12 December 2009
Two Champions, Two Perspectives
By Jeff Ludlum,
This past week Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel held their first press conference for Team RadioShack, as the riders and coaches gathered for training camp in Tucson, Arizona. Also this week, Giuseppe Martinelli, a veteran directeur sportif who recently joined the re-tooled Astana Team, was interviewed about Astana and its lead rider, Alberto Contador.
Recall that Contador and Armstrong both rode for Astana during the 2009 season. In the Tour de France Contador won the event, with Armstrong capturing the third place overall. Leading up to and even during the tour this past season there seemed by all accounts uncertainty as to who the actual lead rider was. Contador was the more recent champion, having won Le Tour in 2007; Armstrong had won the grand tour seven times, from 1999 – 2005.
Armstrong however, had just come out of retirement to return to the ProTour. Armstrong summed it up best perhaps in an interview during the three week grand tour. On any bike team there is one star. “Those are the unwritten rules. The strongest man wins the event. The other riders work for him. That’s what I’d hope he’d do [speaking of Contador]. I know that’s what I’ll do.” One way or another Team Astana worked things out. The team rode in support of Contador and he ended up wearing the maillot jaune in Paris on the champion’s podium.
Return now to news from this week. During the press conference from the Shack Camp in Tucson, Armstrong spoke clearly and directly to address the issue of his role on the squad. “This team’s not about me”, he said. Armstrong went so far as to say it would be “irresponsible” to build the team around him, at this point in his career. “I’m 38 now, I’ll be 39 this season [2010]. We have to look at Levi [Leipheimer], [Andres] Kloden, the tactics, the ideas that we use.” Essentially Armstrong seems to be saying it’s about racing, building a strong team with several other very capable riders, their abilities, and their chances of wining races, including the Tour de France.
His dynamic and confident personality and well-known competitive spirit aside, Armstrong’s comments should be taken at face value. Of course he’s going to be a leader on the team he helped create; of course he’s a veteran champion who can both contribute while racing and as a great resource in strategy, tactics, and helping his teammates ride better. But it’s about the team first, not his own racing aspirations.
Alberto Contador’s role on the Astana squad is quite a bit different. His role as the lead rider for his team is well-established. He’s perhaps at the peak of his game presently, and is the defending champion of the Tour de Franc 2009. Contador’s list of accomplishments include many stage and race victories, two editions as champion of Le Tour (2007, 2009); he is the only active rider to have won all three Grand Tours. In 2008 he finished first in both the Giro d’ Italia and Vuelta a Espana in 2008.
According to a recap on Velonation.com of Astana’s press conference in Pisa, Italy this week, Contador and the team’s race schedule will be structured around the best preparations for the Tour de France via a series of shorter stage races during the season. It’s yet to be announced if Astana will enter compete in the first UCI ProTour event of the 2010 season, the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia, where Team RadioShack has already announced it will make its debut.
While Astana saw significant changes to its roster and management with the exodus of Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong, and eight other riders, the team seems to be coming together. With Contador in the lead role, several new riders including veteran Kazakh racer Alexandre Vinokourov, and new team manager Yvon Sanquer, the team will be ready to roll. All told, the new organization will give Contador a good squad and critical support in pursuit of a successful season in 2010.
As noted by Cycling News, Guiseppe Martinelli was brought on by Yvon Sanquer to work with Contador and help him realize his potential on the road. Martinelli’s comments make his perspective clear. He believes Contador and Astana are better off starting fresh as it were, without the likes of Armstrong or Bruyneel, who he refers to as maybe the two strongest men in cycling, but also the source of unfounded criticism of how Contador has handled his rise to stardom.
Martinelli knows something about champions and stardom: as director sportif he has led riders to four Giro d’Italia victories (Marco Pantani, 1998; Stefano Garzelli, 2000; Gilberto Simoni, 2003; Damiano Cunego, 2004) and one Tour de France win as well (Marco Pantani, 1998).
As the 2010 season begins next month, surely there will be countless stories to follow, developments to report, tales to be told. Not the least of these will be how Armstrong, a great racing champion from the past, and Contador, a more recent champion and likely the best all-around cyclist in the world at present, compete in the months ahead.
In reality, it won’t be about how Contador and Armstrong measure up against one another. Rather it will be how they measure up to their own established goals for the 2010 season: one man will be racing to add to his list of championships, the other man racing for himself in a different way – to add to his legacy as a great American cyclist, not only as a racing champion, but also a leader helping others achieve all that they can in the peloton and beyond.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
TRS in TDU 2010
29 January 2010
“The Shack Hangs it’s Shingle – Team RadioShack’s Open for Business”
By Jeff Ludlum
There was a lot of anticipation, lots of excitement, as Team RadioShack (TRS) traveled to South Australia earlier this month for the Santos Tour Down Under stage race, the first event of the 2010 ProTour season. In the wake of their first race, barely a month after coming together for their first training camp in Tucson, Arizona, the riders, their coaches, management, and sponsors, should feel pretty good.
Sure, team manager Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong himself had expressed their team goal of winning a stage during the week. This result alluded The Shack during the seven days of racing, but not by much. Shack sprinter Gert Steegmans came within about a bike’s length of capturing the stage one victory, finishing second behind the three stage and GC winner for the week, Andre Greipel (HTC Columbia). Other TRS riders that finished toward the front during the week included Sebastien Rosseler with a 7th place finish in stage five, and Daryl Impey with a 13th place finish in the Sunday prologue.
Bruyneel commented at the end of the week that he was happy with the team’s effort, with several of the riders racing together for the first time. Indeed, six of the seven TRS rider finished in the top 50. Not too shabby. There were a few times during the week where the Shackers tested the peloton: Rosseler had a nice breakaway for a period early in stage three, and Armstrong and Tomas Vaitkus lead a late breakaway in stage four to test the peloton’s mettle.
These were all good outcomes for a team that turned up down under to set the tempo for the season and give their sponsors, especially title sponsor RadioShack, a proper sense of what the ProTour is about, with big crowds, plenty of top racers, and what event organizers called some of the best racing in the tour’s twelve years.
There was also a clear communication technology break through in this first race for TRS: several riders, as well as Bruyneel, team physiologist Dr. Allen Lim, and other members of The Shack’s personnel, kept the Twitter-sphere updated with posts throughout the week, giving this writer for one the sense that he was in South Australia wearing a team ID for total access, and following the action from the team race car. In fact, the TDU race organizers had virtual Twitter broadcasting during each stage, with practically play-by-play updates posted throughout each stage. Awesome.
Now the team’s got a week or so off before gathering in Calpe, Spain for their second camp, in lead-up to the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal, which runs the third week of February. Bruyneel has yet to post the start list for that race, no doubt waiting until after camp. It’s sure to include another good mix of riders, another early test for TRS to support each other during a stage race and see just what they can accomplish. One thing’s for sure: The Shack’s hung its shingle, and it’s open for business.
“The Shack Hangs it’s Shingle – Team RadioShack’s Open for Business”
By Jeff Ludlum
There was a lot of anticipation, lots of excitement, as Team RadioShack (TRS) traveled to South Australia earlier this month for the Santos Tour Down Under stage race, the first event of the 2010 ProTour season. In the wake of their first race, barely a month after coming together for their first training camp in Tucson, Arizona, the riders, their coaches, management, and sponsors, should feel pretty good.
Sure, team manager Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong himself had expressed their team goal of winning a stage during the week. This result alluded The Shack during the seven days of racing, but not by much. Shack sprinter Gert Steegmans came within about a bike’s length of capturing the stage one victory, finishing second behind the three stage and GC winner for the week, Andre Greipel (HTC Columbia). Other TRS riders that finished toward the front during the week included Sebastien Rosseler with a 7th place finish in stage five, and Daryl Impey with a 13th place finish in the Sunday prologue.
Bruyneel commented at the end of the week that he was happy with the team’s effort, with several of the riders racing together for the first time. Indeed, six of the seven TRS rider finished in the top 50. Not too shabby. There were a few times during the week where the Shackers tested the peloton: Rosseler had a nice breakaway for a period early in stage three, and Armstrong and Tomas Vaitkus lead a late breakaway in stage four to test the peloton’s mettle.
These were all good outcomes for a team that turned up down under to set the tempo for the season and give their sponsors, especially title sponsor RadioShack, a proper sense of what the ProTour is about, with big crowds, plenty of top racers, and what event organizers called some of the best racing in the tour’s twelve years.
There was also a clear communication technology break through in this first race for TRS: several riders, as well as Bruyneel, team physiologist Dr. Allen Lim, and other members of The Shack’s personnel, kept the Twitter-sphere updated with posts throughout the week, giving this writer for one the sense that he was in South Australia wearing a team ID for total access, and following the action from the team race car. In fact, the TDU race organizers had virtual Twitter broadcasting during each stage, with practically play-by-play updates posted throughout each stage. Awesome.
Now the team’s got a week or so off before gathering in Calpe, Spain for their second camp, in lead-up to the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal, which runs the third week of February. Bruyneel has yet to post the start list for that race, no doubt waiting until after camp. It’s sure to include another good mix of riders, another early test for TRS to support each other during a stage race and see just what they can accomplish. One thing’s for sure: The Shack’s hung its shingle, and it’s open for business.
TRS & CTS - In 2010, a new twist on an old partnership
Another Piece of the Puzzle: Team RadioShack & Carmichael Training Systems
By Jeff Ludlum, 27 December 2009
Many people familiar with Lance Armstrong’s racing story are also familiar with the name “Chris Carmichael.” A long-time coach for Armstrong, Carmichael’s coaching business, Carmichael Training Systems (CTS) was also very involved with the USPS and Discovery Channel teams that were so successful in the past.
In the company’s year-end newsletter, Carmichael re-capped the highlights of 2009, and looked forward to 2010 with much anticipation and confidence. Carmichael himself has been coaching Armstrong since 1996; his role as one of Armstrong’s primary advisors/coaches will certainly continue. More exciting for Team RadioShack (TRS) overall is the involvement CTS will have with many of the other riders on the squad. Carmichael says as much in the CTS December newsletter.
He writes, “one of the aspects of Team RadioShack that I’m really looking forward to is working directly with athletes beyond just Lance…we were involved with training, preparation, and camps for numerous athletes, and with RadioShack our involvement will again return to that level.” It didn’t take long.
Two of the CTS coaches, Dean Golich and Jim Lehman, were both present at the TRS training camp in Tucson in early December. Both Golich and Lehman are premium [highest level] coaches on the CTS staff. Golich has a BS in Physiology from the University of Wyoming and has also completed graduate studies in physiology at the University of Colorado. Lehman has a BA in Psychology from Villanova University and an MS in Physiology from Northern Arizona University.
Golich and Lehman both have years of coaching experience working with elite athletes, including members of the US Cycling Team. Together they are sure to bring a depth of experience, a successful coaching philosophy, and the latest sports science innovations & technologies to their teaching and training efforts with the TRS riders.
With a focus on hard work, discipline, and good communication, these two coaches, and all other CTS personnel involved in the camps and individual work with riders as well, will add to the professionalism, elite training and race preparation already initiated by the team’s management. The Shack is sure to see this partnership pay off in spades -- and stage wins! – as it fires up and prepares to head to Australia in late January for the first race of the 2010 season, the Santos Tour Down Under.
By Jeff Ludlum, 27 December 2009
Many people familiar with Lance Armstrong’s racing story are also familiar with the name “Chris Carmichael.” A long-time coach for Armstrong, Carmichael’s coaching business, Carmichael Training Systems (CTS) was also very involved with the USPS and Discovery Channel teams that were so successful in the past.
In the company’s year-end newsletter, Carmichael re-capped the highlights of 2009, and looked forward to 2010 with much anticipation and confidence. Carmichael himself has been coaching Armstrong since 1996; his role as one of Armstrong’s primary advisors/coaches will certainly continue. More exciting for Team RadioShack (TRS) overall is the involvement CTS will have with many of the other riders on the squad. Carmichael says as much in the CTS December newsletter.
He writes, “one of the aspects of Team RadioShack that I’m really looking forward to is working directly with athletes beyond just Lance…we were involved with training, preparation, and camps for numerous athletes, and with RadioShack our involvement will again return to that level.” It didn’t take long.
Two of the CTS coaches, Dean Golich and Jim Lehman, were both present at the TRS training camp in Tucson in early December. Both Golich and Lehman are premium [highest level] coaches on the CTS staff. Golich has a BS in Physiology from the University of Wyoming and has also completed graduate studies in physiology at the University of Colorado. Lehman has a BA in Psychology from Villanova University and an MS in Physiology from Northern Arizona University.
Golich and Lehman both have years of coaching experience working with elite athletes, including members of the US Cycling Team. Together they are sure to bring a depth of experience, a successful coaching philosophy, and the latest sports science innovations & technologies to their teaching and training efforts with the TRS riders.
With a focus on hard work, discipline, and good communication, these two coaches, and all other CTS personnel involved in the camps and individual work with riders as well, will add to the professionalism, elite training and race preparation already initiated by the team’s management. The Shack is sure to see this partnership pay off in spades -- and stage wins! – as it fires up and prepares to head to Australia in late January for the first race of the 2010 season, the Santos Tour Down Under.
Fine Tuning Team RadioShack for 2010
8 January 2010
Fine Tuning Team RadioShack for 2010 by Jeff Ludlum
As Team RadioShack (TRS) prepares for its first race later this month in the Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) in southeast Australia, the cyclists named on the Start List are surely working hard in preparation, applying the training instructions and plan they received from coaches while together in Tucson, Arizona in early December at TRS’s first training camp.
Levi Leipheimer, Daryl Impey, and especially Lance Armstrong have been keeping the Twitter-sphere abreast of training rides and other activites throughout the holidays post camp. Particular events shared by Armstrong just this week give interesting insights as to some of the approach he’s taking to optimize his training and ultimately his racing capacities and performance.
Training in Kona Hawaii, Armstrong’s Twitter and Youtube posts this week revealed that Dr. Allen Lim (new TRS physiologist) was attending and overseeing the training sessions with a particular focus in mind. Together with Dr. Stacy Sims, they initiated thermo-monitoring and regulation experiments during Armstrong’s training sessions to learn more about his body’s management of this critical physiological condition. More on this topic in a minute. First, a little background on Lim and Sim’s project regarding thermoregulation for elite athletes and how it effects performance.
As reported by Matt McNamara of PezCyclingNews.com in September last year, Sims (then a post doctoral fellow from Stanford University) worked on a research project with Lim, who at the time was the chief physiologist for Garmin Slipstream (GS). The project focus was to learn how to maximize an athlete's efforts quite literally in the heat of competition, by studying the relationship between thermoregulation, hydration, and performance. The idea was to develop and execute hydration and thermoregulation strategies road cyclists could use while racing, and in particular during longer, grand tour stage races.
The Lim & Sims' research efforts involved the GS team, since that was Lim’s affiliate at the time. Through experimentation, data gathering and analysis, the two physiologists made quite a bit of progress. The underlying plan basically involved hydration at different times during the riders’ training sessions, and with different fluids as well. With this dual approach, they were able to achieve measurable results that translated to meaningful improvement for the riders during training sessions, and also during actual competition races.
By applying the Lim & Sims' hydration and thermoregulation strategies, the team combined a rigorous pre-event acclimation camp that included stints of up to 30 minutes in a sauna immediately following training rides [remember this for a bit later in the story], with the creation, and riders' consumption, of literally thousands of liters of high- tech liquid mixtures tailored to the various phases of the race. These strategies proved quite fruitful. The team's riders realized significantly improved race results; they should also realize improved the long-term health by following the prescribed strategies.
Considering Allen Lim's background and experience, it's no wonder he's stepped in quickly and thoroughly with his new team, TRS, and especially team captain Armstrong, as the team prepares for the first race of the season.
As Lim shared in an interview early last year with nyvelocity.com's Andy Shen, his professional path has been a natural progression of increasing involvement with professional cyclists and their training. The basis of that work: the particular physiological realities the riders cope with and strive to overcome to maximize their bodies' response to the grueling regimen of training and racing.
The project together with Stacy Sims referenced above was really a continuation (and progression) of the ideas that are well-known in sport physiology regarding thermal regulation as the great limiting factor to an athlete's sustained effort in competition. An athlete's understanding of his/her limitations in this regard, and having successful strategies for coping with and overcoming these factors to sustain peak performace, seem an obvious and necessary focus to compete successfully at the highest level in all manner of endurance sport.
Now we return to Armstrong's Youtube posts this week. Over five video posts from Test Day 1, the viewer can follow the thermo-monitoring and regulation experiments as they play out with Armstrong and his trainer/coaches, and also see a few glimpses of Armstrong's current personal training camp: the roads and scenery of Kona! (the first of these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwQ45tzoGRI)
The basic experiment: Armstrong swallows a capsulized thermometer; this device sends out a radio signal that allows for monitoring of Armstrong's core body temperature. They then try different approaches to both regulating Armstrong’s temperature range, and also extend his body's ability to cope with the increased body temperature scenarios while training (and therefore racing).
From a tweet Lim posted on Tuesday: "Conduction, convection, evaporation. Cooling strategies looked good today. Kept Lance's core temp stable." It seems they're realizing good success. These experiments continue as Armstrong makes his final training rides leading up to the TDU start on 17 January (the Day 2 experiments, during simulated time trial conditions, involved continued testing of different cooling protocols – ice vests, various levels of ice-cold fluids consumed, etc. – and also time trial aerodynamics. Check the video from Day 2 for a great recap).
The progress bodes well for Armstrong and the other cyclists on the squad who will be competing later this month in the TDU. Certainly the lessons and strategies that come from these sessions are sure to be duplicated with the whole of the TRS team throughout the season.
Allen Lim's contributions don't stop there. Not only is he a extremely effective sport physiologist with inovative thinking, strategy development and application of leading-edge training approaches and technologies. He's also a pretty good team chef that delivers nutritious (and tasty!) racing fare!
One need only follow the CycleopsPowercyclin-produced Youtube videos of Lim from last year to get an idea of the diversified value he brings to TRS (the first of several videos is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTu8yJesmE&feature=PlayList&p=07C6EACED754B00F&index=0).
If you look closely at the clip from Armstrong's video report "the first 50 miles" of the Experiment Day 1 training ride, you'll see near the end of the take, someone (presumably Lim) hands Armstrong a foil-wrapped snack...coniecidentally very similiar to the rice cake that Lim makes in his Cycleops "Rice Cake" video (check it out for your self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UiuqIWGe_s).
While it's certain that the team will have various options for pro-cycling chefs in their Rolodex, they’ll get the bonus of Lim's race culinary contributions in the realm of nutritional instruction (and recipes!) will also help the riders of TRS perform at their best, be it in the Spring Classics, tours, or grand tours in the season just under way.
Not only will the team’s racing fare include predictable energy sources such as Cliff Bars, Power Bars, energy gels, etc. They’ll also be able to enjoy the most basic food ingredients that provide high levels of energy and nutrition in the form of “real” (and delicious) foods, such as rice cakes, potatoes, and simple sandwiches. Good stuff!
As they head Down Under next week, it’s clear that the team’s focus is on fine-tuning training efforts to optimize the squad’s performance during the race. It’s also clear that TRS means to make a statement in this first race of the 2010 season, showing the cycling world that this newly-formed team intends to compete in the peloton as the world-class racing squad their roster and list of team management suggest: The Shack will be ready, they’re coming fast, and they’re racing to win!
Fine Tuning Team RadioShack for 2010 by Jeff Ludlum
As Team RadioShack (TRS) prepares for its first race later this month in the Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) in southeast Australia, the cyclists named on the Start List are surely working hard in preparation, applying the training instructions and plan they received from coaches while together in Tucson, Arizona in early December at TRS’s first training camp.
Levi Leipheimer, Daryl Impey, and especially Lance Armstrong have been keeping the Twitter-sphere abreast of training rides and other activites throughout the holidays post camp. Particular events shared by Armstrong just this week give interesting insights as to some of the approach he’s taking to optimize his training and ultimately his racing capacities and performance.
Training in Kona Hawaii, Armstrong’s Twitter and Youtube posts this week revealed that Dr. Allen Lim (new TRS physiologist) was attending and overseeing the training sessions with a particular focus in mind. Together with Dr. Stacy Sims, they initiated thermo-monitoring and regulation experiments during Armstrong’s training sessions to learn more about his body’s management of this critical physiological condition. More on this topic in a minute. First, a little background on Lim and Sim’s project regarding thermoregulation for elite athletes and how it effects performance.
As reported by Matt McNamara of PezCyclingNews.com in September last year, Sims (then a post doctoral fellow from Stanford University) worked on a research project with Lim, who at the time was the chief physiologist for Garmin Slipstream (GS). The project focus was to learn how to maximize an athlete's efforts quite literally in the heat of competition, by studying the relationship between thermoregulation, hydration, and performance. The idea was to develop and execute hydration and thermoregulation strategies road cyclists could use while racing, and in particular during longer, grand tour stage races.
The Lim & Sims' research efforts involved the GS team, since that was Lim’s affiliate at the time. Through experimentation, data gathering and analysis, the two physiologists made quite a bit of progress. The underlying plan basically involved hydration at different times during the riders’ training sessions, and with different fluids as well. With this dual approach, they were able to achieve measurable results that translated to meaningful improvement for the riders during training sessions, and also during actual competition races.
By applying the Lim & Sims' hydration and thermoregulation strategies, the team combined a rigorous pre-event acclimation camp that included stints of up to 30 minutes in a sauna immediately following training rides [remember this for a bit later in the story], with the creation, and riders' consumption, of literally thousands of liters of high- tech liquid mixtures tailored to the various phases of the race. These strategies proved quite fruitful. The team's riders realized significantly improved race results; they should also realize improved the long-term health by following the prescribed strategies.
Considering Allen Lim's background and experience, it's no wonder he's stepped in quickly and thoroughly with his new team, TRS, and especially team captain Armstrong, as the team prepares for the first race of the season.
As Lim shared in an interview early last year with nyvelocity.com's Andy Shen, his professional path has been a natural progression of increasing involvement with professional cyclists and their training. The basis of that work: the particular physiological realities the riders cope with and strive to overcome to maximize their bodies' response to the grueling regimen of training and racing.
The project together with Stacy Sims referenced above was really a continuation (and progression) of the ideas that are well-known in sport physiology regarding thermal regulation as the great limiting factor to an athlete's sustained effort in competition. An athlete's understanding of his/her limitations in this regard, and having successful strategies for coping with and overcoming these factors to sustain peak performace, seem an obvious and necessary focus to compete successfully at the highest level in all manner of endurance sport.
Now we return to Armstrong's Youtube posts this week. Over five video posts from Test Day 1, the viewer can follow the thermo-monitoring and regulation experiments as they play out with Armstrong and his trainer/coaches, and also see a few glimpses of Armstrong's current personal training camp: the roads and scenery of Kona! (the first of these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwQ45tzoGRI)
The basic experiment: Armstrong swallows a capsulized thermometer; this device sends out a radio signal that allows for monitoring of Armstrong's core body temperature. They then try different approaches to both regulating Armstrong’s temperature range, and also extend his body's ability to cope with the increased body temperature scenarios while training (and therefore racing).
From a tweet Lim posted on Tuesday: "Conduction, convection, evaporation. Cooling strategies looked good today. Kept Lance's core temp stable." It seems they're realizing good success. These experiments continue as Armstrong makes his final training rides leading up to the TDU start on 17 January (the Day 2 experiments, during simulated time trial conditions, involved continued testing of different cooling protocols – ice vests, various levels of ice-cold fluids consumed, etc. – and also time trial aerodynamics. Check the video from Day 2 for a great recap).
The progress bodes well for Armstrong and the other cyclists on the squad who will be competing later this month in the TDU. Certainly the lessons and strategies that come from these sessions are sure to be duplicated with the whole of the TRS team throughout the season.
Allen Lim's contributions don't stop there. Not only is he a extremely effective sport physiologist with inovative thinking, strategy development and application of leading-edge training approaches and technologies. He's also a pretty good team chef that delivers nutritious (and tasty!) racing fare!
One need only follow the CycleopsPowercyclin-produced Youtube videos of Lim from last year to get an idea of the diversified value he brings to TRS (the first of several videos is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTu8yJesmE&feature=PlayList&p=07C6EACED754B00F&index=0).
If you look closely at the clip from Armstrong's video report "the first 50 miles" of the Experiment Day 1 training ride, you'll see near the end of the take, someone (presumably Lim) hands Armstrong a foil-wrapped snack...coniecidentally very similiar to the rice cake that Lim makes in his Cycleops "Rice Cake" video (check it out for your self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UiuqIWGe_s).
While it's certain that the team will have various options for pro-cycling chefs in their Rolodex, they’ll get the bonus of Lim's race culinary contributions in the realm of nutritional instruction (and recipes!) will also help the riders of TRS perform at their best, be it in the Spring Classics, tours, or grand tours in the season just under way.
Not only will the team’s racing fare include predictable energy sources such as Cliff Bars, Power Bars, energy gels, etc. They’ll also be able to enjoy the most basic food ingredients that provide high levels of energy and nutrition in the form of “real” (and delicious) foods, such as rice cakes, potatoes, and simple sandwiches. Good stuff!
As they head Down Under next week, it’s clear that the team’s focus is on fine-tuning training efforts to optimize the squad’s performance during the race. It’s also clear that TRS means to make a statement in this first race of the 2010 season, showing the cycling world that this newly-formed team intends to compete in the peloton as the world-class racing squad their roster and list of team management suggest: The Shack will be ready, they’re coming fast, and they’re racing to win!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)