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Thursday, March 10, 2011

It’s Like Christmas…Well, More Like Hanukkah

It’s about this time every year that all of the PRO team camps are come and gone. We’ve been reading about them on cyclingnews.com and velonews.com for a couple months now and are ready for racing to begin already. Everyone has all their new team kit and is fit from a week riding in some sunny locale we all envy. Well hold on, not everyone. For us amateurs the process is a bit different.

Being based in New England, the BikeReg.com/Cannondale team camp is still a few weeks away. April is a little late to be getting set up on a new bike and most of us have already done a few races. So instead of showing up at camp with our new bikes and all our gear neatly laid out for us in one big bang, it’s being shipped in stages as the team gets it. This way we can begin racing and getting dialed on our new whips before the real racing starts. So instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy (somewhat stressful) nights.

In some ways it’s a bit frustrating. I’m on my new frame but I still don’t have wheels, TRP brakes, a Thompson seatpost and stem and some of my new drivetrain. You miss out on that huge rush of throwing your leg over a brand new ride and setting off into the sunset but realistically it’s a lot better for the rider. Then my new Mavic shoes arrived and are awesome, but they were way too huge so I had to send them back. Hopefully I reordered the right size but who knows? Clothing was shipped all over the country to everyone individually so there were a few errors that can’t be immediately rectified. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not complaining. This is just the kind of thing you have to deal with before you make that next big step up. I feel like it keeps us humble, as we should be. The team manager, Todd Nordblom, has done an amazing job bringing everything together. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from him. Everything else will be at camp and then we’ll be ready to roll and that’s the number one goal.

It seems like a drag but trust me, the alternative is much worse. When you wait till team camp and nothing is right it’s awful. This way, all of the problems are sorted out before team camp and we can seamlessly roll into the new season. Check out some of the flash new BikeReg.com/Cannondale stuff that will be raging on a race near you…

Remember that post when I bitched about wearing old sunglasses? Not a problem.


Best aluminum bike in the world, check.




Random Updates: First race of the season last weekend. Seven hours driving in the rain to race two hours in the rain, welcome back to racing.

I now have a column in the Embrocation Cycling Journal. My biweekly column is called, “Nothing is Written.” The explanation of the title and what it’s all about will be in the first article which should be up in the next day or so. Check it out. It’s a cool site with more a lifestyle twist. It’s a nice break from Cyclingnews or Velonews.

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