March 12, 2010 (Victoria, BC) – A total 15 of BC’s most promising young riders came together in Victoria March 6-10 for a combo Road and MTB Training Camp. With most of BC’s top U-23 and U-19 riders putting in big miles in Arizona the younger riders had their chance to shine at a training camp in Victoria. The camp started with MTB then transitioned to road with many of the riders participating in both disciplines, and some learning some new skills along the way.

The camp started on Saturday with a long MTB ride on the trails of Hartland MTB Park under warm and sunny skies. 2007 Junior National XC Champion Jeff Clarkson was on trail with the riders offering some great technical and tactical advice. Sunday morning was the first of back to back double days. The morning ride was all about speed as riders were put through a number of short and fast paced intervals to simulate race starts and get them ready for the race season. After a couple hours of rest it was back up to Hartland for a 2-hour ride featuring some technical training then a lot of practice on some of the more technically challenging trails. Monday was the last of the MTB rides and it was a fast and steady ride covering just about all the trails at Hartland in just under three hours.

A little recovery time followed, but then it was on to the road bikes for an easy recovery spin and some high excitement skills and drills.
Tuesday the riders woke to gray skies and temperatures just above freezing…..so we went into the Victoria Cycling Academy`s High Performance lab at CSC-Pacific for some head to head TT racing on the Velotron bikes. Everyone had a chance to test their legs and in the end the fastest time of the day went to Louis Dillon from the Sunshine Coast Cycling Club. Luckily it had warmed up a bit and by noon we were able to head out for a couple hours on the road and a chance to work on speed and sprinting in the afternoon.

Wednesday proved to be the hardest day for most, partially due to the long hours in the saddle on the previous day, but also because of the wind and the workout! Riders got to hear stories of what is sure to come for them in the next few years as Victoria based Team BC riders Craig Logan and Annie Ewart helped to lead the rides, both just home after 2 weeks in Arizona. The guys started the day by tackling the Observatory climb. The pace started out rather mellow, but it soon turned into a race and local rider Henry De Boever used his home course knowledge to time his effort just right and hit the top of the hill before everyone else. The entire group met up again close to the airport where they did between one and three hard TTT efforts on a wind blow loop that finished with a gradual km of climbing. On the final loop is was once again Henry and Michael Brinton from Powell River who had the best legs on the road….although they were closely followed by the craft old coach!

Everyone headed back to the Pacific Institute for Sports Excellence to wrap up an awesome 5 days and 20 hours of training.

Special thanks to Team BC sponsors Haywood Securities, Adera Group, Island Farms, Fab-All and CSC-Pacific for allowing us to bring together such a great group of young riders and making this camp possible.

Steve Lund