February 1, 2009 – Here is an update from the Cycling BC Provincial Team, including information about training camps, and reports from provincial team coaches of all disciplines. Read on for more news about your provincial team athletes and upcoming events.

Downhill Camp #2
Second Downhill Team training assessment to be held on February 7th and 8th in Squamish.

Contact: Tamsin Miller, Downhill Co-ordinator
cyclingbcdownhill@gmail.com

Cycling BC Training Calendar Available Online Soon
Look out for the new 2009 Cycling B.C. Training calendar! Check the website! www.cyclingbc.net

MTB Team
Downhill Training Camp on February 7th and 8th. Training Camp at the Pacific National Cycling Centre in Victoria on February 3rd-7th

BMX Team
Race # 1&2 of CBA Western National Series in Abbotsford on February 14th and 15th, 2009

Road and Track Team
2009 Road Calendar Posted here. Please be aware the calendars are subject to change. The Track and Cyclocross calendars will be available later in the year.

Downhill Assessment Camp Report
In late December the first assessment camp was held for riders interested in joining the provincial DH team. A short day camp on December 21 in Squamish focused on riders in the U17 and Junior categories. Despite the day threatening a serious winter storm, twelve riders were able to participate.

The day began with a series of gym exercises designed to test the endurance and threshold of the riders, and give the assessment team an idea of how a rider’s winter training is going. Following the physical testing, Coach Dave Hord led the athletes through some mental training basics.

“As downhill riders,” Hord explained, “we tend to be very well equipped with our on bike skills, fairly well equipped with our physical training, but quite unprepared in our mental training. The 2009 DH team will work to even out our training in all three areas.”

The next DH team session will be February 7 and 8th. DH team hopefuls will repeat the same assessment drills, to see how their winter training is progressing. Each athlete has been offered a physio assessment to clearly highlight areas which need focused training. The group will then continue into the next phase of mental training.

“We keep watching the local trails and snow level,” explains Dave Hord, “we were out riding DH trails this weekend… with some luck we may be able to add an on-bike component.”

U17 and JR athletes who are interested in participating in the camp are asked to contact Tamsin Miller, Downhill Co-ordinator, at cyclingbcdownhill@gmail.com.

The Lund Report
The winter months are usually pretty quiet for Team BC Mountain Bike racers….but there has been a fair bit going on this year! News of riders signing with new teams often dominates the news in the winter and it was no different this year. Team BC’s top MTB riders from 2008 have secured teams for 2009. Junior Men’s XC Champion Evan Guthrie recently signed with the Rocky Mountain Factory Team. He’ll be joining long time Rocky riders and Olympians Alison Sydor, Andreas Hestler and Marie-Helene Premont as he too looks forward to representing Canada on the world stage.

Junior Woman’s XC Champion Bianca Adolf is riding in 2009 for the newly formed Local Ride women’s pro team. She’ll join long time pros Sandra Walter and Jean-Ann McKirdy, she looks forward to racing with the Pro women this year as she leaves the junior category for bigger and better things!

Team BC’s Tyler Alison, the 2008 Canada Cup XC Overall Champion was awarded the Premier’s Athletic Excellence Award. These awards recognize the top male and female athletes participating in the BC Athlete Assistance Program for the period of November 1, 2007 to October 31, 2008. The Premier’s Athletic Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, February 12, 2009 at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Center.

These riders and the rest of Team BC have been training hard through the winter months. Many of he riders live in places where riding on the roads and trails can be difficult in the winter months, but they’ve kept busy riding the indoor trainer, riding on the Burnaby Velodrome, XC skiing, running and of course hitting the gym to work on their strength.

Many of our top Team BC riders are also very gifted athletes and can also be found competing at XC running, soccer, hockey, skiing and indoor climbing competitions in the winter. Many are also planning on attending our second annual Palm Springs endurance training camp, a chance to ride hours upon hours, building their base fitness from February 12-23. Expect a full report and some exciting pictures to follow shortly!

So there many not be a lot of big news this month, but the riders and coaches have all been busy training and planning for what is shaping up to be another great year for Team BC! -Steve Lund

First month of 2009 and it looks like things are off to a pretty good start. Spent 10 days over at the indoor, which was really good. Got to race a pro-am and a BC Cup, but mostly just lots or practice and training. Unfortunately I’ve had a bit of a pulled muscle in my low back, so the weight training has had to take a bit of a back seat for the first half of this month. But I made sure not to over work it and things are feeling all good now, so it’s back to the gym.

BMX Time
Mischa’s Monthly Report

We’ve got another Team BC Camp coming up this weekend that I’m looking forward to. It’s all day so I’m sure I’ll be beat by the end but it should be lots of good practice. Also I’ve finally finished getting things arranged for my trip to the States. I will be flying down to LA on the 5th for a UCI round in Lake Perris, CA. Then driving back to Phoenix with Jim Brown, and hanging out there for some training before we go to Florida for another UCI round. After that I’m coming back to Arizona for more riding until March 20th when Team BC will be going to Desoto, TX for a double header UCI. All together it will be about 6 weeks, so I’m really looking forward to getting lots of riding in on some nice tracks, and of course, all in the sunshine. I feel like this winter I’ve really been able to focus on my training, as well as get lots of time in at the indoor. I’m looking forward to getting the “˜09 season going early and hopefully have some good results.
-Mischa

Paige Podiums Indoors
I recently raced the 1st and 2nd provincial series race of 2009, and a highlight of this was I took a second on Saturday and a first on Sunday, my first races of junior. I really like indoor, cause I get a chance to ride during the winter, and train for the season to come. I really want to learn how to double manual this year, and I want to keep riding a lot so that I will do well this year.
-Paige Zarazun

Congratulations!
Three Team B.C. Athletes have qualified for the National BMX Team.

Cycling BC Provincial Team Update
#201-210 West Broadway
Vancouver, B.C.
V5Y 3W2
Phone: (604)-737-3034
Fax: (604)-737-3141
Head Coach: richard@cyclingbc.net
MTB Coach: steve@cyclingbc.net
BMX Coach: adam@cyclingbc.net
Youth Coach: youthcoach@cyclingbc.net