Visiting Christmas Circle, the traffic circle renowned as a Borrego Springs landmark. Notice the bike lane sign in the background? The residents were very considerate of cyclists on the road, with the notable exception of a police car that buzzed our group twice on one ride.Gathering at home base before a ride. I’m subconsciously trying to hide my pasty legs with my pasty arms.Post-ride burrito refueling with teammates and Dan, manager and master of the service course. Of course I’m busted with my hand in the bag of tortilla chips. Not pictured: the stern look I got from Dan when I dove in for more chips after swearing I was done.My first ride back with the team after The Plague. My hunch in this photo isn’t poor posture (this time) – it’s stomach pain. I learned the hard way that nothing slows you down like GI issues that prevent eating/normal digestion. Also, what you see happening in the background here is exactly what it looks like, but cut us some slack. Do you see any trees to hide behind?Team Colavita! Tina had to sit this ride out because she was still sick; I should probably have joined her in “drafting a pillow” (a new favorite expression, along with “biomechanical”), but instead I stubbornly insisted on limping along for 2.5 hours of GAHHHHHH while nibbling on a single rice cake.Leah and I rolling out for the last ride of camp. Leah was the leader of Team Virus, the group of those who were certain that the sick ones had a virus, not food poisoning. After several days of feeling like death, Team Virus had my vote.Roadside Colavita party. The only thing missing are olive oil shots.See the metal animals in the middle of the photo? They were all over Borrego Springs. In the middle of a wide expanse, there’d be a life-sized camel or rhinoceros. While giving directions on the first ride, somebody yelled, “Take a left at the dragon!” That was one I hadn’t heard before.The trailer filled with all of our equipment. And Dan, who not only wrangled bikes and ladies all week, but also followed my ambulance to the ER, drove me back to camp in the middle of the night, and witnessed me leaping out of the van upon arrival and throwing up all over the driveway. It was an unprecedented level of sexy on my part.While running errands in San Diego in the team van/trailer before flying out on Saturday, we passed this bike shop. The guy in the picture came sprinting down the street and excitedly handed me two Mission Hills Bike Shop beer koozies and a bunch of stickers. In that moment, I felt totally pro.
3 thoughts on “Training Camp: The End of the Beginning (in Photos)”
Gotta give you credit for hauling your butt on the bike after the 1/2 team week of death.
Stupid bike geek questions:
So do you get team bike to take back home to train with? Do you have to travel to races with a bike, or do you show up and your race bike will be there waiting ready to go?
I have a training bike, a racing bike, and a TT bike. The latter two stay in the team trailer and are brought to races. For some of the events (especially one-day events), the team trailer won’t be there and I will take my training bike.
Gotta give you credit for hauling your butt on the bike after the 1/2 team week of death.
Stupid bike geek questions:
So do you get team bike to take back home to train with? Do you have to travel to races with a bike, or do you show up and your race bike will be there waiting ready to go?
I have a training bike, a racing bike, and a TT bike. The latter two stay in the team trailer and are brought to races. For some of the events (especially one-day events), the team trailer won’t be there and I will take my training bike.