It’s the same every year. But just add a little more intensity each time. The time I spend organizing, building, and prepping for Team Camp in the early season is a colossal challenge. No matter how early I place the team orders two things are inevitable. First, that the riders will change their setup by the time they receive their bikes. Second, that not everything I order will arrive. I am lucky to have some flexible sponsors and Art’s SLO Cyclery help me fill in the gaps!

All team orders are placed before the New Year rolls around. This can be a monumental challenge contacting each rider and staff member (the staff wants equal treatment of course) and connecting them to the appropriate and available team equipment. This is even more of a test if the team has not signed all its riders or if a sponsors product is not in production yet. Some years I have new team bikes built up by then end of March and other years I am still building bikes like crazy at Sea Otter. This is a Sea Otter

All is well here. Season is going well and the riders are doing well. Can’t believe it is the first of May and we have done 3 Norbas, 1 World Cup, and Sea Slaughter!

I wanted to tell you that I love the Chanj lube. I have been using it almost exclusively on the race bikes (and my home bikes). I like it better than the Syn lube as it seems to last longer. I have used it in the dusty to muddy races. Although sometimes I use a light coat of syn grease on top for extra protection. It cleans up nicely as well. Another product I am using more it the Fizzy bike wash. I used to use the Bio cleaner mainly, but now use the Fizzy more. I like the enviro. friendly products your company makes.

Ah, spring in beautiful Williamsburg, VA. Temperate coastal weather, friendly east coast atmosphere, and the most important ingredient of all… sunshine. Well, until race day that is.

Drove our sprinter and trailer cross country to Virginia for the inaugural US Open of Cycling, a well run, albeit a confusingly named event. My mom still doesn’t understand why I was working at a Tennis event.

The weather was excellent for the three days previous to the actual event, temps in the 60’s and 70’s and sunshine. When the forecast for Sunday morning included snow I thought the beauty school dropouts that the Weather Channel employs were just plain wrong.

An early 8:30 race start meant work began for me pre-dawn and, yup, it was snowing. Not little girly snowflakes, either, real snow that this Colorado native can appreciate. At 6 am, pumping up tires while wearing every layer of clothing that I had packed, I checked the thermometer on my watch and it was a balmy 35

Girona, Spain (February 16, 2007) - What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, the team was stuck in a “chateau” (that’s French for abandoned schoolhouse) before GP Marseillaise and Etoile de Besseges playing Stratego while six inches of snow fell outside. Not a fun way to start the year.

This year, the team decided to go to the other extreme. We started at the Tour of Langkawi. It was HOT! On average, the temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius. Just walking outside to work on the bikes made me sweat. The typical work attire of the mechanics there consisted of a pair of shorts, sandals and plenty of sunscreen. It was fantastic tanning weather.

As for the race, I’m not quite sure why it is called the Tour of Langkawi. While we did tour all 85 kilometers of paved roads on the island of Langkawi, the other nine stages were conducted on the Malaysian mainland. None the less, it was the best way to kick off a new year. This is my eleventh year as a team

I had a bit of a stressful start with a cancelled of my first flight forcing me to drive to Santa Barbara to make my San Francisco connection flight.  After the normal “ sir you can only check two pieces of luggage” I got all checked in with all five.

The flight from SF to New Zealand was by far the most pleasant I have ever experienced.  Air New Zealand aircrafts are new and spacious.  My coach seat felt like business class with all the entertainment features and options.  The 12-hour flight was over before I knew it.  After getting over the shock that my entire team Luna luggage actually arrived with my flight, I proceeded to find the nearest airport coffee shop to wait for the rest of the team.  It was 5 AM and we had been traveling for over 18 hours already. But, everyone was pretty chipper and excited to be in a new place.

Our two and a half hour drive to the race site was disappointingly uneventful. 

BEIJING, CHINA (JULY 21, 2006) After a very successful week at the U23 national championships in Seven Springs, PA, myself and a 6 man contingent from the TIAA-Cref team packed our bags and flew out to Beijing, China to begin the Tour of Qinghai Lake. Well, when I say we packed our bags, I mean the riders packed their bags and I packed 8 bike boxes full of supplies. International travel is probably one of the biggest hassle for a cycling team, that's why I have so much respect for all of the Euro based teams who make to the States for races such as the Tour of California and Georgia.

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (July 20,2006)- It's been a nice balmy 90+ degrees and eleventy-billion percent humidity here in SE PA for the past couple of weeks. No big deal if you're from the mid-atlantic but certainly still very difficult to get used to since the weather had been so nice prior.

We're enjoying a lull in racing and can't hardly complain as some of our compatriots have been hitting it hard in Wisconsin and Bend while we're at home. The joys of the little bucks...

With Altoona coming in the next week or so, Eva and I had been working on some of the bikes, rebuilding some due to crashes and calamity and just washing and tuning in the downtime. We're fortuneate in the fact that the team trailer and most of the equipment gets to sleep from race to race at our house so it makes it a ton easier to get work done. Colavita's warehouse is some two hours away with typical 7.30 to 3 hours that just don't make it condusive for getting work done.

That and the fact it's in NJ, a place