June 12, 2018 (Saint-Georges, QC) – Trailer envy. It’s a thing. We’re a small amateur team based out of Ottawa. Ride with Rendall. We just arrived at the Tour de Beauce and we are looking to punch above our weight.
The Tour de Beauce is one of the highest calibre races in North America. By UCI classification and the teams that show up, it is bigger than Gila, bigger than Redlands, and we are here.
United Health Care has taken over a large swath of the parking lot with a couple of 20-foot trailers and a large van. Jelly Belly has created their own little courtyard by parking their vehicles in a square. Project 303 from Colorado has a bus. Not a school bus……a Team Sky-like deathstar bus. Meanwhile, we have our aging Econoline van and a 9-foot trailer. We like to joke that the wrap on our van is structural. Our riders get paid zero and all of us staff are volunteers. Here at Beauce, we are the poor cousin.
And so it begins… trailer envy.
We have five days and six stages of racing ahead of us at a race that has been won by many big names over the years, including Jonathon Vaughters, Levi Leipheimer, and Svein Tuft, who is back again this year riding for Team Canada in what is likely his last season. Being a small amateur team, we will face challenges over the next week that are different from what the big teams face. But you can bet we’ll be nose to the wind and doing our best to keep up with the big guns.
Over the next five days, we will be posting updates of how Ride with Rendall is doing, and the unique stories that come from being a low-budget elite amateur team racing against the pros at Tour de Beauce. Check back daily for stories, photos, and maybe a video or two, and wish us luck.
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Tim O’Connor is a pack fodder masters cyclist with Ride with Rendall, soigneur, social media guy and grocery shopper.