THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Trek-Volkswagen gears up in Moab
The five members of Trek-Volkswagen’s factory team, as well as members of the squad’s regional team, gathered in Moab, Utah, this month for a warm weather training camp. The group spun big miles on Moab’s famous trail systems, hitting Amasa Back, the Sovereign trail and areas of the old Tour of the Canyonlands course.
The team camp held a dual purpose: snap a plethora of action shots for the team’s new Web site and dealer catalogue, and give factory riders Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Susan Haywood and Rocky Mountain regional rider Jenny Smith some warm-weather training miles on the eve of South Africa’s nine-day Absa Cape Epic stage race.
The race, which has been called mountain biking’s answer to the Tour de France, runs March 28 through April 6. Teams of two battle it out across South Africa’s western cape in front of television crews and tens of thousands of spectators. Each day riders spin long miles, and pass through coastal jungle, temperate mountains and the Klein Karoo — a parched desert.
In addition to South Africa’s unforgiving terrain, Eatogh and Bishop will battle against a handful of the world’s best cross-country racers including Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang (Cannondale-Vredestein), Germans Stefan Sahm and Karl Platt (Bulls), 1996 Olympic champion Bart Brentjens and his teammate Alban Lakata (Dolphin), Swede World Cup winner Fredrik Kessiakoff (Full Dynamix) and marathon world champion Christoph Sauser (Specialized).
Haywood and Smith will face the Rocky Mountain bicycles duo of Canadian Alison Sydor and Pia Sundstedt of Finland, as well as Americans Rebecca Rusch and Cristina Begy. All riders will face 600 miles of riding and 60,000 feet of total climbing.
Trek-Volkswagen’s decision to send two teams, as well as mechanic Steve Borkoski, to South Africa reveals the team’s commitment to the growing spectrum of cross-country racing. In 2007 Trek-Volkswagen riders tackled traditional cross-country events — the UCI World Cup, National Mountain Bike Series and select regional and 24-hour events.
But the team expanded its scope to include ultra endurance and stage races as well. Eatough and Jeff Schalk won the overall at British Columbia’s seven-day BC Bike Race; Eatough took four victories on the new National Ultra-Endurance MTB series, a seven-race series of 100-mile events (Bishop, Schalk and Haywood each took one NUE win). Haywood and factory rider Lea Davison finished seventh overall in Guatemala’s inaugural three-day El Reto del Quetzal stage race. Haywood also took victories at Canada’s TransRockies Challenge and Costa Rica’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores stage races. The coming season will see the team tackle a similar schedule.
Eatough has his sights set firmly on winning select stops on the NUE series. He also hopes to continue his progression in stage races, and alongside Schalk will attempt to repeat at the BC Bike Race in July. Eatough will then turn his attention back to 24-hour racing, hitting the 24-hour national championships, held August 2-3 in Wausua, Wisconsin. The Maryland native will then decide whether to race the 24 Hours of Adrenaline world championships, a race he has won a record six times, or attempt a repeat win at October’s 24 Hours of Moab.
Bishop, whose international results from 2006-07 earned him a spot on the U.S. Olympic long team, will focus his attention on the European World Cups after completing the Cape Epic. Should the 32-year-old post impressive results on the series, he could grab one of the United States’ two Olympic spots for Beijing. Bishop is a wild card in the chase — he regularly finishes behind compatriots Adam Craig and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski. But Bishop is capable of posting huge results when his stars are aligned. His eighth place finish at the 2006 world championships marked the first top-10 by an American man at worlds in more than a decade. Bishop hopes the big miles in Africa translate into big results in Europe.
Haywood also earned a spot on the long team, and like Bishop will head to Europe to contest the World Cups after finishing the Cape Epic. In 2004 Haywood was the frontrunner to take the sole American women’s spot to Athens — USA Cycling’s bungling of the selection process denied the West Virginian in her Olympic quest, and set the backdrop to the 2005 film Off Road to Athens. But in 2008 the now 36-year-old Haywood is a long shot to make the team. Last season saw her successfully move from traditional cross-country to endurance racing. But nine days of hard racing in South Africa could give Haywood the legs to shine in Europe.
Schnell, 28, who hails from Grand Junction, Colorado, hopes his sophomore year on the Trek-Volkswagen erases the memory of 2007. On the verge of a breakout campaign on the NMBS series, Schnell suffered a mid-season crash in Deer Valley, Utah, tearing ligaments in his knee. The injury kept him off of his bike through November. With Bishop chasing World Cup results in Europe, Schnell will become Trek-Volkswagen’s go-to man on the domestic front — he will race the NMBS, Sea Otter Classic, Teva Mountain Games and select stops on the Mountain States Cup.
Davison, 25, enjoyed a breakout season in 2007, and turned heads with consistent top-10 finishes in the second half of the season. The results earned her a ticket to the 2007 UCI world championships in Fort William, Scotland, where she crossed the line as the fifth American in 25th place. Davison hopes to improve on those finishes in 2008, targeting the domestic NMBS circuit and the Sea Otter Classic. Davison also heads up the Little Bellas program in Vermont, a mountain bike development group for girls aged 8-12.
