Chris Jones’ Diary – February 4, 2009

February 4th, 2009 by Al Fresco 476 views One Comment

Chris Jones will be one of Team Type 1’s eight riders at the Amgen Tour of California later this month. This is the final installment of his training camp diary for Bike World News.

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Buellton, Calif. – After four days, it was nice to get away from Santa Barbara and get into the real meat of training camp. We were able to get longer training rides in and work on our lead-outs and climbing drills. It was a nice change from 10-hour days of photo and video shoots. Plus, the riding in Buellton is easier to access. There are fewer cars and it was nice to be away from the city.

The weather actually improved, too. We went from some riding in the rain we had in Santa Barbara to being able to work on our sun tans in Solvang.

It is always tough when you have the old guard come back to training camp then then you bring in the new guys you don’t know. Willem Van den Eynde and Aldo Ilesic were two guys we had never seen before. We didn’t even know if they spoke English at all (they do). In fact, we found out that have great senses of humor and they’re great bike riders. We had some great bonding parties. Sunday night, we had a little Super Bowl party after our race that day. It was a great way to get together and bond and to see the personalities.

The two races we did (the Poor College Kids Road Race and the Mothballs Criterium) were good opportunities to integrate our new guys, do our lead-out train and test our attacks during the race. In the Mothballs Criterium, we put all nine guys on the front for the final eight laps of the 75-minute race. We also had new directors – Vassili Davidenko and Gord Fraser – on the mic during races. They’re both so experienced that they are both willing to share their knowledge with us.

I think in 2008 we were kind of an upstart team. We didn’t have a solid sprinter or a good time trialist. So we were the team on the attack. In 2009, I think we’ll continue that approach, but we will also have the confidence to force the issue. Now we have two or three sprinters and one of the best time trialists on the domestic scene in Darren Lill. So we won’t have to force the issue. But we will still be on the attack. But if it comes down to a field sprint, we have the guys to finish it off. I definitely think we’ll win more races. I think fans will realize we’re a serious team with a serious mission and message to spread as well.

Team Type 1 is the only professional cycling team in the world with athletes who have Type 1 diabetes. Two of those riders – Phil Southerland and Fabio Calabria – are on the team’s roster for the Amgen Tour of California. Read more about the team at www.teamtype1.org.