I’m currently taking part in a National team development camp in Tubac Arizona, a small town about 70 km south of Tucson and 37 km north of the Mexican border. The weather has been stunning with highs in the low 30’s...perhaps too stunning as we’ve all been feeling the heat during training. We are in the Santa Cruz river valley...but I haven’t seen much water. This camp is result of some new initiatives by the CCA and the Hamilton 2003 Legacy Foundation to encourage development in women’s cycling in addition to helping with some talent identification for upcoming projects this season. National team coach Vincent Jourdain is leading the group along with his friend Serge, who will also be working with the team for Redlands. There are 12 women attending the camp - 4 from Quebec, 2 from Ontario, 2 from Saskatchewan, and 4 from British Columbia. The camp atmposphere is very postive and everyone is excited to ride and get to know some racers from other provinces. We are staying in some great houses that provide plenty of opportuinity for getting to know our housemates. Jenny is bilingual, but the rest of us are trying to dig back to our grade 7 French classes so we can better communicate with the Quebec’ers. Their English is definitely better than our French...so many thank-you’s to Vince and the gang for speaking Fr-english with us :-)
We have been doing two shorter rides a day, with a mix of some skills, sprints, and steady riding. We all have come to this camp with diffferent levels of preparation, depending on the relative state of Canadiana winter that we left behind. The roads have been great and we’ve had some local company each day to show us some routes. We often pass through border control checks since we are so close to the Mexican borders, but so far only Vince has been scolded for not carrying his passport. I think the border guards are probably pretty entertained to see a bunch of spandex clad girls riding around in the desert.
On Tuesday we will travel to Redlands in preparation for the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Eight of us will ride together for the National team and the remaining women will ride for their respective trade or composite teams. There are 150 riders on the start list including some extremely strong riders and powerful teams. Jenny and Leah are the only two riders of the group who have experienced the Redlands, so the rest of us are looking forward to the race with some nervous excitement. Unfortunately I won’t be racing with Gillian (she will be racing with the Team BC project), but it is great that we will both be getting some early season racing in our legs.
We have been doing two shorter rides a day, with a mix of some skills, sprints, and steady riding. We all have come to this camp with diffferent levels of preparation, depending on the relative state of Canadiana winter that we left behind. The roads have been great and we’ve had some local company each day to show us some routes. We often pass through border control checks since we are so close to the Mexican borders, but so far only Vince has been scolded for not carrying his passport. I think the border guards are probably pretty entertained to see a bunch of spandex clad girls riding around in the desert.
On Tuesday we will travel to Redlands in preparation for the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Eight of us will ride together for the National team and the remaining women will ride for their respective trade or composite teams. There are 150 riders on the start list including some extremely strong riders and powerful teams. Jenny and Leah are the only two riders of the group who have experienced the Redlands, so the rest of us are looking forward to the race with some nervous excitement. Unfortunately I won’t be racing with Gillian (she will be racing with the Team BC project), but it is great that we will both be getting some early season racing in our legs.
