January 17/05 9:55 am - Symmetrics Cycling Team Training Camp: Photos, Interview with Team Manager, Team Report
Posted by Editoress on 01/17/05
Photos by Greg Descantes
Jeremy Storie Interview by Greg Descantes
Who are the new sponsors for 2005?
Our new sponsors for 2005 include Diadora cycling shoes and Powerbar. These compliment our returning sponsors Symmetrics, Westlam, Northern Feather, Norco bicycles, Giordana clothing, Rudy Project eyewear and helmets, Truvativ components, Sigma Sport computers, and Adidas.
What's the teams racing calendar for 2005?
See entire schedule below. In general the BC Cup series, the new Canada Cup Road series including Nationals and Superweek, GP de Beauce along with selected NRC races in the US.
What NRC races will you be doing?
In March we will be competing in 3-4 NRC races in California including Central Valley Classic, San Dimas (formerly Pomona) Stage Race and the Redlands Classic. In April Tour of Georgia. In late May and early June it will be a series of races in the eastern US culminating with the USPRO Championships and supporting races. We will also have a team racing the new NRC race in Mt. Hood OR as well in early June, July and August will be primarily Canadian races. In September we will be aiming for T-Mobile in San Francisco.
What will be the process for deciding who goes and who doesn't?
Team selection for any event will be based on the best riders at that time or the best riders required for that race. GP de Beauce has a limit of seven riders and the best seven guys will do that race.
Who'll be the leader? Race leadership will be determined as a race progresses in the case of stage races. For single day races it will be based on the type of race, skills needed to win that race, and who has the best form on the day.
What Canadian races will you be doing?
As I stated earlier we will still be having a local focus in the early season and then of course Nationals and Tour de Delta, Gastown and White Rock are all high priority. One of our sponsors, Northern Feather (makers of fine duvets and beds) are located right in Delta so it is of great importance to us. We also plan to make a full assault on the new Canada Cup road series which is made up of all the races at Nationals, most of Superweek and then the Quebec/Montreal Classic and the Elliot Lake Stage Race. We plan to attend all of these races.
Who will you be sending?
Team selection for any event will be based on the best riders at that time or the best riders required for that race.
Will you send anyone to Cascade? Unfortunately Cascade is in direct conflict with our National Championships this year so we will have to miss it.
Which events are you still to get in to?
Well at this point we have not entered any races and have made enquiry's to most races and are just starting to see some invitations roll in.
Why won't Threshold have you at their events yet?
Threshold Sports has not declined us entry to any of their races at this point. Threshold have a policy for the USPRO Championships to get as many US professional riders into the event. Once this has happened then the remainder of the field is filled with foreign teams. We understand that it is the US Pro championships and they want any US riders to have a chance to win the title.
What are you doing to change that? We are not doing anything to change this at this point other than continuing to keep Threshold informed that we are very interested in doing their races and then posting the best results in early season races to show that we would be a valuable asset for their races.
Which early season races are you targeting? What will be the plan at those races? Is the training any different now as a result?
As listed above and in the schedule you can see we will be running up to three programs. In March we will have a crew in California, men racing locally and women racing locally. The plan at any race of course is to win, but seriously, we will use some of the early season races to gel as a team. We have six new guys and two new women so they need to get to know each others racing tendencies.
What are the 2005 plans for the individual espoirs? We have two groups of Espoirs with Cam Evans and Will Routley and Marsh Cooper being a little more experienced than say a Christian Meier and Brad Fairall, especially within our system. The goal is to help the more experienced young guys move to the next level and try to integrate and develop the newer Espoirs to our team. The National Championships and the Canada Cup all have Espoir titles up for grabs so these will be targets.
Where was Cory Lange? Cory was at the camp for the first two days and then flew to Australia to start his season preparation for the next six weeks.
What bikes will you be riding in 05 and how are they different? We will be riding the new Norco CRR Team Carbon. This is a full carbon bike with internally bonded alloy lugs. Last years frame was and alloy main frame with carbon rear triangle.
Are you having a full team training camp?
The camp that just concluded was a full team camp. We had our mechanic Bill McPherson, Eric Wohlberg, and Jacob Erker all up from California. All team riders were in attendance for part or all of the camp. It was a great four days and actually didn't entail much riding. We did a session at the gym, rented the Burnaby Velodrome for two hours, did an epic four hour snow shoe hike in the mountains and then had some team meetings and team building sessions.
What non-North American events will the riders be doing?
As a team Symmetrics will not be doing any non-North American events at this time. However, there may be some National Team projects that our riders get selected to such as World's or even some of the riders have expressed interest in riding things like the Pan Am Track Championships.
What racing will the team do in BC?
See some of the above questions but we will be focusing on the BC Cup for some of the men and the Women will make it a priority. The various BC Championships will also be a priority.
How big a priority is Superweek and Gastown?
Superweek generally and Gastown specifically are some of our top priorities for 2005. As I said earlier, Symmetrics, Westlam, Northern Feather and Norco are all local sponsors so it is great to pay them back for their support, and it is always nice to win a big event right in your own backyard.
| Date | Event | Location |
| 27-Feb | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 5-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 6-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 12-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 13-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 19-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| 20-Mar | EV Spring Series | Langley, BC |
| March 26-27 | Joe Hailey Stage Race | Langley, BC |
| Mar 12-13 | Central Valley Classic | Fresno, CA |
| Mar 18-20 | San Dimas Stage Race | San Dimas, CA |
| Mar 31 Apr 3 | Redlands Classic Stage Race | Redlands, CA |
| 10-Apr | Harris Roubaix, BC Cup #1 | Maple Ridge, BC |
| 16-Apr | Tahuay-Seaback-Tahuay Road race | Bremerton WA |
| April 23-24 | Walla Walla Stage Race | Walla Walla, WA |
| April 19-24 | Dodge Tour of Georgia | Georgia |
| May 6-8 | Columbia Plateau Stage Race | Heppner, OR |
| May 21-22 | Enumclaw Stage Race | Enumclaw, WA |
| 26-May | Cap tech Classic | Richmond, VA |
| 28-May | Sooke RR BC Cup#2 | Sooke, BC |
| 29-May | Bastion Sq Criterium | Victoria, BC |
| 28-May | Kelly Cup | Baltimore, MD |
| 29-May | CSC Invitational | Arlington, VA |
| 30-May | Sommerville | Sommerville, NJ |
| 31-May | Wachovia Invitational | Lancaster, PA |
| 2-Jun | Wachovia Classic | Trenton, NJ |
| June 2-5 | Mt Hood Classic | Mount Hood, OR |
| 5-Jun | Wachovia USPRO | Philadelphia, PA |
| 11-Jun | Stanley Park Criterium | Vancouver, BC |
| 12-Jun | Atomic BC Cup #3 | Langley, BC |
| June 14-19 | GP Cycliste de Beauce | St. Georges de Beauce, PQ |
| 19-Jun | Wedgewood RR BC Cup#4 | Vancouver, BC |
| 26-Jun | Hatzic Valley BC Cup #5 | Mission, BC |
| 29-Jun | Yaletown Criterium | Vancouver, BC |
| July 7-10 | Canadian Road Race Championships | Kamloops, BC |
| July 15-17 | Tour de Delta | Delta, BC |
| 20-Jul | Steamworks Tour de Gastown | Vancouver, BC |
| July 22-24 | Tour de White Rock | White Rock, BC |
| 31-Jul | Vaughn Race | Toronto, ON |
| 7-Aug | Quebec-Montreal | Quebec |
| 6-Aug | BC Time Trial Championships | Squamish, BC |
| Aug 12-14 | Elliott Lake Canada Cup | Elliot Lake, ON |
| 14-Aug | BC Criterium Championships | North Vancouver, BC |
| 4-Sep | T-Mobile International | San Francisco, CA |
| May-Sept | UBC Races | Vancouver, BC |
Symmetrics Cycling Team Report
Courtesy Jeremy Storie, Team Symmetrics
The 2005 edition of the Symmetrics Cycling Team all congregated in Langley, BC for the first full team training camp of the year from January 13-16. Our mechanic, Bill McPherson flew in from the O.C. Eric Wohlberg and Jake Erker flew in from Sunnyvale, CA and La Jolla, CA respectively. Our island contingent of Christina Briante and Andrew “Pinner” Pinfold took the ferry across the pond. All the locals were present. New recruits Jeff Sherstobitoff and Christian Meier had settled into their new lower mainland homes for the race season.
Bill was tasked with finalizing the builds on our beautiful new 18 Norco CRR Team Carbon bicycles. This is one sweet ride with our new Time pedals and Sigma Sport computers, but with this crazy cold weather we have been having we were not sure we would even get to ride them.
The opening day of the camp started with brief introductions, dispersal of team bikes, our new Giordana accessories, Diadora shoes, and a trip to the weight room. Following this session Symmetrics had rented the Burnaby Velodrome for the afternoon. It was sight to see the entire team up on the steep boards on the track. Most of our riders had ridden the track with the exception of Maria Lee and Christina Briante, but by the end of the session both were ripping around up high on the bankings. Our first day was finished off with a pot-luck dinner at our owner, Kevin Cunningham and his gracious wife’s house.
Friday started off a little on the chilly side at negative 10 degrees, but it was very sunny and the entire team hopped into vehicles and drove out the Chilliwack Lake road area and up Foley logging road to start an epic 4 hour snow shoe adventure. Svein Tuft was the guide of course, and I think for most this was the highlight of the trip as the peak the team went up tops out at over 5000 feet with spectacular views. Everybody made it back to base on time for a presentation by Norco’s head of marketing Pete Stace-Smith and Norco’s bike production manager Dave Overgaard. Then it was off to a team dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner riders headed back to their various homes to get a good nights sleep on their new beds provided by team sponsor, Northern Feather.
Well, Saturday dawned even colder at negative 14 and all the riders showed up at the Walnut Grove Community Centre for the ride with the public. We had invited media and sponsors as well. Adidas showed up with their 46 foot promo motor home, Norco was present with their full race rig set-up, and Powerbar was sampling a full line up of their products. Jim Harman, Norco president was also on hand to make the draw for the Sigma Sport heart rate monitor. Mark Cunningham, president of Symmetrics was on hand to ride and Kevin Cunningham, president of Westlam was driving the media lead vehicle. The media was in attendance as well with Shaw TV covering the event, along with the two local newspapers, the Langley Times and Langley Advance. Velonews sent freelance correspondent Jonathan Fowlie, and Greg Descantes actually rode out from Vancouver to photograph the event for Canadian Cyclist. Despite the temperature a hardy crew of riders showed up and the entire group numbered a little over forty riders. Bloody good for the conditions. After a solid, and I mean frozen solid, 90 minutes of riding we returned to the community centre for coffee, hot chocolate, and muffins. Powerbar’s western representative Frank Lucarelli was on had sampling product, and there was a great schwag give away by Norco. Riders answered questions, signed the odd autograph, and gave interviews. A good time was had by all, even if it was a little chilly. Saturday was finished off with more team meetings to discuss budget, race schedule, and meet one of our support staff. After a dinner out the riders all retired to Jeremy Storie’s house for a couple of video’s and popcorn organized by Symmetrics Cycling’s new social director and rider Christina Briante. As everyone made their way home more snow and ice began to come down.
The final day of the camp had an optional training session in the morning due to the weather and finished up with media training and team meetings in the afternoon. As riders packed up and said their good byes for a while, there was a common sentiment echoed by all the riders in the wrap up of the camp. Everyone at the camp to a person, felt like the team had become family over the course of the four days. This camp was not really about training so much as team building. Jake Erker summed it up best when he said he has never been on a team that would just all go en mass to someone’s house and sit and hang out and watch videos.
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