Category Archives: Pro Racing

Meet Katie Compton, known to her fans as KFC. Trust us, the “F” isn’t for Francis. Compton earned her middle initial the hard way, powering through nine grueling seasons of cold, muddy Cyclocross mayhem. Turns out powering through is sound strategy: Compton was the first American to win the Cyclocross World Cup overall title. F’n cool.

Tell us your story in 140 characters or less:
Wife, dog lover (especially Rottweilers), bike racer, lover of the outdoors, wine enthusiast and foodie with some food allergies. A delicate body but strong will.

Tell us about your best day on a bicycle:
That’s a hard one to answer, I’ve had a lot of really good and fun days. I want to choose a specific race where I felt great and had great legs but those, unfortunately, don’t happen as much as one would like. The one that stands out the most for me is winning the 3k tandem pursuit at Paralympics in Athens in 2004 (I was a pilot for a blind athlete). I had great legs that day and just felt fast. My tandem partner and I had a perfect race to win and it was just a great day. Other than that, winning a Cyclocross World Cup in Roubaix, France after a bad start. I had great legs and only passed people the whole time. Winning on the Roubaix velodrome is also very special.
 

 
What is your favorite travel destination and why?
It’s probably Japan. We were there for a short trip but the country is beautiful, the people are so nice and polite, and the food is amazing. I loved everything about that trip. It snowed and was cold while we were there, and I was really happy to find hot tea in vending machines as well as heated toilet seats in every bathroom, even in highway rest areas. I also had the best Unagi I’ve ever eaten in Tokyo.

If you were a trip designer at Trek Travel, where would you design our next bike trip?
I’d create a trip in New Zealand, probably riding through their wine country. I love their wines and both of the islands are beautiful. The food is also really good no matter where you go. It would also be fun to take a few days, rent a boat and sail around the northern coast of the north island. I think that’s the best way to see the coast.

What is your favorite hotel and why?
A high-end hotel in Tokyo, Japan. The service was above and beyond and the room and bathroom were amazing. The hotel offered so many amenities to enjoy, along with the view of the city. The breakfast was also one of the best I’ve experienced.
 
 

 
 
What is your favorite unnecessary travel item?
I bring my aeropress coffee maker and coffee beans. A good cup of coffee is the best way to start a day of travel and you never know if the hotel’s coffee is drinkable.

What is one thing you never fly without?
My Westone earbud headphones. They cancel the noise and have the best sound quality. They also pack small and don’t take up much room in my carry on.

What is your favorite type of post-ride beverage?
I love a nice bottle of wine, usually I choose New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs in the summer and California Red Zinfandels in the winter. If I didn’t have to worry about my weight then I would add White Russians to my list of go-to drinks. I love those, but I can’t stop drinking them.
 
 

 
 
What and where was the best meal you’ve ever enjoyed?
It’s a tie between two. The first is Unagi in a very small and hard to find restaurant in Tokyo. The eel is fresh everyday and the place closes when the cook runs out of it. They only sell Unagi and the only choice you make is how many pieces you want. The second is a breakfast at a hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. They had an amazing buffet of fresh food all professionally prepared and it was the best breakfast I’ve ever had. My husband and I actually stayed long enough to eat two breakfasts that morning.

What is your personal motto or mantra?
Never quit. Do what makes you happy and what makes you feel good.

Who inspires you the most?
I don’t really have any one person who inspires me, I get the most energy from anyone who struggles to accomplish something difficult or challenging, and anyone who has true grit to work hard for something they want.
 
 

 
 

Writing about cycling vacations in the world’s premier travel destinations involves taking the reader away from their desk and transporting them to a winding road under the Tuscan sun. It means recounting stories of epic rides. Telling the tales of travelers. Describing luxury hotels and Michelin-starred meals. Meet Jordan Sher, the voice of Trek Travel and the man who so eloquently describes the experiences that speak for themselves.

Tell us your story.

I took the long way to bikes. A fat kid in high school, I hit the drama club hard and ditched gym class daily (note: Trek Travel does not endorse the skipping of gym class).

In college I dropped way more than the freshman 15; in fact I lost about 75 pounds. After graduating from college, my dad invited me to ride the MS 150 with him. I didn’t ride bikes, but I gave it a try. I’ll never forget my first kit: I wore a cotton T-shirt, cheap bike shorts and rode a mountain bike with slicks. But I did it. How awesome was I? That was the true beginning of the beginning.

About 15 years ago, I joined a cycling team on a dare. I was waaaayyyy out of my element, but something about the challenge kept me motivated. I decided to adopt the mantle of a bike racer and do whatever it was bike racers do—that includes investing in expensive bikes, dieting to cut weight and riding all the time.

At the same time I was in graduate school for copywriting and decided a life of freelance writing in advertising was for me. It’s the perfect mix of everything I love – advertising (give me a commercial and I’ll tell you who made it), writing and the time to ride my bike 300 miles a week.

I’ve been riding big ever since, and have kept racing for the past 10 years. When I discovered the awesome crew at Trek Travel, it was a match made in heaven. Writing about ride camps? Race trips? Classic climbs? Yes, please. I couldn’t have asked for a better, dreamier opportunity.

What inspired you to become a writer?

It’s more about what inspired me to go into marketing. I have loved advertising since I was a toddler, shushing my mom during her daytime television to watch the commercials. To this day, I am more obsessed by commercials than by regular TV. I know. So sad.

How long have you been riding bikes?

I’ve been racing for 15 years. I kind of think I was riding a bicycle in the womb. Is that too much information?

How did you end up at Trek Travel?

I started working with these crazies in 2013 when they redesigned their website. I was just lucky enough that we clicked. Oh, I wanted us to click in the worst way.

Tell us about your best day on a bicycle.

There are so many. Riding the Haleakelah in Maui. Grinding up Magnolia Road in Boulder, one of the steepest roads in the country. My bachelor party was a group ride. Ironman Lake Placid. But I think the most memorable was the day we rode Puig Major and Sa Colobra in Mallorca on Trek Travel ride camp. I had no idea roads like this could exist. It’s 10K of the craziest climb I have ever seen. Have you been? If not, you need to.

Tell us about your favorite ride in Colorado.

Mt. Evans is the highest paved road in North America. It’s your only opportunity to ride to the top of a fourteener. At 10,000 feet, the weather changes. At 12,000 feet, there are no trees. At 14,000 feet, the bighorn sheep look at you funny. And at 14,600 feet you reach the observatory. I have been up several times, but the air is so thin I only remember a few.

What is your favorite travel destination and what excites you most about this part of the world?

The races of Europe are where it’s at. If I were 12, I’d have posters of all cycling heroes on my walls. Before I leave this planet, I will go to the Spring Classics. I will watch a stage on the Mortirolo in Italy. And I will run like a drunk idiot next to some racer on Alpe d’Huez. Mark my words.

Tell us about your best travel adventure.

This sounds so sad, but most all my great travel adventures are by bicycle. I once road-tripped to Couer d’Alene from Denver in one day (16 hours) in a Mini Cooper with three bikes on the roof. I once raced Ironman Galveston on a broken foot and had a personal best. I think my favorite, though, is still the big city. I went to college in New York City and still love to go back as a tourist. Mostly because I know I don’t have to search for an apartment while I’m there.

Perhaps the greatest thing about guiding bicycle trips that interact with big races and follow Grand Tours is the opportunity to travel off the beaten path. We venture to parts of the world that tourists simply do not travel. This was no truer than at Trek Travel’s 2009 Giro d’Italia “Behind the Scenes” trip with the Astana Pro Cycling Team.

It is May 25th, 2009, and the sun is getting lower on the coast of Pescara, Italy. I glance down at my watch: 6:45PM. Dinner is scheduled shortly at a luxurious hotel in Francavilla al Mare, a tiny beach town set on the eastern Abruzzo coast of Italy. This is not just a simple meal, but rather, we have a dinner engagement with the Astana Team.

We had just picked up our crew of Trek Travel adventurers that morning, and immediately experienced an adrenaline-pumped, epic bike ride on the Giro race route. We literally rode up the mountain pass in front of the pros, to the cheers of locals. The Abruzzo region is known for being rugged, and today’s roads were no exception. They were narrow, bumpy, steep and fast. The crowds cheering at the top of our brutal climb were local: I would reckon roughly 98% Italian. But somehow, our group of Trek Travelers, when atop a bicycle, well, we somehow fit right in.
 
 

 
 
The energy matched the elevation atop our mountain pass, as we eagerly awaited the pros to cross the top. I stood next to a hobbit-sized, elderly, Italian lady with a face leathered and wrinkled by decades of hard work. In her arms she held a stack of bright-pink newspapers. I knew them instinctively: La Gazzetta dello Sport. It’s the title sponsor of the Giro d’Italia, and the inspiration—no truly, the reason—for the race-leader’s pink jersey. The breeze turned chilly as the riders crested the hilltop with much bravado and fanfare. The small, wrinkled hobbit slowly reached her weathered hand in front of her, a pink newspaper clutched in it. As riders prepared for their descent in the frigid, mountain air, they looked around for something warm. Rider after rider eagerly snatched a pink paper from her, stuffing their jerseys with their newly-found insulation. With a smile on her face, she repeated this again and again, barely bothering to look up, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. But of course riders would be chilly on top of a hill; of course they would need something to keep warm on the descent.
 
 

 
 
I turned our Trek Travel van around the corner to the team hotel, where we met the mechanics who were cleaning and prepping the bikes, and met with behind the scenes support staff who ran us through their process of managing team logistics, the particulars of wrenching from the team car, and shared some of the team’s quirks and lesser-known details.

Then we went inside to enjoy dinner and met with the team managers and some members of the team: Levi Leipheimer (most-improved outgoing personality), Jose “Chechu” Luis Rubiera (kindest cyclist), Jani Brakovic (most gentle, honest rider), Viatcheslav Ekimov (best mullet), and more. After we enjoyed an exceptional Italian feast (many kilos of pasta were eaten that night), we sat around talking and laughing with other members of the team. I had this keen sense that—aside from being able to ride their bike really fast—these guys were just the same as any of us. Here they were, an international group of talented athletes, in a country far from family and friends. An excited group of Trek Travel cycling fans traveled to this small, Abbruzzese town to cheer wildly for them, to share their stories, to encourage them. It was clear that some of our energy and excitement infused back to the team that night.
 
 

 
 
We stopped for a quick round of billiards and a nightcap with the mechanics and support staff before drifting back to our beachside hotel where the group regaled each other with their own perspectives and highlights from a night of excitement and stimulation. Someone remarked that the trip had been a success and that they could go home happy right then and there, which brought a smile to my lips.

Because that was just day one.
 
 

 
 
About the Author: Jacob Young, a guide and trip designer who started with Trek Travel at the very beginning, is happiest when showing people new places, a passion he discovered 15 years ago while guiding a friend up Mt. Rainier. When not guiding bike trips, you’ll find him handling logistics for the biggest bike races in North America, or out leading yoga retreats in tropical destinations.

As the public relations and media manager for Trek Factory Racing, Tim Vanderjeugd is essentially the eyes and ears of the team at races. He is the director of communications, the team’s spokesperson, and first line of contact for media. Traveling over 180 days a year, learn more about Tim’s life on the road with professional cyclists.

Tell us your story.
I’m a former sport and travel journalist and photographer, and joined the world of professional cycling as press officer in 2011 with Leopard Trek. I’m from cycling-crazed Belgium and live only a couple of pedal strokes away from the steep Kemmelberg that fans of cycling will definitely know.

How long have you been riding bikes? What is it that called you to cycling?
I have been riding bikes since I was a little boy. Very early on kids learn how to ride bikes in my country and I was six years old went I started riding to school every day on my own. I was doing track and field all my adolescent life so riding mountain bikes and race bikes was not a major part of my life until I got my Masters in literature and linguistics. I picked up mountain biking and then very quickly also bought my first race bike.

Tell us about your best day on a bicycle?
My best day on a bike would be somewhere ‘out there’. I have amazing memories from my bike holidays in Corsica, Iceland and Senegal. When you travel with all your luggage on your bike, the suffering is immense but so incredibly rewarding. I can’t wait to take on another adventure. I’d like to go back to Argentina, but this time by bike! Or to New Zealand. Or to the Pacific Coast in the US. Or so many more destinations!

What inspired you to become a journalist?
The stories. I believe everyone has a great story. It’s just a matter of asking the right questions. I love my job as a press officer too. It’s different, but in a way I make sure that the riders’ stories get told, through the media but more and more directly to the fans. This season we have started our #BehindTheStripes stories where photographer Emily Maye and myself visit the riders in their homes, to show their lives to the fans in a context outside of racing. We get to see what they have to leave behind when they travel because often we overlook the costs their families must bear. Everyone at TFR, riders and staff, took a different road to get where we stand now. This variety of stories is what makes TFR such a beautiful family.

What is the vision behind Trek Factory Racing and how is it being received?
Well, we live in an amazing time where we can reach fans in the fastest and easiest ways imaginable. The fans love our communication, they send us very positive feedback. We will keep on trying to surprise them and bring the stories of TFR to their doorstep, because what would cycling be without its fans?

You speak seven languages. What excites you about learning a new language?
Speaking a language is a privilege. It’s wealth that can’t be taken from you. Being able to speak a language with someone is unlocking a door to a whole new world. Besides this cultural approach, I am very interested in language specific things like grammar and phonetics and this helps me to learn a new language. I’m taking on Portuguese now.

You spend over 180 days on the road each year. What is your favorite destination and why?
That would probably be Italy. It’s just the most beautiful place in the world: the cities, the countryside, the food, the fans of cycling. There are many things that the country could improve on, but there’s even more things that make me fall in love with it every time I go there.

Tell us about your best adventure from the road.
Life on the road is a constant adventure. A lot of it is efficiently solving problems, because there’s not a day when there’s not a little something that needs mending. That’s the part I like most about my job. A great example is when we were doing the home visit to Julian Arredondo on the weekend of the National Championships in Colombia. It was the most ‘exotic’ time on the road, I think. I ended up being Julian’s mechanic for the day. Our driver had never been in a race before. It was one of those days without a script.

What are the five must-do’s while traveling in Belgium?
Visit Ghent to experience the perfect blend between the old city vibes and a very energetic urban energy. Take a day trip to Ieper and its surroundings to learn about the First World War and the atrocities mankind is capable of. Explore the Ardennes by mountain bike. Ride your bike around Oudenaarde and learn what it is to ride on cobbles. And finish up in Antwerp for some great shopping, live music and dining. If you feel adventurous, do the same things in Brussels. It’s a little more hidden in alleys and supposedly shady neighborhoods, but it’s worth it!

What does your perfect day look like?
It would include coffee in the morning and red wine at night. Bikes would be in it, though there’s no need to ride five hours. A good debate/discussion with friends about life or love – possibly with the before mentioned red wine at hand. There would need to be live music and lots of great food. All of this could be anywhere in the world, but preferably somewhere spectacular and memorable. Oh, and there should be an éclair in it too! I love éclairs!

 

Following a massive week of riding the routes of the Spring Classics, two rockstar Trek Travel guides had a surprise prepared for their guests. After riding the Paris-Roubaix course, Jason and Amy arranged for their group to have a Roubaix Velodrome finish with a very special visit to the historic shower stalls where champions have rinsed off their victories for a hundred years.

“This water usually runs hot for one day a year. In 2015, it was two” said Jason. But what exactly makes these cement showers so special? For the answer, we turned to experts at The Inner Ring:

Paris-Roubaix must be the only race where the washing facilities make up part of the legend. The showers inside the velodrome are as much a part of the ritual as is the photo of the winner lifting the cobbled trophy in the air. Indeed can you name another sport where the showers or locker room is treated with the same reverence?

If you weren’t into cycling and from outside France, you’d probably never have heard of Roubaix. But maybe an artist would know of the town as it has an art gallery made from a converted swimming pool.

But if the town has lavished money on the old swimming baths to make a modern public space, the velodrome in Roubaix is neglected, a less than lavish water feature. The track is crumbling and as I wrote the other day a new track is being built. The showers, part of the same 1930s building, are no different. These are hard blocks of cement.

With the mud and dust from the finishes, the communal showers resemble a cow shed with milking stalls. The plumbing looks like it was installed by Heath Robinson or Rube Goldberg. You wonder if the water is even warm.

Why are these showers so important? It’s hard to pin one reason. Obviously the riders need a good wash, this race throws up dirt like no other. But riders these days have team buses with onboard showers. No, for me there are three more factors.

First up, to reach the showers is itself an achievement, it means you have finished the hardest one day race of the year. Only 74 riders merited a shower last year.

Next the showers are a place of legend. Iconic images have been taken and each cubicle bears a brass plaque of the past winner. This is more than a washroom, it is a part-museum, part Elysium.

Also this is a race where I find a lot of luck is involved. Those who lost out find a moment of calm to replay the race, to reflect on what happened, what they could have done differently. Above all what would have happened if they hadn’t punctured, if they’d taken the other side of the cobbled road. Few other races have such a coulda, woulda, shoulda aspect and the shower is the moment for a rider to lament when the race slipped, sometimes literally, away from them.

I’ll leave the last words, translated, to an anonymous Swiss journalist:

“The showers are the only strategic place to get hold of a Paris-Roubaix rider. They all go there. And they dream of the place like a dog dreams of a bone. With time the communal showers have become a legend, as much as the cobbles. They are the wall of tears, the place where riders grimace, lament, compare injuries, describe their crashes… it’s the place where they wash dust, wounds and fatigue.”

This article originally appeared on Inrng.com on April 8, 2011.

They call it the ‘Hell of the North’. The 27 pavé sectors of Paris Roubaix cause riders more pain in one day than many experience in a lifetime of sport. Cobblestones seize riders’ wheels. Dust and mud fogs their vision. And rain is all but guaranteed to cause more destruction.

When our friends, Taz and Guy, set out before the race to shoot footage for their project, the route lived up to its reputation. The obstacles that prevent many from starting and even the strongest from finishing proved tough to overcome on this quiet Tuesday afternoon.

…And they were traveling by car.

“There we were, in our vintage French voiture, working hard on top secret #ProjectRoubaix on Mons-en-Pévèle Sector, when we managed to ground the car in a foot of sludge….disaster (how that happened is a whole other story). Having tried everything we only managed to bury the car deeper to the point where the base of the car was then in mud. Miles from anywhere meaningful and on a farm track with no traffic and no phone signal, Guy set off walking to find the nearest help.

In a slightly surreal moment, the Trek Travel train appeared from around the corner. The first van flew through shielding its string of riders (looking good I might add) and the rear van allowed me to flag them down. I explained our plight to the wonderful Amy who took it all in her stride, fastened us up to the van and towed us out! Amy didn’t know us and had no reason to help but she chose to put herself out for complete strangers. The consideration she showed helped save our beloved car and a super important shooting day for our project.

Of all the solutions we had fantasised about, Trek Travel coming to the rescue was not even on the radar….but then you’re always full of surprises!

Forever grateful
Taz and Guy”

You know him as the man who dominates cycling’s Spring Classics. What you don’t know is that his passions extend far beyond bike racing. We sat down with cycling’s most stylish man, Fabian Cancellara, to learn more about life off the bike.

 

 

Briefly, tell us your story.
My name is Fabian Cancellara and I am a professional bike rider with Trek Factory Racing. My preferred races are the spring classics, from Milan-Sanremo all the way to Paris-Roubaix. I have won seven Monuments of cycling and I’ve worn the yellow jersey in the Tour de France for a total of 28 days, which is the most for someone who has not won the Tour.
 
 

 
 
What is the most rewarding part about your job?
I would say the opportunity to do something that I am passionate about. Without passion, I could not do this job. I have a talent to ride a bike and I love it. I get to travel a lot and I am part of a group of around 60 people. We all work for the same goals and that is very rewarding.
 
 

 
 
Tell us about your best day on a bicycle.
It’s hard to say. Winning a big race is of course amazing. There’s so much tension in the morning and during the race, and there’s so much energy and bliss afterwards. But maybe my favorite days on a bike are at home in Switzerland, when I can have breakfast with my family, bring the kids to school, then go out for a beautiful training ride in the Swiss mountains and enjoy the views. Then again be with my family, play with the kids, and see some friends.
 
 

 
 
What is your favorite hobby other than cycling and why?
I have a real interest in wine and I like to discuss it with people that know a lot about it so I can learn from them. I have a little collection at home that I’m proud of. It’s mostly Italian wine, to be honest. Of course, being a bike rider, I can’t enjoy it as much as I would like to, but the good news is that most wines only get better the longer I resist them. So after my career there’s plenty of time to catch up. I believe life is too short to drink bad wine, so when I do decide to have some wine, I want it to be good. In all things I prefer quality over quantity, and that includes my career.
 
 

 
 
Which Trek Travel trip is top on your bucket list and why?
I would be very interested in any of the wine oriented trips: California Wine Country, Bordeaux and Tuscany.

Where is your favorite place to travel and why?
The Maldives. It’s pure holiday. It’s so calm and relaxing. No bike, real holiday.

Who inspires you?
Many people inspire me, and all of them because they do something with passion.

What is your favorite post-ride beer?
I like the Belgian Trappists very much. I have some of those in my cellar as well. I like Westvleteren 12 the most, but I also enjoy a Westmalle Triple.
 
 

 
 

Last Saturday, pros pounded down the white gravel roads of Tuscany as they made their way to the Piazza del Campo in Siena.

In his first appearance at the race, Zdenek Stybar won the 2015 Strade Bianche after riding away from Greg Van Avermaet into the final corner. Trek Travel guides Jacob Young and Jonathan Hershberger were at the race, along with Trek Factory Racing fan club members, to enjoy the excitement of this incredible finish.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

This week ‘In Focus’ we’re throwing it back to the 2010 Amgen Tour of California. The fifth anniversary of the race held lots of excitement for our guides and guests as Australian Michael Rogers fought to hold off Americans David Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer.

Captrued by Trek Travel Marketing Manager Mark Thomsen, the photo below was taken at the Stage 4 start in San Jose. Looking back at our 2010 itinerary we see many similarities to this year’s trip, with stays at the Westlake Village Inn and Lake Arrowhead Resort and a live race viewing of the stage finish on Big Bear.

Five years later, this year’s race marks the 10th Anniversary of the Amgen Tour of California! Ride along the Pacific coast and into the mountains above Santa Barbara’s “American Riviera”; attend the individual time trial at Big Bear; and enjoy the suspense of a summit stage finish at Mt Baldy. Cheer with the crowds as they urge their heroes onwards and sip cocktails at an exclusive Trek Travel party. To top off this ultimate Tour of California vacation, spend the last two days riding and relaxing in the beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains and Malibu coastline.

Drawing from our years of experience providing unparalleled vacations to cycling’s greatest races, we promise to bring you closer to the action than ever before.
 
 

Our Global Logistics Manager, Sean Peotter, maintains a fleet of hundreds of bikes and thousands of spare parts divvied up among support units and warehouses all over the world. On top of that, Sean rebuilds our entire fleet every couple years! He makes it look easy, and this is his story.

I started wrenching in 1992 at Oshkosh Cyclery. It was sort of inevitable as I was the kid who spent summers hanging out in the shop, looking at all the cool bikes. It’s here that I really started to define my love of mechanics. I then moved to the Twin Cities in 1996 for college, and so began my 10-year stint at Penn Cycle. I was able to work under my brother, the store manager, and I moved up through the ranks by attending numerous industry events.

The most impressionable experience was the Shimano SLD Program. Shimano enabled employees to be transferred from the company headquarters in Japan to work in shops around the world. We were lucky enough to get Daisuke Nago. Daisuke was an engineer, directly responsible for creating many of the parts that we use on bikes today. Daisuke was with us through the winter months as he wanted to see the extreme conditions their components had to endure in the winter. There’s no better place to test extreme weather conditions than Minnesota. I was then lucky enough to attend the 2004 Shimano Mechanics SLD Summit in Florida. It was a great experience that provided an environment for mechanics from all over the US to discuss common issues and resolutions. As far as Daisuke goes, I still communicate with him today. I’m looking forward to taking my family there to meet him and his family someday.

I have lots of pieces of paper after being in the industry for over 20 years. Shimano, SRAM, Mavic, Trek. One of my most important, though, is my USAC Mechanics Certification. For this I spent one week at the Olympic Training Center and attended numerous classes; lots of classroom time, but also good hands on time. It’s here that you learn to understand what it is like to be a race (or ‘neutral’) mechanic. They don’t teach you mechanic skills; you need to have that base before you come. They refine your knowledge to a specific style of mechanics. It’s here that my passion for race mechanics started.

While working for Penn Cycle I was asked to provide Neutral Service for the women’s road races at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I had never done anything like it before, and my team made it though by the skin of our teeth. We went through over 60 wheel changes in that race, resorting to changing tubes and “recycling” the racers wheels back into the mix. It was mass chaos, but I was hooked. It is from this experience that I saw the need for a proper Neutral Support company in the Twin Cities. I founded OnSupport, and through AMAZING support from Trek Bicycles I was able to provide support for any level pro cycling race in the US. OnSupport was in operation from 2005 – 2011, when I started working for Trek Travel. Actually, it is because of OnSupport that I am working for Trek Travel now.
 
 

 

It pays to know someone. Years ago I worked with Jon Vick back in the Twin Cities at a local Trek dealer, Penn Cycle. He thought I would be a good fit for tech support at cycling event out in California in 2009. TT was there and I guess I caught their eye because they asked me to help out at the Tour de France in 2010. Eight months later I was hired as the Global Logistics Manager. Nearly five years later and I couldn’t be happier. My favorite part of the job is training: I love teaching new guides and old guides how to work on bikes. Bike mechanics is second nature to me, and I want to share that with as many people as I can.

Let’s look back to the 2013 Tour de France in the Alps. During the third week of the race we were running 8 units, 24 guides, and 1 logistics crew (consisting of myself, our president Tania, and my pregnant wife). All together there were about 200 riders on the road at any time. I had the additional task of “Trek Travelizing” our viewing venues and making sure that operations in the US were still running smoothly. Days were 16-20 hours each, spent driving up and down various iconic mountains. I drove up and down Alp d’Huez 13 times in two days. Did I mention there is a lot of driving?

Plenty of late night drives to get bikes to certain trips before they start, needing to get up the mountain before the Gendarme close it to cars, etc. I have had many uncomfortable conversations with the Gendarme trying desperately to get through their barricade because you have day-bags for 150 guests that will be riding up that climb in the morning. I also can’t count the number of times I’ve slept in the van on the top of a mountain, or in some field at the base of Tourmalet. It’s pretty much the norm: uncomfortable sleep, no showers and cold food. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I work in the most picturesque places of the world, and I get to make a venue look simply amazing for guests that just rode a long way to watch the greatest sporting event race by.

My logistics van is organized chaos: spare bikes, extra parts, pop up tents, water, food, beer, beer, beer, bike stands, locks, banners, flowers. You name it, I have it with me; and if I don’t have it, I’ll find it if you need it. I’m the guy in the background making sure that the chaos is never seen. I do it with a smile on my face not because I have to, but because I genuinely have it there. I love making people happy, I really do. And it isn’t all van camping. I often get to stay in some of the most luxurious hotels and chateaux that I have ever seen. It is those times that surely make up for the others. This job has taken me to places that I would have never gone and for that I am extremely grateful. It was only fitting that in one of those places, on top of Alp d’Huez, we announced my wife was pregnant.