Category: Uncategorized

We are snowed in!!!  The Wednesday All Girls Jr. DEVO practice is cancelled today.  BUT we will see you on Friday for the spooky Halloween ride!

Q: What did it feel like walking into the Olympic Training Center for the first time?

A: It was sweet, I didn’t really know what to expect, but everyone was super nice and accommodating.

Q: What were the group rides/workouts like? Did you mountain bike or road bike?

A: First day was the time trial pre-ride, which was a chill ride at our own pace. Then the time trial on Friday and skills work later that day with the roadies. Last ride was a fun ride on some super technical and icey singletrack. All on mountain bikes. Everything was at an easy pace except for the TT.

Q: Did you recognize anyone from the racing we do in the summer? Where were the kids from?

A: Keegan Swenson, from Park City, he got third in Cat 1 15-16 at Nats and Skyler Trujillo, from Fort Collins, got 2nd or something like that in Cat 1 17-18 at Nats.

Q: What was the best thing you learned during the weekend? Are there any secret training tips you can give us?

A: There were so many informational meetings it’s hard to choose. The yoga lady had some pretty good stuff to say about posture while riding. Hmmm… Eat your broccoli.

Q: Did you see any famous Olympic athletes? What other sports were there training? Could you tell what they played by looking at them?

A: The basketball team was there, I had no idea who any of them were, but they were all like 7 feet tall… so you definitely knew what sport they played.

Q: What was the food like? How about the housing?

A: The food was amazing, I went to the cafeteria at least 6-7 times a day. It was pretty much a buffet with anything you could want open from 7am-8:30pm. Housing was 3 kids to a room with a communal shower/bathroom, nothing special.

Q: Whats your best memory from the weekend?

A: About 6 hours of dodgeball over the two super cold and rainy days we had.

Q: What did it feel like walking into the Olympic Training Center for the first time?

Joan: It was so amazing! It’s so inspiring when you are there! When you first walk into the Athlete Center there is a really big glass window that covers almost an entire wall.  And when you look out the window you can see all the different buildings, the Aquatic Center and the gyms, and the meeting halls and conference rooms. There is also this really cool wall that says welcome in tons and tons of different languages. When I first walked in I just kept thinking that this was where Olympic athletes trained and that it was just so cool that I got to be there and train also! It was just super awesome!!!

Q: What were the group rides/workouts like? Did you mountain bike or road bike?

A: I was there as a mountain biker although there were a lot more road bikers that mountain – there was 30 road and 10 mountain. The group rides were really fun.  There were several time trials that were hard, and then there was some skills riding and just some normal rides. The trails there were really fun.  The majority of the trails we rode on were single track, but the time trials were on a steep dirt road.  It was super cold there so we didn’t do as much riding as was planed due to ice and snow but the riding that we did do was really fun.  I had never really been riding in ice and snow so it was a new experience. Also there was only one other girl in the whole camp and she got really sick the first night, so after the first day i was the only girl out of lots of guys so that was also different.  All the guys were really fast!

Q: Did you recognize anyone from the racing we do in the summer? Where were the kids from?

A:Ya i did, actually my roommate, who was from Boise Idaho, was actually the girl who got first in my category at Sol Vista! So that was fun because we both remembered each other and we got along really good.  I didn’t really recognize anyone else mainly because most of them were from California, and Florida, and other places farther away.  It was really cool to talk with riders from all over the country!

Q: What was the best thing you learned during the weekend? Is there any secret training tips you can give us?

A: We learned so many things I don’t know if I can pick one. We had people from USADA come and talk to us about drug testing, and pro cyclists, nutritionists, strength training people, people from college racing teams, as well as our coaches who gave us tips about getting invited to European camps. We also practiced a lot of skills where I learned a lot.  We practiced things like how to get out of situations like if your handle bars get caught in some one else’s, and how to keep control of your bike if you are riding in really big, close packs.

Q: Did you see any famous Olympic athletes? What other sports were there training? Could you tell what they played by looking at them?

A: Well I’m actually not really sure, that was one of the really cool things there. You would be in the cafeteria eating or walking around and you would see people and think they could be an athlete. But it was hard to tell because they were not wearing their uniforms so they just look like normal people, so you didn’t really know. You were reminded that Olympic athletes are ordinary people. In the words of one of the coaches “They put their shammy on one leg at a time just like you”. You could kinda tell what sport people played. There were some really big wrestlers, a few runners, and there was also a basketball camp that was going on and they were crazy tall!

Q: What was the food like? How about the housing?

A: The food was awesome!!!!!!! And there was lots of it! We all had ID badges and they had a special key card, so when you went to the cafeteria you just scanned your card and then it let you in. Each day they had different food and apart from short breaks to change breakfast to lunch and lunch to dinner it was almost always open! There was even a grill where you could order a burger or sandwich.  And the nutritional contents of everything served was posted.

The housing was good.  We stayed in one of the athlete housing dorms, which was super cool. Our camp took up an entire hallway of the building. The bathrooms and showers were not in our rooms so you had to walk down the hall for that. We also had room mates. Most people had two room mates, but there was just one other girl so we had a room just the two of us!

Q: Whats your best memory from the weekend?

A:I think that one if my best memories was the last day when it warmed up a little and we rode out to a super awesome trail.  Everything was covered in snow and there was tons of ice on the rocks and trees and it was so beautiful, and the air was so cool and crisp, and we were just flying down this trail, and I was following all the boys and ended up going off a ton of stuff that I normally wouldn’t have done, it was so much fun!!!

Another one falls. Trail conditions are too muddy therefore, wednesday All Girls Ride will be postponed until a later date. The group was slated to meet at the Sale Barn Trailhead at 4pm.

FLC Cycloross Schedule

Practice is wednesdays at noon up at the Fort Lewis Softball complex. The first race is sunday night, November 1st.

The weather has turned for the worse. JrDEVO groups Kindergarten, 20inch and 24inch have been cancelled tonight.
Super Bummer for sure.

DEVO’s own cancer surviving cyclist, Keenan Desplanques gets to dine with Lance at tonight’s post movie dinner. The fellas from the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic were nice enough to get a few spare tickets, and they chose Keenan. The 12 and three quarter year old is going to be pumped up, he Loves Lance Armstrong! Keenan has been riding with DEVO for 4 years now and completed his first year on the U14 team this year. He went to the National Championships in Sol Vista and placed 10th in the 11-12 dudes. He was very stoked on the experience. The “Speed Demon” as he is called is also a honch BMX racer and has his last big race of the season coming up soon. Wish him luck if you see him around. Have fun at the dinner.

The Fort Lewis College mountain bike team took their 14th national championship team omnium title this weekend in Truckee, California. Individual national champions from FLC were Rotem Ishay in the xc and stxc, Sage Wilderman in the dh and DEVO jr coach Emma Millar in the dual. Sabina Kraushaar, another DEVO coach placed 6th in the dh. Evan Elliott and Taylor Borucki of DEVO alum placed 15th and 6th in the dh. Another DEVO alumni, Joe Schneider of Colorado School of mines took 4th place int he individual omnium, which ranks athletes who compete in every event. His team took 4th in the division 2 team omnium. Nice work Durango. Nice work DEVO.

[mbs slideshow=1]

Wait a minute. All these days have passed and we just now figured out that we won the Mountain States Cup junior cross country team title. Dang. Congratulations to all of you who raced this season and put points up on the board. Durango DEVO has it’s first MSC title, and thats pretty cool. Check it here.

next week this time, Lance will be here

Today the 13 time national champion, Fort Lewis College Cycling Team will be pulling out of Durango for Truckee, California and the 2009 Collegite National Championships. The team is looking pretty darn strong this season and several DEVO caoches ad alumni will be making the trip. U-14 coach Evan Elliott and U-19 alumni Taylor Borucki placed 1 and 2 in the conference series this fall and made the four man downhill team to represent the Skyhawks. DEVO junior coaches Sabina Kraushaar and Emma Millar also placed well in the conference standings and will be racing downhill for the team. 

Collegiate DH Course

Due to a high demand there will be a second showing of the Lance Armstrong film “Race Across the Sky” @ the Smiley building October 25th 5pm.  Tickets are $10 and go on sale Tuesday October 13th at Maria’s Bookshop.  They will go fast!

October 18 @ The Durango Sports Club

Help us raise funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer, celebrates breast cancer survivorship, and honors those who have lost their battle with the disease by attending the Durango Sports Club’s “Cyclocross Race for a Cure.”  All proceeds will benefit Mercy Medical’s new Mercy Regional Breast Care Center.

When:     B race – 9 am, A race – 10am

Where:   The Durango Sports Club, 1600 Florida Rd.

Entry Fee:  $10 Donation to Mercy Regional Breast Care Center

Course Description:  This year’s course will be similar to those of the past consisting of 70% singletrack and 30% pavement/open field.  Both cyclocross bikes and mountain bikes have won on this course in the past.

Join us after the race for food and drink specials at J Bo’s!!