Guide

Meet Our Team: Jacob Young

Posted on October 12, 2015 - 9:30 pm by keith_ritter

“I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give this a shot for a year or two, then I’ll get a real job.’ I’m coming into my 14th year, having guided in amazing places all over the world, and couldn’t be happier.”

Meet Trek Travel cycling guide Jacob Young

Tell us your story. How did you end up at Trek Travel?
At a dinner party one night, a friend mentioned this new company—a new branch of Trek Bicycle that was taking people on super nice bikes to super nice places. I thought, “That’s way too good to be true.” As I was job hunting in the post 9/11 mayhem, I wasn’t having much luck. I had guided a few friends up Mount Rainier, and it felt life changing to show someone a new place, to see them achieve something they didn’t know they could: I was hooked. Somehow, Tania saw something in me through the reality-TV-style hiring process and gave me and 13 other lucky guides a job. I thought, “Well, I’ll give this a shot for a year or two, then I’ll get a real job.” I’m coming into my 14th year, having guided in amazing places all over the world, and I couldn’t be happier.

How did you get into cycling?
Fifteen bucks at a yard sale in New Hampshire scored the 12-year-old version of me a grey Peugeot and my first taste of freedom. Granted, I was riding in cut off jean shorts at the time, and mountain biking quickly became my passion, but that was my humble beginning. I had never worn a chamois until two weeks before my interview with Trek Travel! Track & Field and Cross Country are the sports that put me through university, and it was there that a passion for endurance sports was born. Trek Travel was really the transition from running to cycling for me.

How has your guiding experience impacted your life?
Beyond meeting incredible people, and the travel, I’ve become really good at eating out. This skill only becomes apparent when I eat out with my non-guiding friends (and could be its own future blog post). Also, being able to read people is one of the finest skills a guide can hone, and I like to think that my temperature gauge of people is finely tuned.

How do you spend your off-season?
I am fortunate enough to wear a few different hats. I currently toggle between working as Transportation Director for some of the biggest bicycle races in North America, as well as helping lead yoga trips in sunny, tropical destinations. Through the years, I’ve bartended, worked retail, edited manuscripts, taught yoga, coached high school track, tutored English, lived in Italy, became a Carmichael Training Systems coach, landscaped, and briefly held the title of Global Logistics Manager for a hand-warmer company.

Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
My current favorite place to travel is the Veneto region of Italy, known as the foothills of the Dolomites. The food and wine are amazing, the terrain is varied, and the tourists are few.

Tell us about a highlight during your time guiding.
Some years back, I was guiding in New Zealand with my good friend Jon Vick (currently rocking as the Event Manager for Trek Bicycles). We had some guests who wanted to go skydiving. Near Lake Wanaka, I made a couple calls and learned that the local establishment would not only give us guides a commission if guests signed up to skydive, they would also comp our skydive. JV and I “jumped” at this opportunity, and the fist bump at 15,000 feet before the adrenaline rush confirmed that this would remain a highlight for the rest of my life.

What advice would your give our readers when planning a vacation?
Prepare to make new friends. Also, spend multiple days in a row on your saddle. (Speaking of saddles, they are very personal things, so I recommend you bring one that works for you.) Most importantly, come with an open mind. “Trip of a lifetime” is quite the moniker to live up to. I feel lucky when guests tell me we have exceeded their expectations, and can’t wait for the next time to do it again.

Is This the World’s Toughest Hiring Process?

Posted on October 1, 2015 - 7:52 pm by keith_ritter

Trek Travel doesn’t mess around when it comes to weeding out less-than-ideal candidates. Here’s an inside look at the process.

This article was written by Jeff Haden and originally published on Inc.com

Ultimately the success of your company depends on the quality of your employees. That means how you hire makes all the difference.

Here’s another in my series where I pick a topic and connect with someone a lot smarter than me.

This time I talked to Tania Burke, President of Trek Travel, a full-service cycling vacation company that offers trips in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America, about hiring remote employees who can deliver outstanding customer service in complex and diverse environments.

You put prospective trip guides through one of the toughest hiring processes I’ve seen.

It has to be. Think of the skills a guide needs: They need to be bike mechanics, strong riders, speak foreign languages, have travel experience–and first and foremost have outstanding customer service skills. The combination is a pretty rare package.

Our guides are 24/7 during trips. Meeting requirements is fine, but the candidates who rise to the top are people who can take customer service to the next level, the people who find ways to wow customers.

Forty percent of our business is repeat customers and another 30 percent is referral based, and that’s a testament to customer service. Our guides are the face of our company.

Conventional wisdom says employers should make it really easy for people to apply in order not to lose some great candidates who bail because the process is too much work. You take the opposite approach.

A lot of people want to be trip guides simply because they want to spend time cycling in Europe. So we have the application tool on our website, but we create a lot of hoops for applicants to jump through in order to weed out the casual applicants. We make people work just to submit an application.

Then what happens?

Then we do two or three Skype video interviews with different people at our company. That lets us narrow the list to a certain number who come to our headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, for a full-day hiring event.

We’re looking for an all-around blend of skills, so that day each candidate takes part in language testing, role-playing exercises, public speaking, language testing, food preparation, bike mechanic testing. We have one staff member to every two applicants engaged in evaluating them.

Finally we have cocktails and dinner, which sometimes is the most telling part of the day. Seeing how candidates interact with small and larger groups is really important, especially since our guides spend a lot of time with customers off the bike.

And your candidates are still not done.

After the one-day event we select a few people to be guides. They then go through a 10-day training program. They’re still being evaluated, because they aren’t officially hired until they make it through that program.

For 10 days they drive a van and trailer, do more public speaking, conduct a mock trip, and manage that group. One thing you can’t see in the hiring process is how people will deal with an intense experience for a long period of time. So they’re up until 11.30 p.m. at night, back up at 6 a.m. to prep the bikes for that day… in the field some of our guides do that for three weeks in a row with no days off. We try to mimic that experience in our training, both to help guides develop skills and to ensure we’re making the right decision.

Some people make it through training successfully yet still decide not to take the job. There’s no way to know if you’ll love a job until you do that job for a while, so we try to give candidates that experience so they can also make the right decision.

You really have to want the job. Some people will go through the whole process and think, “Um, I’m not sure this is really what I want.” Some of them say it’s like being on “Survivor.”

I would think that would pay dividends in terms of retention. Sure, you’re spending more on the process up front but that pays off on the back end.

Our guides stay with us for a long time. Over a decade later, five of our original guides are still with us. Another crop is about to hit the 10-year mark. Our average guide has been with us more than five years; the industry average is probably around three years.

It’s a challenging lifestyle. You don’t travel home a lot, you could be gone for six months at a time or longer, because often guides will go someplace else in Europe between trips.

Aside from what they do during the trip, are there ways guides can extend the customer service ethos after the trip?

Because so much of our business is repeat, we can build comprehensive customer profiles. Guides send us information on each customer; maybe one thinks he’s a Level 3 but he’s actually a Level 4 and would really enjoy a fast, challenging trip. They also send back bike measurements so we can pre-set bikes next time.

The goal is to collect as much customer information, including preferences, interests, etc, so the process is as seamless as possible the next time.

You also put a lot of trust in your employees to develop new destinations, itineraries, etc.

We determine new destinations about two years out. Say we want to set up a trip in Andalucia in southeast Spain. We do some research, find out a little more about the region, talk to our guides to see if they’ve spent time there… just to start gathering input.

Trek (the bike manufacturer and one-time parent company, which spun off the business in 2007) also has resources we can tap.

Then we put someone on the ground and they do a week to 10 days worth of research. They check out hotels, do site visits, drive the routes, and most importantly evaluate safety. Safety trumps everything: We don’t want to put people on busy roads, so we work hard to find the absolute best and safest places to ride, and the best people to evaluate the quality and safety of a ride are experienced guides.

Then we go back again and put the fine details on the trip: Maybe we find a local farmer who will give us a cheese production tour. Maybe it’s a winery, maybe it’s a cool cooking school, maybe it’s an olive farm. Then we focus on the food experience: Where are the best restaurants?

Ratings don’t tell you anything. You have to go. You have to see and feel and taste–and you have to have experience leading awesome trips to put together an awesome trip.

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Meet Our Team: Jessica Singerman

Posted on September 30, 2015 - 6:11 pm by keith_ritter

When your job title is “Cycling Guide,” it’s no more descriptive than handing someone a business cared that reads, “Jack of All Trades.” For Jessica Singerman, tour guide is a catchall for a variety of endeavors including mother, artist, yoga instructor, cyclocross racer, and trip designer for Trek Travel.

Tell us your story. How did you end up at Trek Travel?
In 2005, I was teaching art at the University of Delaware and working at a bike shop where I spotted a Trek Travel catalog. I had done some self-supported bike touring, but I didn’t know companies like Trek Travel existed. I found the company website and saw they were looking to hire guides. I grew up abroad, have done a lot of traveling, and love riding–it looked like a dream job! I put my application together and went through the grueling hiring process. Lo and behold, I got the job!

When did you begin cycling?
I got around by bike as a kid–it was the ultimate freedom. I remember riding my bike across town to the local swimming hole every day in the summer. But I didn’t get the bug until the end of college, when my roommate and I went mountain biking on a whim. We were totally unprepared for what we got ourselves into, and I remember the elation after that first ride in the woods. It sparked something in me, and I kept riding my bike all summer and into autumn as I started grad school. I told myself that if I rode that bike all winter, I’d earn myself a new road bike. Sure enough, I walked into a shop toward the end of the winter and found a tiny road bike just my size. I eventually started racing on the road, then mountain, then eventually cyclocross, where I met my husband. I was hooked.

Tell us about your best travel adventure.
When my husband and I lived in Australia, during the second trimester of my pregnancy, we made a trip to New Zealand’s South Island, and spent ten days hiking and boating together. The glacier hiking on Fox Glacier blew my mind. Between the experience of the glacier and the feeling of crampons on ice, I loved it. We also went on an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. Even if I got seasick, the lush cliffs and waterfalls of the Sound were gorgeous, and dining and sleeping on the boat was super fun. It was our last vacation before we had our son a few months later. Maybe knowing that made the holiday all the sweeter. Either way, we had a blast.

Tell us about your best day on a bicycle.
There are too many to count! I can honestly say that for me, any ride is a good one. Biking changed my life and I’m grateful that it helped me find my way – while sometimes getting lost too! I love riding with friends as well as on my own. I love super challenging rides with searing lungs and screaming legs. And I also love a day of meandering in the woods, stopping for leisurely snacks and chatting with friends.

How has guiding influenced your role as a trip designer?
As a guide, you see what people genuinely enjoy and what experiences truly impact guests. You notice what it is about hotels that make them special – the passion with which people work, the extra attention, the super luxurious touches, or the renowned restaurant. It’s those experiences in travel–the ones that change you as a person–that I’m most interested in when I design a trip. I work to balance riding with cultural experiences and downtime so guests have time to let it all soak in.

What is your favorite vacation spot and what makes it a unique destination?
My favorite vacation spot is anywhere in the mountains. If I can scramble over rocks or on a dirt path with friends and family, I’m happy. Camping or in a simple mountain house, cooking together, chatting, making things, reading by a fire, and crisp sunny days. That’s bliss.

What advice would your give our readers when planning a vacation?
I prefer to stay in one place for some time to get a feel for the life there, rather than jamming as much as possible into a holiday. My husband and I have a rule when we travel–to visit no more than one museum or site per day, and to allow ourselves time to stroll, sit in parks and cafés for hours, read, draw, and people watch. Before we go, we make a list of the things we want to do, write down opening days and times, and make a vague plan that includes maybe one site a day with some parks and restaurants we might want to check out in that area. We generally decide what we want to do each day over breakfast, and the plan almost always changes. We play things by ear and stay open to serendipity.

What are your top five must-dos or must-sees when traveling in Europe?
Wow, that’s a tough one. I’d say my three favorite cities are Paris, Venice and Prague. All three cities are beautiful: the architecture, the culture, and the energy. Tuscany is a wonderful place and very friendly for new travelers. The rolling hills and small villages are incredibly picturesque, the people are warm, and the food is easy to love. Last but not least, the Dolomites in the Italian Alps are hands down my favorite place. The landscape is visually stunning, the people are friendly, the riding and hiking are second to none, and the food is super tasty. It’s a bicultural region, having been fought over by Austria and Italy, so there’s a lot of history and multiple languages spoken. The region has something for everyone.

Remote. Rugged. Refuge.

Posted on September 24, 2015 - 8:11 pm by keith_ritter

The people who choose to call this place home are of a tribe that stretches back thousands of years and although not all related by blood, their spirit thrives here with the same reverence and passion. Their brilliance is mirrored by daily rhythm of the desert; it begins cool and refreshing and becomes warn and welcoming.

“I know what they tell you about the desert but you mustn’t believe them. This is no deathbed. Dig down, the earth is moist. You can hear a man breathe at a distance of twenty yards. You can see out there to the edge where the desert stops and the mountains begin. You think it is perhaps ten miles. It is more than a hundred. Just before the sun sets all the colors will changes. Green will turn to blue, red to gold…” – Barry Lopez, Desert Notes

Nearly 1000 years ago, Ancestral Puebloan people were the first to be captivated by this ancient and rugged landscape and its allure stretches to today. Boulder, Utah is a town so spectacularly remote, its residents still received their mail by mule-train until the late 1940’s. In Boulder, I find a bit of refuge. I find it in a pastoral familiarity amongst a sea of sandstone. I find it in the sounds of migrating waterfowl emanating from a tiny wetland. I find it in the first taste of a cold craft beer and the spicy kick of a warm bowl of Posole. Most of all, I find it in the people there.

At the tail end of a five-hour drive, you crest a ridgeline high above Calf Creek. Below, deep gouges split ancient petrified sand dunes forming massive canyons. Not a powerline, building or person in sight. Other than the road you’re on, it’s a landscape devoid of human impact. At the top of the hill, look out the right side windows of the van to the distance and get your first glimpse of Boulder. Pivot irrigation in the middle of a green hayfield. A red barn. Cattle and a few solitary horses. These things look out of place. Anomalies on this naked stretch of earth.

We begin this trip here–maybe six or seven times a year and regardless of what’s required to get things rolling, I always make an effort to spend at least a few short moments with the folks that bring my Boulder to life. Maybe I’ll sneak away for two minutes between lunch and our Day 1 bike fitting session to say hello to Jen Castle while she roasts fresh chilies behind Hell’s Backbone kitchen or hang around after dinner for a glass of wine and farm happenings update with restaurant owner Blake Spalding. Sometimes, I’ll crawl out of bed a few minutes before my co-guide to watch the fist shooting light of the sun bounce across the cliffs along the Burr Trail. Maybe attempt to give Jezebel, resident queen kitty of the Boulder Mountain Lodge, a good morning head-scratch (when she lets me get close enough). My community is in Lander, Wyoming but when I’m here, this place sure feels like home. There is a special energy that is manifested in this community. It’s magnetic and unique. You’ll see it first in their easy smiles. Then their wholesome gratitude. Soon, you’ll become friends. It’s a given.

The people who choose to call this place home are of a tribe that stretches back 1000 years and although not all related by blood, their spirit thrives here with the same reverence and passion. Their brilliance is mirrored by daily rhythm of the desert; it begins cool and refreshing and comes warm and welcoming. Tucked away in this magical landscape of pinion and juniper, dark canyons and crystalline creeks, towering rock spires and golden sandstone domes, lives a community bound by a dynamic love of these things. They’re ready to share them with those who choose to travel here. They’re ready to share these things with those who can pause and surrender to the raw and uncompromising power of this beautiful desert. Far beyond the world-class cycling to be had on these lonely desert highways, the spirit of the community here shows its undeniable and unwavering character. We might only get brief glimpses of life in Boulder, Utah (a short 18 hours over the span of six days), but those snapshots will call you back.

EXPERIENCE BOULDER ON TREK TRAVEL’S BRYCE AND ZION VACATION»

#Vagabonds

Posted on September 9, 2015 - 9:15 pm by keith_ritter

We finish our seasons late in the calendar year, and that’s when it’s time to reflect on the days spent riding the bike with guests in the evening light, in gluttonous enjoyment of a coastline picnic, or in the nights spent working behind the scenes, sweating, preparing every last detail.

Being a guide is a dream. Just like a dream, though, there are moments of surreal beauty, where I pinch myself because I’m so lucky, and moments where I feel like nothing more than a vagabond, wandering from road to road, without a home to speak of.

A season of nights can be remembered in two ways. Long nights linger throughout a guide’s season, presenting sleep debt that appears every morning like the crust in your eye: it’s a gross, immovable feature of guiding that invites itself into your morning routine. Late night hours accumulate on dark, drizzling drives across the French Alps, or in bike repair sessions that endure until a new feature of bicycle mechanics is finally mastered. These nights of bleary eyes and greasy fingers hit in the morning like a middle-aged hangover. They metastasize over weeks upon weeks through the summer rush. For the rest of the season you can point to them as the reason you need just 30 more minutes of sleep. I awake each morning with the simple joy to have a job that is perpetual adventure: that fortuity is laced into the first minutes of my day, but it cannot always soothe the need for a long night of rest, or a slow morning with too much coffee and a sojourn through the news to nullify my accrued fatigue.

There are other nights, however, that are not pernicious. With co-guides as my partners in crime, we spent last season’s nights in 12th-century castle ruins perched atop the bluffs looming over the Danube, and watched the moon drift across the valley; we wended our way through herds of Prague’s revelers until the early morning and devoured fried-cheese sandwiches to bridge dinner and breakfast. Every guide cobbles together nights of extemporaneous adventure: In the evenings they become impromptu wedding guests, and dinner dates for the stars, or might just end the wee hours vaulting over fences or hailing the relics of rock and roll’s saints. These nocturnal voyages stoke the engine driving us through our season. They are filled with electricity, are stolen moments from a history and a place that never expected us, and remind us that rapture can be found in the time between the days filled with purpose, agendas and goals.

These evening escapades are archived in the Trek Travel legacy at the end of the season when guides float back to the guide house to eddy-out. We all come with the excuse to catch a night of rest and reclaim cached belongings, but the real purpose is to relish the scuttlebutt from everyone’s season.

I feasted my first night back at the Tuscany guide house last season with a table full of guides, tortellini, and gas-station wine. What started as dinner became a jam session for raconteurs who had repressed the parts of the job that percolate when the season ends: too many missed weddings, too few evening chats with a spouse, wearing the same pair of trousers packed and unpacked in countless hotel rooms, and the claustrophobia from sharing long days in the same van, hotel room, bathroom, bedroom, bike path, breakfast table and dining room with somebody else every day of the season.

The ineffable beauty of this job is the family of companions that emerges from the chaos and stress of life on the road. Within that family is a cast of saviors that cart other drained and reeking guides from Megeve to Geneva to arrive in time for a date, conjure gourmet dinners from melons and mint to serve starving colleagues, or otherwise provide the lost features of “normal life” to professional vagabonds.

At the end of a full season, after leaving the various guide houses to return home, we are supposed to resume something that feels more permanent. But we are visitors here for only a few months. The season begins again when the days get longer in Spain, and heats up to a full thrust when the sun warms the rest of Europe. Until then home feels idle, like an indictment of “normal”, and easily defined as just a “time in-between.” It is a purgatory released by the memory of seized moments that incite us to new adventures. Is it time to get back yet? Is it time to start adventuring again?

Written by Sam Clark, Trek Travel Guide

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Il Gallo Nero

Posted on August 14, 2015 - 3:39 pm by keith_ritter

The Black Rooster marks some of the greatest wines in the world.

It is easy to see why Tuscany remains one of our most popular trips. I moved to Italy some 12 years ago to immerse myself in this magic, and have determined that cycling through this region is the ideal way to learn about the place.

On a bike, we leave other tourists behind and get to experience places as they have remained for thousands of years. The epicenter of Tuscany – flanked by Florence to the North and Siena to the South – for its wine, wild boar, small, winding roads and forested hilltops. In the center of Chianti is the ideal, 9th century one-strip hilltop wonder of cobblestones enotecas and cafés known as Radda in Chianti. Ride up to the entrance of Radda in the morning and you’ll find Fabrizio Ferrucci, owner of Bar Dante making panini for the hungry denizens who flock to his café for local treats. Fabrizio will assure you that while Radda is not perfect, it is pretty close.

Radda is so ideal, in fact, that the two warring city-countries of Florence and Siena have fought over it for centuries. Legend has it that late in the 12th century, these two archenemies finally decided to end their bloody land-feud peaceably. By parliamentary agreement, at the first crow of their respective roosters on the appointed day, one knight from Florence, and one knight from Siena would depart on horseback down the road the connects the two cities. At the precise point the two knights meet on their journey, the line would be drawn to divide the Province of Florence from the Province of Siena.

While Siena chose to fatten and spoil a fine, plump rooster, the Florentines were far more devious. They selected a lean, black rooster and locked it in a windowless dungeon without food or water. When the date arrived, the rooster’s hyper-sensitive retinas led him to crow his heart out, giving the Florentine knight a dramatic head start. He reached all the way to Fonterutoli, a territory of Castellina, before he met the Sienese knight. And so they established the border at Castellina, a mere 19 kilometers from Siena’s walled city.

To this day, the internationally recognized symbol of Chianti is a silhouette of Il Gallo Nero, The Black Rooster. It marks some of the greatest wines in the world, and cyclists wear the jersey with pride. Next time you find yourself in Radda, ask Fabrizio about his story. He just may fill you in on some more history of this remarkable area that we are fortunate to ride our bikes through. The rest of the learning comes from the air flowing in your face while you spin down the winding roads, the same roads the two knights thundered down all those years ago.

By Jacob Young, a guide for Trek Travel

Experience a Trip to Tuscany for yourself»

28 Acres of Paradise

Posted on July 2, 2015 - 4:08 pm by keith_ritter

Your eyes are closed, sitting in a highback Adirondack chair with a glass of wine in hand, overlooking a great valley below.

Two dogs are playing fetch, roosters crow occasionally, hens cluck, horses neigh, and faint mumbles of conversation are heard between the passing summer breeze. You are on vacation in the wine country of California. You just experienced a challenging, yet rewarding climb called Ink Grade. Your guides told you that morning, “Oh, it’s not that bad…I have faith you can make it!” Maybe it was the toughest 4-mile uphill stretch you’ve ever done. Maybe it wasn’t. What really matters is where you are now, and that indescribable feeling washing over you.

Read the whole story…

What TDF means to Trek Travel

Posted on July 1, 2015 - 9:57 pm by keith_ritter

As traveling staff members schedule their out-of-office replies and guests call in to finalize their trips to the Tour de France, I sit here wanting to go with. Then I realize I have little idea what is about to even happen.

I’m the new intern here at Trek Travel. So when people around the office start talking about the tour, I can’t begin to imagine everything that goes into it from Trek Travel’s point of view. I know that it is a huge collective of hours and hours of work put in to make the trips happen flawlessly. But along with the hard work comes a trip of a lifetime. I want to be in their shoes, experience the tour, be surrounded by cycling-fanatics and take in the biggest cycling event in the world from stunning views. Until then, I’ll listen to their stories and daydream. Read about the Tour de France from the eyes of the Travel Travel team here in Madison.

Featured in this story:

Meagan Coates, Trip Design Manager
Brie Willey, Guide Manager
Mark Thomsen, Marketing Manager

Briefly, describe how Trek Travel is involved in the Tour?

Meagan: Trek Travel offers the premier trips in the industry at the Tour de France, hands down. From trips that allow guests to ride the routes on the same day as the pros, to trips and spectator vacations with Official Tour Operator VIP passes and Trek-Segafredo team access to Paris finish packages, and even supported trips at the Etape du Tour, we have something for every fan of the race. We put a lot of effort up to a year or more in advance to the race being announced to source the prime locations for on course viewings and hotels and overall we have a team of designers working on Tour de France year round.

What would you say is one of the “I can’t believe this” moments for a Trek Travel guest?

Meagan: This is very personal for everyone and depends on the drama that unfolds throughout the race. But I think nearly all guests have a moment during their trip–perhaps while sipping a glass of champagne at a perfectly-situated on-course viewing spot looking out over the French Alps–and they realize they are actually there in person and not watching the Tour footage from the helicopters as broadcast on tv.

What’s going through your mind on your way to the tour?

Mark: Typically trying to learn as much as I can about the areas of France the Tour will visit for that year. I like to find fun facts that are not obvious. Also I like to have a solid understanding of the top cyclists that could podium or win a green jersey. Guests love talking shop, so I have to keep up.

Brie: Study! It is imperative to study maps, regional highlights, trip materials, pro riders and more. You want to be as prepared as you possibly can be heading into any trip. The TDF takes it to the next level. All guides have to be firing on all pistons to make these trips successful and awesome! Other thoughts always include daily back-up plans and what ifs! Our job is to deliver a Trip of a Lifetime, in order to do that, we have to be prepared for absolutely anything. A saying we use often: “It is the Tour. Anything can happen. Always have a Plan B!” Roads close earlier than they are supposed to, thunderstorms roll into the mountains in a matter of minutes, bridges give out weeks before a stage causing a complete reroute. You name it, it can happen at the Tour. “Fun and Flexible” is the name of the game and Trek Travel guides are the masters!

How many times have you been on this trip, and how does it change year by year for you?

Mark: I’ve guided it four years’ worth. Personally I always looked forward to the mountain stages as I love to climb. I loved the variability of the Tour as well, always having to think on your feet was fun to me. Road closures, crazy fans, our incredible viewing sites halfway up mountains. It’s always hectic, but I tend to thrive on that. I also always love going into Paris at the end. It’s a great party at the Automobile Club where all the guides and guest come together for one last big party. It’s the perfect way to wrap up three weeks of crazy Tour de France trips.

Brie: My first year guiding at the Tour de France was in 2012 in the Alps. I’ve guided TDF trips every year since and head to France in a few short days for the Etape this time around. Each year the route changes throughout the beautiful Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges but always ends in Paris. From the most challenging days on a bike to the utmost breathtaking views I’ve ever laid eyes on, the Tour de France has been a real pleasure to experience with Trek Travel over the years!

How do you prepare for the tour?

Mark: Ride, Ride and Ride. See above, love to climb. Also we do a lot of pre-trip research as guides. We’ll go out for a couple weeks prior to our first group, to review all routes, hotels, meeting locations, etc. As guides we like to know as much as possible before any guests arrive.

What’s going through your mind on your way home?

Mark: Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!

Brie: Guides are pretty exhausted at the end. I typically sleep the entire plane ride home. From take-off to landing, no joke. Tour de France trips run at a high level mentally, physically and emotionally. When headed home there is often the feeling of, “I survived…that was the craziest trip ever…I CAN’T wait to do it again next year!” That was how I felt in 2012, it hasn’t changed since.

Favorite TDF moment?

Mark: The first time I climbed Alpe d’Huez the day the pros did. It was my first year guiding and only second trip guiding ever. You get to the base and it just looms overhead…21 switchbacks to the top. The crazy thing was that all the fans were already lining the route. They cheered us on as though we were pros. And the Dutch corner was a sea of orange. Truly an incredible experience and one I can’t wait to get back to some day.

Brie: There are many! Paris is always a favorite. I love seeing the pure joy on guest’s faces—they are loving life and thrilled to experience the tour finale in such a stunning city. As of late, I have also really enjoyed seeing the happiness and relief on my guide’s faces in Paris. Once you reach Paris, it’s a home-free feeling for guides. You have the opportunity to relax a bit, drink champagne with colleagues and have a grand ol’ time in the City of Lights. Other memorable moments include helicoptering guests off the top of Alpe d’Huez at the end of a mountain top finish to their luxury hotel on Lake Annecy. A VIP experience they never forget.

“I survived…that was the craziest trip ever…I CAN’T wait to do it again next year!” That was how I felt in 2012 and that feeling hasn’t changed since.

Rethinking Stuff Sacks

Posted on June 3, 2015 - 10:00 am by keith_ritter

As a guide I have accumulated a nice little stash of Trek Travel guest bags over the last six years.

I really like the ones with side pockets and real shoulder straps that we give at our Tour de France trips, but even that petal pink one from a few years back is kind of nice. I’ve discovered that instead of becoming closet clutter these little bags can be repurposed for all kinds of tasks. Most recently I packed a stuff sack into my backpack on a Patagonian trek through Torres del Paine National Park, thinking it would make a perfect summit bag. Sure enough, this simple tote was just the solution for a late evening scamper up from our campsite to catch sunset on the famous towers for which the park is named.

Of course, that’s not the only way to reuse these industrious bags. Here are my top five ways to repurpose our day bags:

1. Contain muddy mountain bike shoes in my duffel after a ride

2. Grocery bags, especially when traveling by bike

3. Dirty laundry bag while traveling or guiding

4. Hanging holder for empty water bottles in my pantry

5. Beach bag for my towel, sunscreen, book and beer

La Gazzetta dello Sport

Posted on May 11, 2015 - 3:13 pm by keith_ritter

Perhaps the greatest thing about guiding bicycle trips that interact with big races and follow Grand Tours is the opportunity to travel off the beaten path. We venture to parts of the world that tourists simply do not travel. This was no truer than at Trek Travel’s 2009 Giro d’Italia “Behind the Scenes” trip with the Astana Pro Cycling Team.

It is May 25th, 2009, and the sun is getting lower on the coast of Pescara, Italy. I glance down at my watch: 6:45PM. Dinner is scheduled shortly at a luxurious hotel in Francavilla al Mare, a tiny beach town set on the eastern Abruzzo coast of Italy. This is not just a simple meal, but rather, we have a dinner engagement with the Astana Team.

We had just picked up our crew of Trek Travel adventurers that morning, and immediately experienced an adrenaline-pumped, epic bike ride on the Giro race route. We literally rode up the mountain pass in front of the pros, to the cheers of locals. The Abruzzo region is known for being rugged, and today’s roads were no exception. They were narrow, bumpy, steep and fast. The crowds cheering at the top of our brutal climb were local: I would reckon roughly 98% Italian. But somehow, our group of Trek Travelers, when atop a bicycle, well, we somehow fit right in.

The energy matched the elevation atop our mountain pass, as we eagerly awaited the pros to cross the top. I stood next to a hobbit-sized, elderly, Italian lady with a face leathered and wrinkled by decades of hard work. In her arms she held a stack of bright-pink newspapers. I knew them instinctively: La Gazzetta dello Sport. It’s the title sponsor of the Giro d’Italia, and the inspiration—no truly, the reason—for the race-leader’s pink jersey. The breeze turned chilly as the riders crested the hilltop with much bravado and fanfare. The small, wrinkled hobbit slowly reached her weathered hand in front of her, a pink newspaper clutched in it. As riders prepared for their descent in the frigid, mountain air, they looked around for something warm. Rider after rider eagerly snatched a pink paper from her, stuffing their jerseys with their newly-found insulation. With a smile on her face, she repeated this again and again, barely bothering to look up, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. But of course riders would be chilly on top of a hill; of course they would need something to keep warm on the descent.

I turned our Trek Travel van around the corner to the team hotel, where we met the mechanics who were cleaning and prepping the bikes, and met with behind the scenes support staff who ran us through their process of managing team logistics, the particulars of wrenching from the team car, and shared some of the team’s quirks and lesser-known details.

Then we went inside to enjoy dinner and met with the team managers and some members of the team: Levi Leipheimer (most-improved outgoing personality), Jose “Chechu” Luis Rubiera (kindest cyclist), Jani Brakovic (most gentle, honest rider), Viatcheslav Ekimov (best mullet), and more. After we enjoyed an exceptional Italian feast (many kilos of pasta were eaten that night), we sat around talking and laughing with other members of the team. I had this keen sense that—aside from being able to ride their bike really fast—these guys were just the same as any of us. Here they were, an international group of talented athletes, in a country far from family and friends. An excited group of Trek Travel cycling fans traveled to this small, Abbruzzese town to cheer wildly for them, to share their stories, to encourage them. It was clear that some of our energy and excitement infused back to the team that night.

We stopped for a quick round of billiards and a nightcap with the mechanics and support staff before drifting back to our beachside hotel where the group regaled each other with their own perspectives and highlights from a night of excitement and stimulation. Someone remarked that the trip had been a success and that they could go home happy right then and there, which brought a smile to my lips.

Because that was just day one.

About the Author: Jacob Young, a guide and trip designer who started with Trek Travel at the very beginning, is happiest when showing people new places, a passion he discovered 15 years ago while guiding a friend up Mt. Rainier. When not guiding bike trips, you’ll find him handling logistics for the biggest bike races in North America, or out leading yoga retreats in tropical destinations.

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What TDF means to Trek Travel

Featured in this story:

Briefly, describe how Trek Travel is involved in the Tour?

What would you say is one of the “I can’t believe this” moments for a Trek Travel guest?

What’s going through your mind on your way to the tour?

How many times have you been on this trip, and how does it change year by year for you?

How do you prepare for the tour?

What’s going through your mind on your way home?

Favorite TDF moment?

“I survived…that was the craziest trip ever…I CAN’T wait to do it again next year!” That was how I felt in 2012 and that feeling hasn’t changed since.

Rethinking Stuff Sacks

La Gazzetta dello Sport

Private

What is the Difference?

Ultimate Luxury:

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Level 3:

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What are your trip styles?

Classic - Reserve:

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Ride Camp:

Pro Race:

Cross Country:

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