February 21, 2011 (Santa Rosa, CA) – After last week’s successful Cycling BC Junior Team Camp in Santa Rosa, CA, the provincial team’s U23 and Elite riders headed south for some warm weather base miles of their own. Their initial days of the camp greeted them with precipitation, but according to rider reports, the skies are clearing in Santa Rosa.

Day 5 Report
No Rain! That was the highlight of the ride for the group today. The weather is looking better for all of next week so it appears we have made it through the toughen up conditions!

Today was a relatively easy day after a pretty wet long ride yesterday, so that we are ready for some hills tomorrow. I was enjoying the relatively nice pace today. Despite this the day did come with a few challenges; Jasmin had a fight with the pavement from the looks of her knuckles, a couple of flats, and a slight detour off course made for an eventful easy day.

In the end it was a pretty solid 70km day and just under 3 hours in the saddle. Thank you everyone who has made this trip possible for us.

– Jessica Hannah

Day 6 Report
Our day started with our expectations of Santa Rosa weather fulfilled at last, although it was a bit chilly the skies were blue and we were keen to get going. We set off at 10am sharp on our 130km ride. It took us just over an hour to reach the first hill, during this time we had our single puncture for the day. The first climb, Geysers, was eight kilometres with a consistently steep gradient. As we climbed the warmth became very apparent, our first experience of real Santa Rosa sun, it was lovely.

Next we went up the Pine Flats which consisted of twelve kilometres at a relatively comfortable gradient of 5 percent but not sure where they got the name Flats. The climb was great and the decent was excellent. Although there were many cars to avoid on our decent everyone made it to the bottom with all limbs attached and no skin missing. After we all met up at the bottom we started our journey home, doing some pace line to pass the time. Our ride finished just short of 5 hours. Thanks to everyone who has made this experience possible.

– Zac Taylor