Last month, members of the CSU Rams Cycling team made the annual drive to Tucson for the team’s training camp. All 20 riders made the pilgrimage to the top of Mount Lemmon and bagged between 450 and 550 miles for the week in the process. The 14-hour drive is pretty rough, but the team was rewarded with warm temps, team comradery, and some excellent early-season fitness. Racing starts March 8th with the Frostbite Time Trial.
Continue reading for the recap written by Thomas Hansen and Steven Truesdale.
This January, like many Januarys before it, the CSU cycling team made the 14 hour van ride down to Tucson, Arizona. Tucson has been the home of our week long preseason training camp for some time due its mild winters and the unique scenery of the Sonoran Desert, known for its saguaro cacti. This year’s team camp had record attendance with 20 riders making the trip.
New to team camp this year was a friendly intra team competition organized by road captains Lucas Huesman and Ella Zimmerman. Riders were split into “Green Team” and “Gold Team”. Points were awarded to the teams based on combined times on various Strava segments in addition to other various challenges. Points were also deducted for mechanicals encouraging riders to meticulously maintain their bikes. The winning team on a given day selected an MVP and that rider got the honor of wearing an Incycle jersey custom painted by Ella Zimmerman.
The competition proved a huge success, pushing riders to get the most out of team camp. One Strava segment that was competed on was the famous Mt. Lemmon Segment, a long and gradual 21 mile climb with 5500 ft of elevation gain. At the top, riders met at the divine Cookie Cabin. Well, divine to a group of hungry cyclists at least. Every rider conquered the climb and shared laughs and cookies in the warm and cozy cabin.
Despite only bringing road bikes, much of the team chose routes that included sections of chunky Arizona gravel. This gravel seeking behavior can be explained by the fact that most of the riders that made the trip also race XC and/ or cyclocross and are no stranger to technical riding. These technical skills were utilized on two rides, Box Canyon, and a ride around Mt Lemmon, both of which were centuries too.
In a huge 450 – 550 mile week, one needs a recovery day. On Day 4, we spun out the legs on a cafe ride. After this ride, two groups went on very different adventures. One group visited the Sonoran Desert Museum, an outdoor zoo and botanical garden showcasing the native biota of the Sonoran Desert. The other group visited a preserved nuclear missile silo from the Cold War era. The most popular recovery activity at team camp the past few years has been playing a Wii NASCAR video game. This year, awesome (and hilarious) custom cars were created by tech savvy rider Topher Rivera and raced by virtually the whole team.
One of the challenges created by the road captains was creating an Instagram reel to be posted on the CSU Cycling Instagram page to see which one would fare better in the mysterious world of Instagram reels. Both the Green and Gold teams made fantastic reels, but there could only be one winner. Green Team’s reel, described as “brain rot” by freshman Cade Bosler, unexpectedly ended up going viral with over 213 thousand views at the time of writing.
In addition to the plentiful fun had at team camp, riders also developed skills and built their confidence. The team oriented challenge saw teams practicing leadout, paceline, and team time trial skills in order to achieve the fastest possible times on certain Strava segments. This led to some KOMs/QOMs being taken throughout the week, not to mention the many PRs riders achieved on segments ridden at previous team camps. The many achievements at team camp was also a confidence boost for many riders. Team Co-president Maddie Blair, a rider with a background in enduro/ downhill and fairly new to the road scene voiced this perfectly when saying, “I can’t believe we climbed to the top of Lemmon. Our bodies are incredible!”
The team arrived back to snowy Fort Collins with a boost in morale, sharpened skills, increased fitness, and a competitive spirit. We look forward to the upcoming road season when you can count on a strong group of Rams!
If you enjoy this content and appreciate the hustle that goes into YGR please consider supporting the site.
