Mellow Velo

PRO Team Weekend – Day 2

Posted on 07. Mar, 2010 by KFullerF4 in Life, Road

SPECIALIZED

Team Vera Bradley Foundation's Specialized Amira at Specialized headquarters. $10,000 worth of hella fast.

Friday – - I awoke late feeling like a human being again, having slept off the hangover of a day that got me from Texas to California. I trundled downstairs with notebook, recorder and cameras in tow, only to find that my breakfast choices at the Red Roof Inn were white toast, wheat toast, Fruit Loops or Corn Flakes. I skipped the sludge they tried to pass for coffee and typed “Starbucks” into the GPS. I then hit the grocery store for bananas and peanut butter chewy bars. If I was going to survive Saturday’s ride, I was going to need protein.

I arrived at the team house at 10 a.m., just in time to see the ladies riding away to Specialized headquarters, located about a 40-minute drive north in Morgan Hill. The team participated in the Specialized lunch ride, which is a “world championship” hammerfest on Fridays. (I gracefully declined. I would have lasted all of 10 minutes.) Turnout was huge, which was perhaps why a cop showed up a few hours later asking to see a manager and wanting to talk about road safety. A fit specialist sitting with us rolled his eyes and said that has happened before. Despite bringing in business to the small town, the drivers and the cyclists don’t always get along.

Unfortunately, the tour of Specialized HQ we thought we were getting somehow fell through the cracks, and most of the women wanted to ride back anyway. I did get to wander around the employee break area and meet Donny Perry, a “Specialized Bicycle Components University” trainer with an interesting collection of cycling-related tattoos. His office was also one most of us dream of – surrounded by bikes and gear. There were bikes leaned against desks, bikes in the hallways and bikes on the walls. One just outside his office area had a little sticker on the back: “T. Boonen.”

I was also allowed to borrow an Amira from a giant garage full of demo bikes. I couldn’t believe it when they said I could have one. I assumed a free loaner – especially one going out for several days – would be a 10-year old aluminum bike, but I was instead handed an $8,000 piece of carbon strung with Dura Ace components, a carbon handlebar and tubeless tires.

“Just make sure someone gets it back by Tuesday.”

Wooooooo hoo!

Sadly, I had to wait. My ride back to the team house was via car, not bike, although some the most enlightening conversations of the day were in transit. I rode to Specialized in the team van with Jessi the communications director, Brian the team mechanic and Molly the soigneur. I asked them how they liked working for a women’s team. Molly and Brian agreed that the women are generally more appreciative.

“Some of my friends who wrench for men’s teams are shocked when I tell them that the girls say ‘thank you’ when I stay up late tuning and cleaning their bikes,” said Brian. “The other mechanics tell me they are up until 2 a.m. working on bikes and their riders still complain.”

Part of the cyclists’ gratitude comes from the fact that they don’t have as much provided for them, explained Molly. Since the men get more funding and more publicity, they get more stuff. They usually stay in hotels and are thus removed from a lot of the daily activities required to run a pro team – they just don’t realize what happens behind the scenes. Soigneurs prepare bottles, do laundry and fix meals for the men, who generally expect those things to be done. On the other hand, the women are often under-supported and under-funded. They stay in host housing where they help cook, clean and get themselves ready for races. There is no behind the scenes for them.

I learned from VBF cyclist Kristin Sanders that many women – like herself – start out racing on their own, meaning they must make all of their travel arrangements, pack their own bikes and provide their own support. It’s a sport that requires the women to be extraordinarily motivated and willing to spend their limited resources on an expensive, often elusive dream. Thanks to highly-supported development teams, male pro cyclists usually don’t have to fend totally for themselves much, if at all. (You can read Kristin’s blog here, the Kristin Kronicles.)

These women are really into what they do. It’s immensely inspiring to sit in a room with some of the top cyclists in the world and to know that they got there while balancing lives, jobs, families and college. It also helps that they’re really down to earth. I often had to step aside and whisper to the communications director, Jessi, asking her which cyclist had won what because they weren’t offering up their phenomenal results in initial conversations.

Not only that, but the ladies can cook. For dinner we had mushroom and chicken risotto-stuffed peppers. The salad was dressed with feta, sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and baked chunks of pumpkin squash. The meal was outstanding, the company equally so, and I felt like an unreasonably-spoiled guest. Of course, before we ate, we gave thanks to the cycling gods, and I prayed silently for survival on Saturday’s team ride.

Team Amiras at the entrance of the place where they were conceived

Alison, Canadian road champion. She’s quiet, friendly and deadly

The lunch ride departs Specialized

Employee bikes in the Specialized garage

Racks of demo bikes in the Specialized garage. Cross on the top shelf, road on the second shelf and mountain bikes on the bottom.

Mini-museum inside Specialized HQ

Canada parks her Amira next to Alison Power’s Tarmac on the “Bummer” – a bike rack for guests. At 5′10″, Alison Powers is too tall to ride an Amira.

Tags: California, Specialized, Team Vera Bradley Foundation