October 15, 2009 (Whistler, BC) – Dave Hord, Cycling BC’s Team Manager and Head Coach welcomed 14 riders to Whistler for a kickoff weekend to a winter of raining. And he sportingly waited until most people had gone before cracking a few ribs and his knuckles. Thanks, Dave – good timing.

Whistler was chosen to take advantage of the closing weekend of the bike park and the weather proved crisp, cold even, but sunny, clear and just about perfect.

Friday night opened with an opportunity for the Manager to explain the ‘rules and regs’ of belonging to the team. Sharing the annual budget proved surprisingly insightful. When riders were appraised of the costs to Cycling BC to support 3 pre-season camps, accommodation, transportation and coaching at 3 Canada Cups plus the Nationals, the athletes were, frankly, surprised. Lightbulbs of gratitude popped on around the room.

Saturday dawned clear as crystal, with a light fall of leaves to add crunch to the runs. Riders donned armour and joined the weekend warriors on the chair lifts. They divided into three rotating groups of five. Miranda Miller and Rebecca McQueen rode with groups with the mandate to examine and discuss line choice on technical trails while those with Dave Hord worked on cornering and building speed through berms.

The team was then introduced to Greg McDonnell (www.mcdonnellcounselling.ca) who will be working with the team on Sport Psychology and Mental Training. Greg was able to give an hour’s introduction and, using a couple of icebreakers, found out a little more about the individuals in the room – probably more, in fact, than they realized! This aspect of riding is considered one of the most important and Dave Hord is excited to have Greg on board. Many thanks to the Allison family for use of The Core Gym.

Saturday night was Technical night – the importance of bringing your bike to Nationals level preparation was brought into sharp focus. DH riders have been known to be a little proud of the “laidback” approach, but when it comes to National and International Level races – this doesn’t wash. Everyone is held up or back by a lack of preparedness on the part of the athlete so this mechanical emphasis is vitally important.

Sunday was another perfect autumn day, but cold with exciting hints of winter to come. The morning begun with suspension tuning – what do all those little knobs do anyway? Everyone found out what happens when you change them and, therefore, when, where and why you do change them. We all set our suspension forks at ‘factory settings’ and then went for a section of trail to see how they felt. After each section one setting (rebound, compression, etc.) was adjusted 4 clicks to feel the difference. After feeling how much better, or worse, the fork felt we adjusted again and tried them ut. Once happy with the setting we started on the next on. Kamloops is not Bromont – so we were working on learning to adjust settings to maximize your riding power on varying terrains. Then it was off to Garbanzo so that Dave could assess riders’ prowess on some technical sections. Who could ‘float like a butterfly’? Then after one more lap it was time to hit the highway to Turkidinnah or Katchaferri. And Dave went for that famous “Just one more run – for fun.”