Mellow Velo

PRO Team Weekend – Day 1

Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by KFullerF4 in Life, Road

Meeting Team Vera Bradley Foundation

The lovely women of Team Vera Bradley Foundation with foundation spokesperson and cancer survivor, Heidi (tall one in the center). Team director Lisa Hunt is on the far right.

Thursday — By 7:00 in the evening, I found myself in a van full of professional women cyclists. I was in a daze, rocking back and forth with half a cheek on the bench seat, fighting to stay awake on the fumes of four hours of sleep enjoyed in the distant past. We were an hour and a half into what should have been a 45-minute drive, trying to find a Thai restaurant in San Jose.

“Since you’re affected by the radio ban, should I be writing down that you’re in trouble because you all seem to have no sense of direction?” I asked, trying to make light of the fact that we had just made our third illegal u-turn.

No one laughed. I slumped back into my seat next to Alison Powers, hoping she wouldn’t notice the softness of my wimpy thigh squished against her solid muscle. I noted that although I appear to be roughly the same size, shape and weight as many of the team members, the difference is that when I sit down, my thighs spread out and settle whereas theirs do not. Solid muscle holds its shape much better than under-ridden legs.

We did get to the Blue Mango eventually – well past the point of hunger-induced crankiness – but I was relieved by the kindness and welcome the team extended to me, in spite of the fact that the communications director forgot to tell them I was coming. I can’t imagine what the men’s teams are like, but reason, experience and stereotype lead me to believe that had I been in a car with the male equivalents of the Canadian road champ, the U.S. NRC points champ, a two-time U23 criterium champ, last year’s U.S. time trial champ and a collegiate wonder, they would not have been so down to earth and willing to have a nameless freelance writer, cycling fan and non-racer (at this point) tag along like a barnacle.

We spent the evening sharing food (peanut stuff was popular) and talking with Heidi, a breast cancer survivor and spokeswoman for the Vera Bradley Foundation, the team’s title sponsor. Although other pro teams and pro sports have begun to associate themselves with causes, Team VBF is probably the first cycling team to actively raise money alongside raising awareness and raising hell on the race course. Each individual Team VBF racer has the goal of raising $2,000 for the Vera Bradley Foundation, 100% of which is turned over to the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis for research purposes. (You can learn more and donate here.)

The team’s training camp is based 45 minutes south of San Jose in a beach house just outside Watsonville, a farming town that primarily grows apples, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and table mushrooms. Since I couldn’t check into the fabulous Red Roof Inn until 3 p.m., I drove aimless loops around downtown and the nearby neighborhoods. There were migrant workers walking everywhere, ducking in and out of tiny cafes where a word of English was neither spoken nor written. Beyond town, the farmland glowed green, ringed by rainbows from the giant industrial sprinklers. I eventually landed at Starbucks, my face buried in an espresso drink. I watched a guy on a yellow bike with one purple wheel and one red wheel doing track stands in front of Target.

Sadly, I don’t remember much else from the first five hours I spent with Team Vera Bradley Foundation. We arrived back at the house around 10:30 to see Brian the mechanic out in the cold washing wheels. I myself returned to my hotel and a warm bed as fast as the Chevy Cobalt rental car could go (which is not very fast).

Those Rolf wheels need to stay clean

Tags: California, Team Vera Bradley Foundation