07.30.10 - Endurance Men's Camp Concludes in Burnaby

Team Pursuit Squad end camp with a new track record

(BURNABY, BC - July 30, 2010) The National Team Pool of male endurance riders spent the better part of July in Burnaby to benefit from training with a strong group of riders. A total of 12 athletes from across Canada took part and reaped the benefits of training together under the watchful eye of coach Jeremy Storie (Fort Langley, BC).

Most of the riders had spent the previous few months racing on the road, including Jacob Schwingboth (Surrey, BC). “The camp started off pretty hard with some long flying efforts to get us in shape, but it only took a few days for some of the guys to get there track legs back.” Some of the drills and workouts were also reminders on how the track is so different from the road. “My favourite thing about the camp was doing the flying kilo's behind the moto, the G-forces in the corners was nuts! I noticed a huge improvement in my form from the first day to the last, even though I ended the camp pretty tired.”

Several of the riders had participated in CCA training camps over the past year, including Schwingboth who represented Canada at two World Cups last season, but there were also some new faces and Rémi Pelletier-Roy (Longueuil, QC) was one of them. A relative newcomer to the track, he was a member of the Canadian team at the Pan-American Championships in May, but admits he is still learning. “It is obvious for me that I'm not the same rider on the track that I was a month ago. I learn how to train properly, how to race smarter and how to ride more efficiently. Also having all the team pursuit squad, or almost all, training together allowed us to know each other better as rider and person. I'm going home with a baggage of experience that I needed.”

Mark MacDonald (Calgary, AB), who, along with Schwingboth, was a member of the Team Pursuit squad that competed in the World Cup in Cali, Colombia last year and raced to a new Canadian record, felt the benefits of living and training with his teammates. “A camp like this was exactly what we needed to do! We were all able to get into a routine and learn about how we each ride. By the end of the camp we could each predict how the others would be riding that day and who would need to pick up the others slack. In past team pursuit rides each rider was unsure of how much work they could contribute. For our timed ride at the end of the camp each of us knew exactly how many pulls we could do. We also got a lot smoother as the weeks passed.”

As MacDonald mentioned, the riders performed an all-out effort at the conclusion of the camp and improved on the Burnaby track record set at the 2009 National Championships by more than 6 seconds. Coach Storie was impressed with the athletes over the past month. “All the riders knew that the focus of this camp was to start working towards a qualifying spot for the Olympics. They were dedicated and committed and really worked as a team, I’m proud of them. The coaching staff will be discussing the next steps and looking ahead to the World Cup season beginning in December.”

The next project on the National Program Calendar is a training camp in Los Angeles in August and then the Track National Championships in Bromont, QC August 24-29.

-- Canadian Cycling Association --

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