Curbstomping 2009

(warning-this post might get pretty epic)

So now that I've already had the first team camp for next season, I figure it is about time to announce my racing plans for next year. I am racing with the Hincapie Development Team in 2009 as well as spending more time in Europe with the US U-23 National Team. The Hincapie Development team is title sponsored by Hincapie Sportswear, a clothing company started by George Hincapie and his brother, Rich. Last year Rich started the team with a vision to create one of the Nation's best teams for Juniors and U23 riders. This weekend was our first team camp in Greenville, SC where Hincapie is based.

The weekend was great and has me even more motivated for next year. Friday we had dinner at Rich's house where I got to know my new teammates. Well, really, most of them I already knew and the ones that I didn't, I do know. Everyone on our roster seems to gel really well together which will be important when we're in the closing miles of a race and all the pressure is on. Dinner was great and we watched the documentary "Road to Roubaix" afterwards. I also met a lot of the team's mentors, which is one thing i really like about this team-we have a ton of adults surrounding us in charge of logistics, keeping one person from getting overloaded.

Saturday ended up being pretty epic. I was staying, along with Blair Turner, in Greenville with teammate Strad Helms (big thanks to his mom for being a great host on more than one occasion). Strad, myself, Blair and Nicole (one of our female riders who lives near Strad) rolled over to meet the group at Rich's house. Craig Lewis and George Hincapie arrived with some of their riding buddies and we were off. After two hours of easy riding on great backroads, most of the team began to head back. Rich suggested Chris Butler and myself go with Craig and George for more riding. So of course we did, joined by our goofball sprinter contingent of AJ Meyer and Ty Magner. Well, we ended up doing climbing repeats on Ceasar's head-a 7 mile climb! Chris and I sat on Craig and George's wheels while everyone else lagged behind. After that we took a really long way back home and again hit it hard over Paris Mountain, again with Chris and myself hanging onto Craig and George. The whole time Chris and I were trying to figure out if they were going hard at all, but apparently later George told Rich that he was going fairly hard and it demoralized him that we were chatting most of the way up the climb! Also, I managed to break my right shifter midway up the first climb. So I got to ride the rest of the day in either a 53-23 or a 39-23. But I sure as hell wasn't going to get caught complaining in front of a guy who's made his living off the hardest days of sport in the world!

That night we had dinner at Christina Maddox's house, who is George's mental coach and is helping the team this year. The food was great and we had a lecture form her and a nutritionist. After that the whole team spent some time hanging out at Strad's house and around Greenville to further the whole "team bonding" thing.

Sunday was an easy 3 hour ride on some great roads followed by more meetings. We layed out some preliminary plans for the year and everything sounds awesome. In only a couple of weeks we have another team camp in Chattanooga and in late January we'll be back in Greenville.