but I quickly got over it. I should have played it differently but that was all I had that day. The day confirmed that for me that the masters group would be plenty challenging. I opened “that” door and have gotten CLOSER to accepting that I’m not 25, 30, 32, 35, or even 38 anymore. I have a great respect for the guys that get out there every weekend and slay themselves in the early morning races and then jet back home to take kids to practice, work the garden, do the shopping with the wife, etc. etc. THAT’S a hard gig. I understand it much better now. If you love racing your bike, you figure out a way to make it happen and if it means less training, early races, MASTERS races, whatever, you do it. I’m not sure why its taken me so longer to figure that out, but that’s the beauty of biker racing: you can make it whatever you want it to be.

Best,
TH