Another Great Day

The kids started the day with a TT hill climb. Apparently a legendary one here in town that everyone does to gauge how they are doing. They call it the Telegraph climb. We pre road it on Tuesday and today they went out against the clock.

I was unable to attend, since Donovan broke his bike. I allowed him to use mine while I spent the morning scouring town trying to find a new derailluer hanger. I didn't so we went ahead and rented him a bike for the next two days.

At the hill climb Marcos was the grand champion. He won by just less than a minute. Very well done. However on the way down he just about tacod his wheel and it had to be smashed on a rock to get him home.

After lunch we then met with the great Travis Brown. Hunter's boy hood bike racing idol. We told Travis as much and made sure to get a picture with him. Dude is really cool and even gave Marcos a wheel to use for the rest of our time here. So Hunter dude is super nice. He spoke to us about professionalism and sponsorship and really just about everything.

After that the kids had a little break which they used to just unwind and play cards. The free time was nice.

But the next speaker was a Nutritionist who had us laughing the whole time. The gentleman Rick has been in the game forever and was working with Lance at age 14. He is now working with Tom Danielson and is actually going to be in Spain training him for the next 6 weeks. He said his but chafes after 6 hours of motor passing on a scooter, that and a ton of other great info.

Upon our return I am certain that I am going to have many more tools in my tool box as a coach. I am very excited to take my new knowledge home and use it with the team.

Today's finally was definitely worth the wait. The head coach of the DEVO youth MTB racing team came out and did a skill session with us. We road down stairs, learned how to hop off curbs, and got to play on two different skill tracks. He is an impressive coach and actually produced 7 National titles this year at MTB nationals. We really enjoyed and learned a ton from him.

The moral of this story or the trip, we are super fortunate to have this opportunity to spend time with incredibly smart and talented people. I have learned a ton and I really hope the riders go home truly appreciating this experience.

Thursday Ride - Nobody Died!

So, Newgan decided to go gravel surfing early into the ride this morning. On his face. The guy was a champ, though, and rode the rest of the ride and all the way up A Mountain. I wish I'd had a camera this morning, watching him barrel down Greasewood chasing Christian. Dude's gonna be a hell of a bike racer.

On the way down from A Mountain, Emily crashed into the boulders next to the gate. Luckily (really!), she walked away with only a few scrapes and a cut in her palm. Her bike didn't fair so well, unfortunately. Emily doesn't seem discouraged at all, though. She's ready to get right back on the bike. Uh, as soon as we fix a few things.

~Richard

Durango Day 2

Just walking into my dorm room tonight at 10:30 pm our time here. We are having some really long, fun, draining days up here. Yet I am pretty sure we would not have it any other way. Things are going great.

Last night after I posted we went to a very fancy bike fit studio and spent an hour and a half with Dr. Ryan Siggins. Another really smart dude. He put Donovan on a very high tech machine that then sent D's body info to a computer and told him all of the angles that we need to know. Donovan was hooked up to machines like the Russian in Rocky 4. With stick on electrodes all over his right side. Really cool the technology. Donovan got a professional fit and the rest of the kids got free t-shirts.

After that we spent an hour just letting the kids cruise downtown. Downtown is not much bigger than ours it is just much more infilled like Flagstaff.

Today had us again waking up "early" 7am and on our bikes at 9am. The cafeteria here on campus is quite nice. They do a pretty nice job with the food. Nathan says he would not eat just raw Rahmen noodles for lunch if they had this at school. The baker has also been really nice to us and even gave us a loaf of banana bread today.

As well the dorm rooms we have been staying in are again quite nice. My dorm room at Florida State was more of a prison cell compared to this, so accommodations are pretty sweet. In the dorm building itself there is a game room where we have been able to leave all our gear as well so yet another nice treat.

These guys up here really have been so good to us. I can not say enough good things about this school the coaches and the infrastructure they have here. This is a professional establishment.

So today's ride had us on a completely different trail network. There was even a run called Star Wars that was so fun Nathan actually let out a real yelp of joy. It could have competed with my hollers. So much so that Lizzy thought he was hurt. The ride was about 2 1/2 hours long and super fun.

After the ride we went to a bike shop in town that had over 20 national championship jerseys in
it, aliong bikes that had won major races. Judith your Specialized commuter, a carbon copy, was hanging in the shop, Max will tell you.

NOTE: At lunch Nathan had shrimp with his pasta and had an egg roll. He liked them both and tried them both with out me making him. He really is becoming quite adventurous.

From lunch we headed to Elke's (can't find her last names place) and spent 2 hours learning about stretching, core strength and whole body conditioning. She was also a National Champion MTB down hill racer. This town truely is packed with talent. Heck we ran into John Tomac on the trail the other day. You know just 2 time MTB world Champ no big deal.

Finally after that we got a little nap in.

But then off the race. A short track MTB race. A discipline that we know nothing of. It was described to us a MTB crit racing, but I do not think this was a fair shake of it. It was more like pure pain for 20 minutes for the kids.

Most exciting though was that we got to race the junior bike team from Durango today. The team is called DEVO and they were spectacular. The kids could really fly. The girl Lizzy raced tonight was the National Champ in this Short Track discipline.

The team really hung in and raced well for our first time at 9,000 feet. Things are different up here. Kramer took the El grupo win Max second and Logan third. Best finish was Pablo and Donovan fighting for third. Donovan crashed and broke his derailluer hanger in the last 50 feet and then got up and ran to the finish to tie Pablo very exciting.

We are now finally back in our room after a burrito at the local shop that Pablo said passed the test so you know it was good.

Tomorrow is more riding run and I will do my best to keep this entertaining.

Nacho

Yeah Baby Durango!

This is a totally different world up here. Today at one point on the ride I felt like it was Battle Star Galactica. Durango is another old town built in a valley much like Tucson. Mountains surround the whole downtown and college area, that is small, it's only for 15,000 people, but these mountains are different than ours. They are huge and right on the door step of town. Oh and green and filled with huge rocks.

We got here last night and went straight to dinner so the team was in good spirits from the get go. This after a 6 hour drive and breakfast and dinner at Nickles house.

Thanks Nick. While in Flagstaff we ended up all crashing on Nick's floor. Sardines probably have it better, but since we are not fish it worked out great. We spent the night with Nick watching movies and made bean burritos. Breakfast was egg and potato burros and we were out the door by 9am.

Monday night was just a meet and greet with the coaches up here. Matt Shriver and Dave Hagan. They kind of told us what to expect and not to go outside alone because of the bears. That's right bears on campus. So you know just like home.

Tuesday 9am was the start of our first ride. 9am hello. We usually have to be back at 9am in the desert. WOW 9am. When they told us we were going to have to start early most of the kids just laughed. 9am that's like winter time stuff.

So today's ride was roughly 12-13 miles, of terrian like nothing we had ever seen. The team rode super well and were incredibly polite. I hope that the coaches up where impressed because I was pretty happy. I mean only Lizzy fell into a ditch. She was not hurt at all, heck I was able to take a picture of her once we realized that all was ok.

We rode to the top of Telegraph mountain today around and back. Hard for me to really tell the trails because most of the time I was just smiling too big. This place is just so fun.

After the ride was lunch and a great presentation on Training plans by Matt Shriver. Dude is smart. We were in an auditorium room and the kids all thought the little desks off the arms of the stadium chairs were really cool. I learned a ton and was really happy to ask a lot of questions that I have had for a while.

We are having a great time and really just can't wait to ride some more.

This Week in Tucson

First of all, sorry for the lateness of this post. Here's the rides we're doing this week while most of the crew is in Durango.

Tuesday - cancelled!
Wednesday - 6:30 am - moderate length ride, easy pace.
Thursday - 6:30 am - points race. This may end up just being a group ride, since our numbers are low. Still, the pace will be challenging and we'll split into groups as needed.
Sunday - 6:30 am - long ride day. Mt Lemmon, maybe?

~Richard

Durango Crew MTB ride

This saturday the 24th of July I would like for everyone going to Durango that can to make this ride.

Meeting at the clubhouse at 6:30am. We will head out to Sweetwater and ride for about 1 hour. Just some lower loop runs to get used to the dirt again.

Mark please feel free to come.

See you all there.

Ignacio

New Riders Make the Team

When I left this summer to go on vacation with Daniela and Damiano we had 5 new kids trying out the team. I had given them a practice schedule and the ultimatum to get into shape for a final test that would come on this day the 22nd of July.

This is the first time that El Grupo has had such an introductory/ acquisition of rider process so I was very intrigued to see how it would play out.

While gone the riders worked diligently with Hunter, Alex, Christian and Richard getting into shape while learning about the sport. I was able to call the coaches and some of the riders while gone a few times and I was always very pleased and excited to hear the stories of the new riders.

Coming back to see that all the great stories were true was very exciting. Also I want to make a point to thank everyone who helped in the clean up of the clubhouse. IT LOOKS FANTASTIC!!! I was also told that a ton of that work was done by the "newbies" so again THANK YOU.

So who made it what happened? Well as you know this team is about heart, effort, commitment and drive. If you have these four characteristics and you bring them to practice every day then you have a spot on this team.

So who made it?

Congratulations to D-son, Nugen, and Sam.

All received their jerseys and from today on are full blown members of this team. I was super pleased with the effort I saw them put into the ride today and am proud to have them on the team.

WELL DONE!!