Last week, Hagens-Berman held our first team camp of 2015. We learned about all of the products we’ll be using this year. I won’t go through and explain all of them right now, but I think I’ll highlight different ones throughout the year on this blog. What I can tell you is we will be rolling absolutely top notch gear. For a u23 team to have Protour level gear is a big opportunity and we’ll strive to repay that investment.

Gear from Oakley, Giro, Castelli, Powerbreathe, and Redcord

This was the scene as we tore into our new equipment.

The most important thing about any team camp, however, is getting to know each other and building a good team spirit. We did a few activities to work on this, from making a human pyramid to doing an hour long puzzle challenge. We’ll get to know each other better on the bike at our next camp in California.

Visiting the offices of Hagens-Berman

Team selfie

Since the camp, Thorsten (my teammate) and I have driven across the country and met up with the team, raced Valley of the Sun, and now a few of us are settling into host housing outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Now I’m looking forward to a a good block of training in the warmth. I already went on a good ride today. It took me a while to find my way out of a seemingly endless sea of dead ends and confusing neighborhoods, but I eventually found my way out to a nature preserve and got to rip around on some dirt roads. To find my way back, I ran Google Maps through my headphones so my phone just read me the directions for when to turn.

Riding near Venice Beach in LA

Starting a time trial

I’ve had a busy few weeks so settling into a good training routine and preparing for big objectives like Redlands in April is the focus of the next month.

Most of these photos are by @coffeeintheam.

I found a cool rock

Some of the roads I found