Mellow Velo

PRO Team Weekend – Day 3

Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by KFullerF4 in Life, Road

THE RIDE

Saturday was the real reason I ended up at pre-season camp with the Vera Bradley Foundation cycling team. On that day, a $200 donation to the foundation would buy a ride with the team. CycleTo was allowed to give away a free slot, and somehow I managed to win the drawing.

On my way to California, a woman stopped me in the Denver airport to ask if I raced for a pro team. It must have been because my helmet was strapped to my backpack, or perhaps it’s because that area of the country has a disproportionate number of extraordinary athletes. I laughed and told her I was just going to play one for a day.

That day dawned hazy and cool. I could just barely make out the ocean beyond the rise of neon-green fruit farms spread over rolling hills. I suited up in shorts, leg warmers, sleeveless base layer, short-sleeve jersey, wind vest and arm warmers, which I forgot are too big to stay up on their own. At the team house, Alison Powers overheard me quietly cursing them and bounded down two flights of stairs in her bike shoes to retrieve a pair of safety pins. She then showed me the “PRO” way (her words) to secure the arm warmers.

Our group of 14 rolled out into the ocean breeze at 9:30. I felt fresh and elated, more so than I expected. I didn’t think I’d be that giddy fan, but when it came time to saddle up next to a large group of people whom I had grown to admire immensely, and when I suddenly found myself cruising in a peloton of a fully-kitted-out team preparing to race the likes of Redlands, the Gila and various national championships, I felt a rush of excitement.

To my immense relief, I had joined the team on a recovery ride. The women were more talkative on the bike than off, and I asked Erica Allar about the discrepancy. She hypothesized that when they are cycling, they are focusing only on cycling and, in a way, are more free. But when they are off the bike, life comes rushing back. On top of dealing with jobs, family and personal care, they are also trying to find a bit of quiet time.

My lead-out train

The only photo of me riding with the bunch

We wound our way through a few small towns and up a twisting, gradual incline into woods dense with vegetation and freakishly-tall trees. Glued happily to the wheel in front of me, I never noticed we had been climbing until we turned around and roared back down. I love the blinding speed of winding, fast descents, but never get to experience them in south Texas. I was a bit nervous flying around the diving corners with other riders so close to my bike – other riders who needed to stay in one piece more than I did.

“I’m sure they were keeping a very close eye on you,” my dad said when I recounted the story.

The second half of the ride turned hilly in parts. The first long climb snaked up a hill on smooth asphalt. Someone was calling out the percent grade as we rode. I actually enjoyed the slow, deliberate, beautiful climb and felt a sense of liberation not knowing my speed, how far we had left or even what time it was. I arrived at the top without wanting to stop, soft pedal or die (progress). The Amira itself was a joy to climb; the bike is smooth like butter but has an acceleration that reminds you it would like to shoot away when you stand to pedal. Oh, and it had a compact crank instead of just a double. Thank the good and gracious gods of cycling!

Rest stop in the woods

We were out for five hours, some of the fastest, most enjoyable five hours of my life on the bike. My guess is we rode for at least four, our longest stop being at Starbucks. Out of 14 people, probably 10 had an iPhone but only one had an emergency wad of cash. We stretched the 20 bucks to caffeinate everyone and dined on donated boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

There came a point in the last half-hour of the ride when turning right would take us back to the team house on a flat, quick route and turning left would require a bit more time and a lot more climbing. Team director Lisa Hunt took her friend right and I followed the team left, hoping I wouldn’t regret my decision. I was determined to do the full ride as intended, to give myself an extra tiny shred of street cred, to take advantage of the good training or just to avoid regretting it later. Whichever it was, I tensed a bit when they picked up the pace, motivated by home and hunger, but was fine as long as I held a wheel. I decided that getting dropped on a climb would be less embarrassing than avoiding the climb altogether.

My legs started to feel blown on the final ascents. I am not at all a climber and was grateful for the shouts of genuine encouragement and occasional push on the back from Carrie Cash and Israeli national road champion, Leah Goldstein. While I felt extreme gratitude for their help, I was not at all surprised that they cared. After three days, I came to see that this bunch of world-class cyclists are just as easily classified as world-class nice people.

Me and Lauren Hall, a first-year pro

Mad rush on Starbucks

Me and Carrie – the one who got me up the final climbs

Typical…

Easy rollin’

Lone rider hammering

Post-ride trip to Whole Foods for Kombucha. L to R: Alison T., me, Lauren, Alison P., Carrie, Erica

Some of us wandered around the beach before dinner at the team house

Fruit fields between my hotel and the team house

Tags: California, PRO cycling, Team Vera Bradley Foundation