A new year means new opportunities and another chance to better yourself as a rider and more importantly to better yourself as a person. This year because the team was smaller than past years it felt more like an elite team. Every rider is fast and deserves to be on this team and it makes me feel privileged to be apart of this amazing opportunity.
The camp started at 6pm at Coach Jason's house. The first thing that happened at our 2018 camp was one of the past riders Kahlo Chitraoff who now rides for Colorado Mesa University talked to all of us about what to expect for the following years. He told us all the thing that colleges look for and gave us good advice for our racing career. After that, we ate some amazing food and got to know our team a little better. Most of us already knew each other but for those of us that didn't after a weekend of hard training and learning, we all became much closer. The atmosphere of this team is much different than what you would expect out of an elite team. It feels like a bunch of friends getting together to get to know each other and to train together.
After dinner, all the parents left and coach Jason passed out all the new gear from all our sponsors. Those sponsors are Ellsworth bikes, Kenda tires, ESI grips, Rudy project, Sidi shoes, Scicon bags, Ftech and Socal Endurance. All of these amazing products will help make this next race season the best it ever could be. He then went over the rider contract. Coach talked about the weekends schedule and shortly after that we were all getting ready for bed.
The next morning we got up at 7:15 and we were at the park by 7:45 for our upper body workout. When we got back to the house and ate breakfast and got ready for our first ride at Vail Lake. When we got there we got the bikes ready to roll and put on the new gear. The first thing we did was do the dam climb twice for time. The dam climb is one of the hardest and longest climbs at Vail Lake. After that, we worked on line choices and how to look at a section and find the fastest line for us. Next, we did several mini short tracks efforts for the intensity part of the ride. Right before we were getting ready to leave we all tried to make it up a short and steep hill right by the cars. I was the only one to make it up the hill and I did it on my first try.
When we got back to coach's house we had a late lunch and got comfortable. Coach J then put on different skills videos that went into depth about different riding techniques. He then went over all of our racing categories to scope out the competition for the year. Next, he went straight into a class that went into depth about our training schedules and the importance to follow them to a tee. By that time dinner was ready so we got to eat. After dinner, they turned on supercross which didn't end till 10. It was only 8:30 and I was struggling to keep my eyes open but I made it until the end and I fell asleep really fast.
The next morning we all woke up to the Star Spangled Banner and loud rock music. Just like the day before we went to the park for our morning workout then went back to coach's house for breakfast. Then we got ready for our first ride of the day which was at Greer (nursery, 215 trails). All of the team and three past Devo members road there from coach's house to the trails. We did one fast lap on the fire road loop before we started riding the trails. We worked on technical climbs and descents. In the middle of the ride, we stopped to try to take one of the KOMs or QOMs (king/queen of the mountain). On the ride home half of us decided to race back to coaches house. Even in our biggest gears, we were spinning out but it was still fun.
Once we got home we had lunch and a few of us tried to see what the highest power we could get was on the trainers. We didn't waste any time getting ready for our next ride which was in Lake Elsinore. We went to the new pump track to work on skills. Once back to coach's house he recapped the weekend and talked about the upcoming season and that was the conclusion to the 2018 SoCal Devo boot camp.
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