For a group that set out to become the world’s most professional women’s amateur team in the peloton, signing a deal with Laura Massey was a no brainer. In doing so, not only did Drops Cycling Team add an accomplished cyclist–and current British Masters Champion–to their roster, but they also added an incredible leader to their team.
Briefly, tell us your story. How did your cycling career begin?
Well, my main sport used to be rowing. I rowed for my college and university (everyone in Cambridge rows!) and after several years of being relatively average, I decided it was time for a change of sport! I borrowed a road bike from a friend and did about 12 miles around the local lanes–I was knackered but I was addicted! I bought a basic aluminum road bike and started riding with the local Cambridge club. Looking back, I was a total liability–getting dropped on every slight lump and blowing up miles from home, having to be pushed back. But I loved it and kept persevering, doing the mid-week chain-gangs and time trials, and I finally developed some “cycling legs”. I began road racing in 2011/2012 and have been obsessed ever since.
What excites you most about the opportunity to race with Drops in 2016?
Being a UCI team means we have the opportunity to race on a world-stage in some pretty iconic races. This is a special opportunity. So special, in fact, that I decided to take a six month sabbatical from work (I am a management consultant in the pharmaceutical industry) to really allow myself to make the most of this opportunity. I am two months into the sabbatical and it is the best decision I ever made. I had to pinch myself on the start-line for the Tour of Flanders! I will be pinching myself again when we line up for the Tour of California next month. I am massively grateful to Bob Varney and everyone at Drops for giving me this opportunity.
Last year you won the British Masters Championship. What are your biggest goals for the upcoming season?
It sounds cheesy but my goal this year is just to enjoy my sabbatical and make the most of this amazing opportunity that I have been given by Drops. I want to get the most out of myself and see what I can achieve and how good a bike rider I can be without the stresses of work. Unlike the last few years (focused on UK racing), this year I don’t have a particular target race or result as this is a whole new level. I’m just going to give it my best shot each time I line up, suffer and see what happens. Last week this attitude got me a Top 20 at the Euskal Emakumeen Bira UCI 2.1 stage race in the Basque country so fingers crossed I can keep improving with more experience.
Who inspires you the most?
It has to be Lizzie Armitstead! Have you seen her legs?! It is inspiring to have a British World Champion who is currently so dominant.
Favorite place you’ve ever ridden and why?
For training, Denia in Spain (near Alicante) is my number one place–perfectly smooth rolling roads, nobody around, sunshine and a unique feel about it. The descent from the Montgo into Denia is magical. I also love the stretch of coastal road between Dartmouth and Kingsbridge in South Devon with its stunning sea/cliff views and aggressive ups and downs.
For racing, the Ardeche in Southern France was the most epic and beautiful race I have done.
Trek has been around since our country’s bicentennial in 1976. It was founded in the small manufacturing town of Waterloo, Wisconsin, about 20 minutes outside of Madison. The factory remains in Waterloo, though much has changed since its inception. Eric Bjorling, Trek’s brand communications guru, gave us a tour that began with the mini-museum in the foyer of the building. And you might notice the heritage logo popping up more and more as the brand has “rediscovered our passion for the history of the company,” Bjorling said.
Trek Travel is proud to introduce a new fleet of electric-assist bikes, including the Trek Domane+ LT and Verve+. These bikes flatten hills, improve endurance, and make every ride a little more fun. There’s no reason not to love an electric-assist bike. But we can find at least ten reasons why you will:
1. Fall in love with two wheels.
We believe that bikes show a different perspective, and provide a more magical way to experience the world. Sometimes, that magic is lost in the struggle up a mountain. With electric-assist, you can ride further and see more of the world from the seat of a bike.
2. If you’re reading this, they’re built for you.
Young, old, avid or amateur, you’ll definitely enjoy a spin on an electric-assist bike.
It’s more fun than you think, and just the ticket to a perfect day on the bike.
3. It’s a workout, with just a little less work.
It’s called “electric-assist” because that’s what it is; a boost when you need it, and a bike when you don’t.
This isn’t a moped, and there’s no reason to feel guilty. It’s just another way to ride on your terms.
4. They’ll take you to the very best and back.
No longer are the greatest views and most satisfying stops reserved for the hard-core riders.
With electric-assist, you’ll see more summits, skylines and horizons that make every destination magical. You might even get there first.
5. They’re where the latest meet the greatest.
Simply put, nobody makes electric-assist bikes better than Trek.
With a longer-lasting battery, lighter-weight frame, and extra-stylish design, we’ve got those other bikes beat.
6. Grins are guaranteed.
We know they’re fun. We’ve been riding them at the Trek Travel headquarters for months now.
Yes, our guests love them. Yes, our guides love them. No, you can’t stuff one into your luggage.
7. They’re also built for the buddy system.
We introduced electric-assist bikes so travel partners of two speeds can ride together.
Because the best memories are shared, no matter the level of riding experience.
8. They’ve already taken the world by storm.
Electric-assist bikes are standard equipment in Europe, where locals zoom from work, to home and anywhere in-between.
And now they’re making a big entry into the U.S. market. If you’re riding one, you’ll fit in just fine.
9. They slay the mightiest hills.
To some guests, hills are half the fun. To others, they’re roadblocks to get to the next activity.
Luckily, electric-assist bikes can turn any mountain into a molehill. You’ll be surprised at how fast you can defy gravity.
10. They’ve got all the speed you need.
Now you won’t need to worry about gaps from the group, changes in pace, or if you want to stop for a photo opportunity.
Electric-assist bikes make it easy to stay with the Trek Travel tour at any speed. Watch how.
Don’t miss out:
They’re first-come, first-served, so act now. It’s the easiest way to electrify your experience.
The flight from Paris had been cancelled because the winds were too strong to land in Florence. For any other group, this may have been a foreboding sign. But for the Trek employees who had traveled from Waterloo, Wisconsin, to experience first-hand the splendor and suffering of Strade Bianche, it was all part of the adventure.
To call Strade Bianche a road race is to misrepresent its true nature. The one-day modern classic traces a grueling route through the most beautiful and punishing gravel roads in Tuscany. From a distance, the gravel roads look white, lending the race its name, which translates in English to “white roads.”
Strade has a reputation of being hard and dangerous, with climbs that are so steep the pitches don’t translate on television and vicious winds that have sent racers barreling off the road. Climbing on gravel is a fundamentally different experience than climbing on pavement. It’s impossible to plant the rear wheel on the loose surface, so every climb becomes an exercise not just in fitness but also in agility. Even Trek Factory Racing’s top pros resolved that this race, though it has been run for only eight years and is not officially a staple on the Spring Classics calendar, is more difficult than the legendary Paris-Roubaix.
So, what were ten Trek employees from Wisconsin doing in Tuscany? Six years ago, Trek VP Joe Vadeboncoeur, who is affectionately known around the office as “Joe V” due to the bewildering number of vowels in his surname, began chaperoning trips to one-day classics. Joe, who has now ridden nearly all of the classic one-day races, designed the program to expose Trek employees to racing first-hand. “When you work in the industry,” he says, “you can’t really understand what you do and why you do it until you’ve seen the sport at the top level and actually experienced what the pros do every day. It’s a vital experience, because it alters your perspective in a way that informs everything you do from that point forward.”
Most one-day classics are accompanied by a Gran Fondo, often referred to as a “citizens’ race,” where non-professionals, recreationalists, and, yes, even a motley crew of jet-lagged cycling industry employees can ride the course a day before the pros. The ten Trek employees—creatives, engineers, product managers, and others—went to Italy not just to watch the pros, but also to test their mettle in the citizens’ race.
Joe V’s love affair with the Classics began decades ago. Each spring, as the weather was warming, he’d wait with anticipation for those second Sundays in March and April when the biggest one-day races were held. For Joe V, the charm of the Classics is unpredictability.
“We all love the Grand Tours,” he says, “but at the start, there are only a handful of real contenders. A week into a three-week race, usually only one of three riders can actually win it. Two weeks in, only one of two riders can win.”
In the one-day classics, on the other hand, there may be fifty or more riders who have a real chance to win. With 1K to go, there are often a dozen or more riders barreling toward the finish together, and this is where the beauty of the classics shines. One-day classics are usually won by the hard-men of the sport, those strong, calloused riders who win not just on fitness but also on strength of character.
And herein lies the lesson at the core of Joe V’s program. There is no better way to build strength of character that will improve work than to go wholeheartedly into an experience like this one.
After the cancelled flight, the Trek employees made it to Florence by bussing from Bologna to Sienna. They battled the headwinds and blinding dust, the loose gravel and brutal climbs, despite having trained outside only a handful of times, at most, through the bitterly cold Wisconsin winter. Every employee finished the Strade Bianche Gran Fondo. And, when they returned to Waterloo, their approach to the day-to-day work was informed by this accomplishment. Their vision was changed, their perspective altered. It’s exactly what Joe V likes to see.
Last Saturday, 450 fearless riders set out with a singular goal: to ride across the state of Wisconsin. Starting with the first glimpse of sunlight at 6:30AM, we gladly said goodbye to Iowa, crossed the mighty Mississippi River, and set our sights on Lake Michigan. Our objective was clear: a one-day, 175-mile ride to raise money for the Wisconsin Bike Federation. Our sanity, on the other hand, was questionable.
The forecast called for rain and headwinds, but we still showed up. Wisconsinites are a rare breed. The weather doesn’t scare us because we spend most of our year either surviving harsh winters or talking about them. We are proud, and we’ll go to great lengths to express our love for this mid-western home. And most of all, we are strong. Give us a challenge and we’ll raise our glass to wish you good luck.
So with a lot of excitement and a little hesitation we set out on our epic, hard-as-hell ride across the greatest state ever. These are my top five moments from the day:
The Awesome Bus
On Friday afternoon we boarded the Awesome Bus at Trek’s headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin. There was a sign in the bus windshield that said, “Have a great day,” but surely it was more than great. The cafeteria supplied us with water, beer and plenty of snacks. Our first destination was Madison to pick up the Trek Factory Racing riders and staff. Among others were Linsey Corbin, Bauke Mollema, and Wisconsin-native Matthew Busche.
As it turns out, when you put a bunch of bike-geeks and athletes on a bus for two hours, there is no lack of topics to discuss. I was lucky enough to sit next to Linsey Corbin and easy conversation passed the time. The highlight of the ride came when Linsey said she had never cycled this far before. My first thought was, “Great, we’re all in this together.” But enthusiasm quickly turned to apprehension. “If the five-time Ironman world champion and American record holder hasn’t ridden this far, who am I to do it?”
Robbie Ventura and Jens Voigt
Friday night before the ride, Jens Voigt and Robbie Ventura took the stage to get us excited about the adventure ahead. Jens, who later said he used gears on this ride so small that he didn’t know they existed just one year ago, entertained us with stories of burger stops on training rides that landed well among this Wisconsin crowd. Robbie, on the other hand, offered slightly more practical advice with five tips to make this inaugural event a success.
1. Ride Safe: Keep your head up, ride predictably, and follow the rules of the road 2. Be Self-Sufficient: Supporting 450 riders over 175 miles is difficult. Carry gear to fix flat, have a route guide, and bring layers for the weather. 3. Nutrition and Hydration: It is important to stay hydrated (1 bottle an hour) and keep eating (200-300 calories per hour) on such a long ride. 4. Pace Yourself: If you go out too hard, you’re going to make the day longer than it already is. 5. Help Someone: Fix a flat, offer food, slow down to stay with someone, encourage each other, and smile. It will help you as much or more than it helps them.
The Beloit Rest Stop
With eight rest stops along the course, situated roughly 25 miles apart, the event had incredible support. Holland Dairy Farms offered their front yard, and chocolate milk, to all riders. Monroe let us take over a large city park. But the true stand out was Beloit. The gorgeous riverside park provided nice views while we rested our legs. The Janesville Velo Club was there to cheer on riders as we rode into and out of Beloit. There were folk dancers and gospel singers and even a cheerleading squad!
The Trek Travel Ladies
We have a great team here at Trek Travel. Evening rides and five o’clock happy hours provide ample time to enjoy one another’s company outside the office walls. But the bonding that occurs during 12-hours on the bike is unique. On Saturday, all four of us woke up with one common goal for the day. Literally and figuratively we pulled each other through. We didn’t converse the whole way. But we always enjoyed the company. We experienced the same views, suffered up the same hills, and reveled in the same glory.
The Finish Party
It’s no secret that getting off the bike after 12 hours in the saddle feels good. And the collective sense of accomplishment as we entered Kenosha was overwhelming. But as Robbie Ventura so accurately stated, “The highlight for me were the people. The relaxed and supportive atmosphere was special and it kept me smiling through a long, wet, hard day in beautiful Wisconsin!” In true Wisconsin fashion, we celebrated the finish by filling up our frosty “Founder’s” mugs and raising a glass to the adventure we shared. A simple engraving on the bottom of our mugs seems to encapsulate it perfectly…Earned It.
According to Dave Schlabowske, Deputy Director of the Wisconsin Bike Federation, “We started the Ride Across Wisconsin to showcase the amazing riding we have here. We hope RAW will become an annual tradition for hundreds of home state cyclists and a bucket list ride for people from across the country who want to see why we think Wisconsin is America’s Best Ride.”
Speaking for all of us, thank you to the Wisconsin Bike Federation for putting on a great event. It was truly the ride of a lifetime.
How many bikes does a person really need? The old joke makes the answer a moving target: N + 1, with N being the number of bikes already stuffed into your garage. But would that equation be different if you built one bike, from the ground up, with the exact spec, color, gearing, and fit you want, without compromise? If you got to build your one bike?
That’s the idea behind Project One: build one bike at a time, for one rider at a time. A bike unlike all others. Every wish and whim considered. trek’s custom bike program was launched to the cycling world over ten years ago. It was a daring departure for a large bike manufacturer, allowing customers to specify their individual bike’s part and color. Upsetting our busy paint and production line was risky, and creating a custom shop alongside it was definitely a bold move–one that has since gained fans across the world.
Fast forward a decade, and ever-increasing demand has warranted a new $2 million paint lineat Trek that must be seen to be believed. Paint Manufacturing Engineer Bob Seibel has been researching paint plants for several years now, including custom paint lines at similar businesses like the Harley-Davidson Motor Company in nearby Milwaukee. Bob rides a Harley, and is always happy to visit the mother ship–but this time, the objective was to solidify plans for the best painting line in the industry. One of the first requirements he identified was the need for a specific and separate location for his crew of painters.
“Before the new paint line, P1 painters never had their own space: it had always been shared with the mainline work, with custom stuff done on a second shift. Now we have a dedicated Project One paint facility; their own booths where they don’t have to close up, put away all their equipment at the end of the night only to have to take it all back out to start up the next day. Now they can just paint. They’re at home.”
But space was only the start. The real bottom line goal for the new paint booth was that we wanted to free up the artisan painters from the more technical and uncreative aspects of coatings. Changing colors, cleaning lines, painting undercoats. These things require more precision than artistry, so the new paint line is an amazing mix of technology and art, anchored by a high-tech, incredibly precise paint robot. The artists and the robot get along really well. We robotically cover the mundane tasks and keep our painters focused on the art, the beauty–the things that make Project One more than a paint job.
The frames that receive this artistry are molded from raw carbon just down the hall and up the stairs from the new paint line. There the raw carbon frames are bonded, cured, and checked for perfect alignment.
Only then can the finishing process begin. Frames are first sandblasted, then joints and bond lines are hand-sanded with care. Not a single speck of that sanding dust, Bob Seibel takes care to point out, will ever make its way into the paint booth.
Before painters enter the glass-walled booth, they don paper coveralls and pass through air showers and other contaminant removal methods to remove dust and impurities–the number one cause of paint imperfections–from all operators and frames that enter. Nothing gets in the way of a perfect finish.
“With Project One, the finishes are unbelievably meticulous. Take the U5 Vapor Coat. U5 stands for under five grams. Literally less than five grams of finished paint is applied to the frame before it’s done. A typical paint weight of a frame is easily 100 grams, if not more, because your sole focus is a smooth, flawless finish. But here we’re talking five grams or less for a paint finish, that’s astounding–it’s nothing! There is absolutely no margin for error–the coating can’t hide anything. Part of it is sandblasted, to have a matte feel and look, and the other parts are contrasted. It’s a really special look.”
Which is the whole point of Project One. We like to do special things here. Often it’s for one of the great athletes who ride Trek. Project One graphic designer Brian Lindstrom recently completed a special bike for Jens Voigt.
“Jens is very cool to work with. He had a lot of great ideas about what he wanted. We sat down in a cafe in Berlin and he started sketching ideas that he had, all the different milestones that he wanted to include on the bike that we could work on. The result was a design that reflected points in his career, so it was cool that, as fans, we can thank him for it.
I love doing athlete bikes–or it could be an entire identity for a new team, like for Trek Factory Racing: design the logo, get it all out there, color them up.”
Rarer than the athlete bikes are the fully custom civilian jobs, only endeavored when the custom queue is uncharacteristically short and the budget necessarily long. Take the skeletal bike the Project One team created for an orthopedic surgeon in New York. The doctor was a triathlete, and wanted the full custom treatment for his Speed Concept. Project One Guru (yes, that’s his title) Eric Maves recalls:
“We played off the fact that he was an orthopedic surgeon. He wanted a skeletal-type paint scheme on the bike. His main job is doing artificial joints, so he somehow wanted to integrate those into the skeletal system. I had this idea: what if we made it like an X-ray? We used the X-rays of the son of one of our painters as our benchmark. Artificial joints show up on an X-ray completely different from bone, so we went for that effect on the piece. It was intense, like 40 hours of paint labor alone. He was blown away.”
Dave Schleicher is the Project One engineering technician. Dave takes Brian’s and Eric’s ideas and works out how to make them happen, which techniques to use, how to make vinyls for masking the frame for painting. In the case of complicated projects like the skeleton, this often means some clever sideway thinking.
“I had to go find an actual skull, and live-trace right off the skull–that was just crazy. We went to the University of Wisconsin and came up with all the drawings for the vertebrae, and I had to hand-trace them, label them, and match where they lined up. For the hips, the human ones weren’t working, so we had to use an X-ray from a dog’s hip!”
Dave is lost in folders and files on his desktop. The last ten years of special paint finishes and graphics flashes on the screen. The attention to detail, the complex engineering that turns a concept into a paint scheme, is extraordinary. And once the art and makes are complete, it’s up to the painter to bring the design to life on its carbon canvas.
“It’s sort of a layering technique. It’s a very artistic interpretation, the masks aren’t meant to be a schematic. Every time we develop a new design, we save the files, just because we might use some of it on another project. We’ve done a snake head, we have skulls…John Burke, Trek’s President, gave his wife a panda design bike, so we’ve got that. There we go, pandas!”
The same meticulous airbrushing used for the rare one-offs also applies to the Project One Signature Series schemes. Applying the Real Fire scheme to tubes and fork ends is around nine hours of work, all done by a single painter. Each Signature Series frame belongs to one artist, from start to finish, who signs his work at the end. Bob explains:
“We take it personally, because we know that one person has ordered this one frameset, this one bike. The frame already has an owner, written right on the tag. That owner is a person, someone who’s created this expression in the form of a bike. We build it and sign it, from one person to another–it’s tough to get more personal than that.”
When is the last time you bought yourself something nice that can also save your life? If it’s been more than 3-5 years since you bought a new bike helmet, then do yourself a favor and don’t wait any longer. Most helmets have a manufacturer recommended lifespan of 3-5 years, even if it has never been in a crash.
Helmet technology is almost as amazing as smart phone technology. Advancements in design, weight, retention systems, cooling and fit have come an incredibly long way in the past few years. Every time I purchase a new helmet, I ask myself how they possibly improved the fit and technology so much when I thought my last helmet was perfect!
Purchasing a new helmet is also a great opportunity to make sure it fits properly. The safety of your helmet relies on the adjustment of its straps. It is important to make sure the strap buckles fit right below your ears and the chin strap isn’t too loose. My rule of thumb: always err on the side of caution. If you can’t remember when you purchased your helmet, stop into a local bicycle dealer and get fit for a new one. Your safety and security is worth the price.
Madison’s most celebrated boutique hotel, The Mansion Hill Inn is renowned for its signature blend of intuitive service and warmly sophisticated design. For 160 years, the Mansion Hill Inn has been host to travelers from around the world and is today a chance to experience a glimmering time past. Discover our favorite Midwestern retreat when you join us for your personalized Project One experience.
In 1857, Alexander A. McDonnell bought a small wood lot on one of the most prominent hills in Madison. The town was nearly twenty years old by that point, and the fledgling state of Wisconsin was experiencing such a boom that the old Capitol building had been outgrown. McDonnell was the contractor for a new Capitol building and the lot he selected on what was known as Big Bug Hill was a short walk from the construction site. McDonnell hired the architect August Kutzboch, a German émigré who was renowned as one of the premier architects in Madison along with his partner Samuel Donnell. Together the two men built what McDonnell termed “the best house money could buy.”
The German Romanesque Revival building, considered by some to be the finest of its type in the country, includes wrought iron from the balconies to buttresses and arched windows. Inside the 9,000 square foot Madison hotel is a four-story, oval-shaped mahogany spiral staircase leading to a belvedere. Light passes into the marble foyer through etched Venetian glass windows. Originally, there were oil-painted wall designs.
The hotel’s days as a single-family residence ended at the turn-of-the-century. It then became a fashionable boarding house run by Carrie Pierce, where some of Madison’s most notable citizens lived. In the 1930’s, well after boarding houses fell out of favor, the building was converted into apartments, a condition that persisted until 1983, when the Alexander Company purchased the Inn, transforming it into a boutique hotel.
For over twenty years, the Mansion Hill Inn lived up to the ideals set forth by all those whom invested so much time, effort, and money into this house. In March 2008, the Mansion Hill Inn was purchased by Trek Bicycle and Trek Hospitality. At that point, Trek embarked on an extensive renovation project that sought to update the hotel’s amenities and preserve the home’s history. Each of the ten charming rooms has been restored, highlighting the property’s historical charm. Trek sought to expand the amenities available by preserving the hotel’s classic parlor and creating a majestic bar for entertaining. The house has been furnished with elegant pieces and state of the art fixtures. Additionally, Trek restored the belvedere at the top of the stairs and some of the ornate wrought-iron on the balconies and front porch among other pieces.
From its origins as a small woodlot on Big Bug Hill to Madison’s finest hotel on Mansion Hill, the sandstone home at 424 North Pinckney Street has emerged as a landmark in both the hospitality industry and the history of the city of Madison. The elegance, beauty, and history of the home undoubtedly will continue to impress visitors for many years to come.
Writing about cycling vacations in the world’s premier travel destinations involves taking the reader away from their desk and transporting them to a winding road under the Tuscan sun. It means recounting stories of epic rides. Telling the tales of travelers. Describing luxury hotels and Michelin-starred meals. Meet Jordan Sher, the voice of Trek Travel and the man who so eloquently describes the experiences that speak for themselves.
Tell us your story.
I took the long way to bikes. A fat kid in high school, I hit the drama club hard and ditched gym class daily (note: Trek Travel does not endorse the skipping of gym class).
In college I dropped way more than the freshman 15; in fact I lost about 75 pounds. After graduating from college, my dad invited me to ride the MS 150 with him. I didn’t ride bikes, but I gave it a try. I’ll never forget my first kit: I wore a cotton T-shirt, cheap bike shorts and rode a mountain bike with slicks. But I did it. How awesome was I? That was the true beginning of the beginning.
About 15 years ago, I joined a cycling team on a dare. I was waaaayyyy out of my element, but something about the challenge kept me motivated. I decided to adopt the mantle of a bike racer and do whatever it was bike racers do—that includes investing in expensive bikes, dieting to cut weight and riding all the time.
At the same time I was in graduate school for copywriting and decided a life of freelance writing in advertising was for me. It’s the perfect mix of everything I love – advertising (give me a commercial and I’ll tell you who made it), writing and the time to ride my bike 300 miles a week.
I’ve been riding big ever since, and have kept racing for the past 10 years. When I discovered the awesome crew at Trek Travel, it was a match made in heaven. Writing about ride camps? Race trips? Classic climbs? Yes, please. I couldn’t have asked for a better, dreamier opportunity.
What inspired you to become a writer?
It’s more about what inspired me to go into marketing. I have loved advertising since I was a toddler, shushing my mom during her daytime television to watch the commercials. To this day, I am more obsessed by commercials than by regular TV. I know. So sad.
How long have you been riding bikes?
I’ve been racing for 15 years. I kind of think I was riding a bicycle in the womb. Is that too much information?
How did you end up at Trek Travel?
I started working with these crazies in 2013 when they redesigned their website. I was just lucky enough that we clicked. Oh, I wanted us to click in the worst way.
Tell us about your best day on a bicycle.
There are so many. Riding the Haleakelah in Maui. Grinding up Magnolia Road in Boulder, one of the steepest roads in the country. My bachelor party was a group ride. Ironman Lake Placid. But I think the most memorable was the day we rode Puig Major and Sa Colobra in Mallorca on Trek Travel ride camp. I had no idea roads like this could exist. It’s 10K of the craziest climb I have ever seen. Have you been? If not, you need to.
Tell us about your favorite ride in Colorado.
Mt. Evans is the highest paved road in North America. It’s your only opportunity to ride to the top of a fourteener. At 10,000 feet, the weather changes. At 12,000 feet, there are no trees. At 14,000 feet, the bighorn sheep look at you funny. And at 14,600 feet you reach the observatory. I have been up several times, but the air is so thin I only remember a few.
What is your favorite travel destination and what excites you most about this part of the world?
The races of Europe are where it’s at. If I were 12, I’d have posters of all cycling heroes on my walls. Before I leave this planet, I will go to the Spring Classics. I will watch a stage on the Mortirolo in Italy. And I will run like a drunk idiot next to some racer on Alpe d’Huez. Mark my words.
Tell us about your best travel adventure.
This sounds so sad, but most all my great travel adventures are by bicycle. I once road-tripped to Couer d’Alene from Denver in one day (16 hours) in a Mini Cooper with three bikes on the roof. I once raced Ironman Galveston on a broken foot and had a personal best. I think my favorite, though, is still the big city. I went to college in New York City and still love to go back as a tourist. Mostly because I know I don’t have to search for an apartment while I’m there.
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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Road: 1-3 hours of riding. Up to 25 mi (40 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).
Gravel: 1-3 hours of riding. Up to 20 mi (35 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).
Hiking: 1-3 hours of hiking. Up to 5 mi (8 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).
Level 2:
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Gravel: 2-4 hours of riding. 15-30 mi (25-45 km). Up to 2,000 ft (300 m).
Hiking: 2-4 hours of hiking. 4-8 mi (6-12 km). Up to 1,500 ft (450 m).
Level 3:
Road: 3-5 hours of riding. 25-55 mi (40-85 km). Up to 4,500 ft (1,500 m).
Gravel: 3-5 hours of riding. 20-40 mi (35-60 km). Up to 3,000 ft (900 m).
Hiking: 3-5 hours of hiking. 6-10 mi (9-16 km). Up to 2,000 ft (600 m).
Level 4:
Road: 4+ hours of riding. 40-70 mi (60-110 km). Up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m).
Gravel: 4+ hours of riding. 30-50 mi (45-80 km). Up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m).
Hiking: 4+ hours of hiking. 7-15 mi (11-24 km). Up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m).
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