It's all about performance...

24 Hour Race course

MEET at the clubhouse at 9am.

U of Arizona Crit

Meeting at the Club house at 9:30am.

We should be at the start/ finish line before 10am.

I would like to get a real good warm up in before the race as it is only 20 minutes long. So lets be ready when we get there at 9:30.

Please tell everyone you know to come and to be ready to just about loose their voice. If you bring a lawn chair, I will assure you, you will sit in it for about 2 minutes max.

Also the U of A cycling club has asked if we can help them at 2pm, for about half an hour. So if you feel like you can that would be great.

See you tomorrow,
Ignacio

GABA Rides

GABA, the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association, is a great supporter of our team, and it is because of them that we get to go on so many fun overnight bike rides.

To make such events financialy available to us they have allowed us to do worktrade to participate. The deal is we have to do 2 hours of worktrade for every one day ride we want to do.

So for one person to ride in a three day tour that person needs to put in 6 hours.

The worktrade opportunities do not come up all too often so I am going to try very hard to let everyone know when things come up.

One re-occuring thing though that we can do and should be on top of is, attending their monthly meetings on the first Monday of every month. We can do WT there. Mostly just helping set the meeting hall up and taking it down.

I know there are some of you that really enjoy the GABA rides and others of you that have them as your big yearly goal. Daniela and I will be attending the meeting this February 1st. They are held at a random office at Grant and Rosemont and they start at 7pm. More info can be found at www.bikegaba.org.

Note: Bike valeting at the swap meet counts as hours, and hours are cumulative. So as a group we can accumulate hours. So in theory Julia could do all the hours for the whole team to go on a trip.

Thanks Julia,

Ignacio

Skills Clinic

Thisi past Saturday the 23rd of January the USA Cycling Junior National coach Barney King came to town and put on a skills clinic for the team. We definitely learned a lot, I learned a lot, and I know the team had a good time. I want to thank Barney and Son, Hunter, for putting this on and creating such a great time.

For me it is humbling to think that a small team like ours that started in my house with crummy bikes and some real random kids has come so far. This is a real testament to the kids on this team and the level of commitment that they are putting in. It really has little to do with me. I just show up and open the door and have an idea. It is the kids that make this thing happen and get it recognized.

So I want to thank all the Riders past and present that have believed in me and my idea and have created something special. If we keep this up, well the sky is absolutely the limit. Lets set some lofty goals and lets go get them. Because if you would have asked me 5 years ago if this team would be were it is today, I'm not quite sure I would have believed it.

I certainly wanted to get to this, and I just kept plotting along. Just like Barney said it takes 10 years to get your body in peak shape for an endurance sport and so that is how I see this team. In another 5 years who knows where we will be, but I hope I would not believe it today.

THANKS TO ALL COACHES, RIDERS, AND PARENTS PAST AND PRESENT EVERY ONE OF YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy Kathleens sweet pics of the days drills.

Let the Racing Begin

Your SWEET new bike racing parts have arrived!!!

During the past few racing seasons El Grupo has not only had to race against the pack on heavy old, recycled with used parts, self built, second hand, yet awesome, steel bikes, we often had to then race with blocked out gears. Which means that we did not have a full range of gears to race with.

But not this year. For every racing bike in our stable I was able to acquire proper junior cassettes and chain rings. So don't you know your 9 speed will actually be a 9 speed and not a 7 speed.

I am really excited about this and have to thank Fairwheel Bikes for making it happen. THANKS RALPH!!!!

For those of you that know you will be racing this season and have a race bike just ask me tomorrow at practice and we will set up a time.

I also want to thank the Tucson Bike Scene for hooking us up with some sweet racing bikes this season. There are going to be a few El Grupo bikes at the races this year that can't rust.

I am excited and am sure that we are going to have some fun, so here to a good season of giving them hell.

Ignacio

Skills Clinic This Saturday

As you have seen on your calenders this Saturday we are going to be participating in a skills clinic that is going to be led by the USA Cycling Junior National Team Coach, Barney King. This is a very big deal and I am thrilled that he is taking the time to come down to our town to do this. We should all be very excited about this.

It is going to start at 1pm on the U of A campus. So I am going to ask that all of you meet me at the clubhouse at 12:30 sharp on Saturday. Please come well fed and ready to go.

Team Jerseys are mandatory if you have one and just make sure that everything else is well prepared. I want to meet them on campus on time and looking sharp. So please let's put our best foot forward.

It should last, I am told, about 3 hours so we should assume an end time of about 4pm.

This is going to be something that no matter what your interest in cycling is, it is going to make us better cyclists by virtue of making us better bike handlers. So there is going to be something for everyone here.

This is a huge opportunity for our little start up club and so I am really hoping that all riders and coaches come with a great attitude. I want Barney to see the greatness that I see in this team all the time.

There will then be no practice on Sunday; however, I will make the clubhouse available if anyone would like to pick up their MTB's to go riding on Sunday.

Ignacio