02.20.10 -Tucson Winter Training Camp - Blog Entry – Feb 20, 2010

By: Road Athlete Andrea Bunnin

Today was another beautiful day in the desert, although there was something unusual that caught my attention on the ride, there were clouds drifting about in a sky that has been clear and blue for our whole trip so far. But don’t feel down, they soon disappeared into the crystal blue dome above us. The great weather we’ve been enjoying has left its evidence; most of us are sporting rather defined tan lines, some in shades I would say have an overly reddish hue.

Today the mountain bikers and roadies parted to conduct our very important business of the day. We road riders went out to Old Spanish trail for a spin, then we met in a top secret desert location and posed for some well choreographed team pictures amongst the cacti. A few riders got some pricks from the surrounding vegetation during the photo shoots, but they handled them with the strength and composure of true Canadian cyclists.

Speaking of strength and composure, we had a little team gathering at the pool last night where there was some attempted synchronized swimming. I can’t tell you how it turned out, I had to turn away to avoid the large splashes resulting from the event. We had all just spent 5 plus hours on our bikes that day, a ride that included a lovely 25 mile ascent up Mt. Lemmon, but we somehow found the need to explore new and exciting ways to expend energy.

Besides the pool, another enjoyable element to this camp is the organization of riding groups…we make a pretty large group all together, so each day we split up into smaller groups for the ride; it’s great because it puts us with a different mix of riders. One moment I might be chatting up a friendly Ontario-ian or BC rider during the ride, and the next I am practicing my François next to a very patient Quebec-ian. It’s great to get the opportunity to ride with the mountain bikers too, when they aren’t off bouncing off cacti on those springy bikes of theirs. Throughout the camp both MTB bikers and roadies can spend time together; once the race season starts its rare that we cross paths. I must say, the MTB bikers have much more impressive battle marks from their trail rides then the roadies; although, on yesterday’s ride a rock bounced up from some ones tire and hit my toe, it kinda stung.

Back to today’s ride; it was great! Now, moving on…sometimes, at certain times, some cyclists like to drink coffee…and I must admit it is a nice addition to a team ride on the return lag of our daily journeys. Today was one of those times; all it took was for someone to mention the idea of stopping and before I knew it, I had an Americano in front of me along with an ‘it-can’t-be-possible-that-it-is-possible-that-this-is-so-good’ cookie. Now I know it is obvious to expect to see talent at this camp, but I am extremely impressed with many of the rider’s supernatural abilities to scout out a good coffee shop. It wasn’t long before another cluster of team-Canada-clad cyclists showed up to join us.

Well tomorrow is our last day, then we will all be parting to continue our training and racing and all that other stuff people do with their time. Bonne chance to all.

This has been Andrea, reporting from Tucson.

Look for more camp updates from road, MTB and Para athletes. You can also follow the team on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CanRoadCycling