Elite team GMSR camp

Two weeks ago the TARGETRAINING U-25/Elite Development Team held a training camp in Vermont to help prepare for the upcoming Green Mountain Stage Race. Making the drive were Justin Lindine, Dave Hoyle, Will Nowak, Gabe Lloyd and Adam St Germain. Faithful readers to this column know them as Wolverine, BFD, Monster, New Guy and the Bomb.

It should be noted that Bomb was very excited to only have to drive 30 minutes. Since his move to Burlington last winter, Adam has been singularly responsible for global warming by driving approximately 17 hours for each race! The team stayed in the same condo as last year's race and prepared for a tough few days.

Friday afternoon saw two hours of tempo riding with Kyle driving his SUV as the follow vehicle. No green death mobile this weekend as it was down supporting a much better cause with the Pan Mass Challenge. This was a good ride and got everyone back together after a few weeks of rest and no racing plus how Fitchburg had split the cat 1s and cat 2 riders. GMSR will be a combined field so it is important that everyone work together.

On Saturday morning the team cruised down the mountain and rode over to the new time trial course. In the past, GMSR was famous for its first stage mass start hill climb. This was a neat event that mixed the stategeries of a team event with the solo efforts of a time trial. A completely different course needed to be reviewed as it could be decisive. The team did the course twice with Kyle in the car and then twice more as an actual time trial with start times and split and everything. It is a very tough course and only the strongest will win. Good stuff. The lads rode about 50 miles with the course and warmup and down and headed home for lunch.

After two hours of sandwiches and ESPN 8 (The Ocho) the team headed back out to preride the 105 km road race course. The course goes over some interesting roads in central Vermont including both Middlebury and App Gaps, two very steep and difficult mountain cross roads. It was going up Middlebury gap that the rain started to fall and descending the mountain when Gabe started to fall. Yup, that hurt. Gabe hit a water filled pot hole at about 70kph and wiped out. He was a little banged up but survived okay. The rest of the team talked me into letting him climb in the car as they continued to ride.

Above is a picture of the team chasing Justin uphill in the rain. What fun.

Now, as an experiment, I had disconnected the brakes on Justin's bicycle. I seriously don't think he even noticed as this kid never uses them. He is one of the best amateur descenders I have ever seen. They were not even racing and he just flies down the mountains. His plan: get low, trust your tires and just let go. Wow. Super fast.

The rain really started to pour down and they climbed off after about 60 more miles. Over a hundred for the day, good stuff. To the right is a picture of Gabe with what is left of his rain cape. Don't worry folks, he is okay and getting ready for his next Mensa meeting!

The next morning saw lots more rain, but we headed out anyhow. Hey, what did I care, I was in the car with the radio and heater. We went a did a shortened but much harder loop with Lincoln Gap, Baby Gap and then App Gap again before riding back to the condo. Lincoln Gap for those who don't know is almost unrideable. It is about 25% grade for over 2 miles. Adam got off his bike a walked a bit and caught Will and David. Justin did repeats in his big ring and wondered what all the fuss was about. No brakes again by the way.

The training was awesome and the squad really began to work together well as a team again, even playing attacking scenarios up Baby Gap. Good stuff all around and we gained a huge leg up on the competition and will be well prepared for the race on Labor Day weekend.

I do want to say that for the most part the people of Vermont were very nice and understanding and respectful to the team. They waited until there was room to pass the car and riders on the road and almost every one of them beeped and waved. Of course, almost every car had a bike rack and knew Adam. That kid is famous!

Thanks for reading and look for the TARGETRAINING riders at the Capital Region Road Race in Albany this coming weekend!