Hi, I’m Joe V. The V is for Vadeboncoeur, but no one ever really calls me that (except my business card). That card also calls me the Global Director of Product Development, Marketing and Creative Design for Trek Bicycle. Yep, I am sometimes not really sure what all that means either. I do know that I dig bikes, oatmeal, motorcycles, burritos, the weird things I see along the way, my family and my job. I get to travel the world helping make great bikes, so it’s a pretty great gig.
I love bikes. Duh, right? Why else would I be here, and why else would you be reading this?
But, what you did not expect is the combination of summer and bikes, or maybe you did. Lots of time, to most people summer just means mowing the yard, the lake, a cold beer and of course bugs. I get that also, although I do my best to avoid the mowing the yard part. (What is the problem with a jungle for a yard anyway?). I can become sunburn and feed the mosquito's with the best of them.
Summer means bikes. Of course, everyday means bikes at Trek - but there is just something so much better about the combination of bikes and summer than say bikes and winter. I know there are some of you out there who think that winter is just fine. I'm not one of them. I know that does not make me a very good midwesterner, but I cannot help it. I would take 100 degrees over winter any day. Besides, winter is supposed to be at the end of a plane ride to Snowbird, not in your front yard. Seeing people on bikes always makes you smile, seeing people shoveling the snow out of their driveway almost never makes you smile. (but this is taking me in the wrong direction.)
Back to the bike thing. It's summer, and bikes are in full swing around here. What follows is a few examples of the kind of bike frenzy there is at Trek in the summer.
Bike Show!
We had an internal bike show at Trek in the parking lot a week or so ago. The call went out with a week or so notice, "bring in your bike, show it off, win a prize" - a fabulous free Bratwurst and a beer, it is hard to get away from our midwestern roots after all. So on a Friday afternoon in the summer, this is what it looked like out in the parking lot.
Fancy 360degree photo app on the iphone
It was very impressive, people brought in just about any kind of bike you could think of.
It seemed to be a good direction back in the day, but nowadays you do not hear people talking about a tandem mountain bike very much.
A bike that carries a beer well is highly praised, even if the bike itself is a bit odd.
Jordan's 19lb race 29'er, of course you have to be in the race department to get your hands on the custom carbon sew up MTB wheels.
Somebodies sweet little dirt jumper.
My dad works at Trek.
The kid across the street from Andy in Toy Story 1 built this bike.
???
Eric from Project One loves old race bikes. This one was actually one of Pantani's
When you need to get there fast!
When you need to get there really fast, a bike with a rocket attached is key.
It was a fun day. That is just a sampling of some of the more interesting stuff. It went on and on. Good stuff.
New Race Bikes.
Speaking of bikes, the road teams got a few new race bikes as well. There is a little bike race going on in the summer in France and we wanted them to enjoy a few new bikes also.
This is the new scheme that RadioShack is on for the TDF. It is a new color picker scheme that will be available in Project One. You will be able to put whatever color you want into it.
Andy and Frank get to ride something new for July. Maybe you will also.
If your the best rider in the world, you get to ride something like this.
Dang I love bike racing.
MTB trails
We have been very busy at the super secret Trek trails. We have turned one of our favorite trails into a fantasticly fun little jump infested midwest version of A-Line. This is a little video that the Trek MTB brand manager took from a helmet cam, while trying to follow Vance from the race department.
Sometimes I feel my life is out of control. It's not a normal thing, just sometimes it hits me that the record player is on 78speed when it should be on 33speed (I realize that I just lost most of the people that are reading this - trust me, it means that things are playing so fast that I cannot really understand the lyrics).
look familiar?
There are lots of factors that make me feel that way, my job is fast pace sometimes, my kids are adults spread all over the world, I have a new puppy at home that is terrorizing the house and already runs everything, I am not riding my bicycle enough, my motorcycle is dirty, the camper stands half remodeled in the driveway, there are 4 different house projects left half completed... See what I mean?
This blog entry is about a bunch of loosely (I mean really loosely) related topics. Most of these are keeping me up at night. No Caffeine necessary.
Steven Tyler is now a judge on American Idol
Here in the USA, there is a show called American Idol. (I think it was actually stolen from the UK). I know the show has been around for a while, but since I do not actually know where the remote is for the television at home, I have not ever watched the show. Reading the latest copy of Rolling Stone magazine via Zinio informed me of the depths that the Aerosmith front man has fallen to.
I find myself daydreaming about what that must be like. Steven Tyler, huge mouth nearly swallowing a microphone, scarves flowing off the microphone stand, snarling and telling the contestant they suck. But I am reading that he is actually nice to the contestants. I guess I need to give it a test ride.
This is how most of us think of Steven Tyler.
In addition to this heresy of Steven Tyler on American Idol, while at the dentist office the other day (wilting under the barrage of talk and questions from the hygienist while she has her hands in my mouth. How stupid is that, btw...? - but I digress). While sitting in the dentist chair, I heard a Motley Cru song playing on the Classic Rock station - followed directly by an Elton John song. Jeez. What has the world come to?
Yep, its pretty much like that.
People are buying/riding hardtails in USA
What is going on here? For a long time, we have been convinced that the hardtail was dead in the USA. Interestingly, the Europeans and Asians have never stopped buying them. But in the US, the percentage of people buying hardtails has continued to drop. For example, Trek offers quite a few more hardtails outside of the USA than it does inside the USA. (Buy a plane ticket and take an empty bike bag if you are chasing a high end hardtail from a US zipcode). But, amazingly, people are now buying hardtails in the USA. Granted, they are all 29'ers, but they still have stiff rear ends. Sometimes the future is not much different than the past.
Is this dehydrated breakfast cereal hour, or is this Cleveland?
Or, this section could be called "If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium." This past week, I literally went to Belgium for a day. It was not for a happy experience, but it was important. John Burke and I went to the ceremony for Wouter Weylandt. If you have read other stuff from me, then you know that the passing of Wouter was a tragedy that is hard to describe. John put up a nice little blog entry about the day, so I will not try to repeat that.
I will just say that the ceremony was excellent. The ceremony was held in the huge church in the center of Gent, Belgium. The church is one of those fantastic old churches in Europe that normally is the keystone of your tour through the city. There were easily 1000+ people there, and every single person was offered the opportunity to file through the church, pay their respects to Wouter and his family and take home a card to save and remember Wouter by.
Wouter had a lot of friends.
I'm thinking of shaving my legs
I love bike racing. If you haven't figured that out yet, I love it. I watch it a lot, I listen to audio presentations, I read twitter feeds from racers, teams and races. I spend a significant amount of money to support it, I am responsible for the race department etc... Yet, I consider myself too old to be serious about doing it myself. I ride a lot. Almost every day, that I can. On the weekends I ride with and get smoked by the racer groups. I try and try, but I just am not as fast as them. Maybe if I shaved my legs?
That would probably make me feel like a cutter.
Kinda makes you want to go and rent the movie again. eh?
I have a single speed Fuel EX
I have a bunch of friends that ride SS. I have had them, but in general they are built on hardtails. In spite of the renaissance of hardtails that I noted before, I just do not do hardtails. God made FS bikes, so why should I avoid them? So, I built a SS on a Fuel EX frame. It is a compromise, but it works. The suspension does what it is supposed to do, in the same way that it does when you have gears. Nice. But, I have to make note that there still are not any gears to use to help get up that hill. Given the fitness and age point above, I find myself looking for a button on the right side. I find myself in the middle of the hill wondering exactly what I was thinking when I bolted this all together without any shifters.
So maybe in the end I bolt some shifters onto the bike. At least one.
Arnold Schwarzenager is in the news for a baby out of wedlock
I don't really have anything more to say about that.
Do you walk to work, or do you carry your lunch?
I know that sentence makes absolutely no sense. Sometimes other things don't make sense to me either. It is the spring of 2011 - Yesterday I was at a sales meeting about how things are going with a few 2011 markets, today we are showing international distributors the 2012 lineups, later in the week I will be at a meeting to finalize the 2013 product development plans, early next week I will be at a R+D meeting which is more about 2014 and beyond.
I want tickets to the Pearl Jam show at Alpine Valley
Yep, favorite band, playing at the end of the summer at the outdoor festival Alpine Valley. Sounds like beer, sunburn, bee stings, long bathroom lines and Eddie Vedder belting it out. Cannot wait.
cheers.
Joe
This picture has nothing to do with much else in this post, but I like it nonetheless.
As I was going about my business in my office, someone said "Big crash in the Giro today. A Leopard Trek rider has crashed." My initial reaction was that "Oh, that is too bad. If it is a bad crash, the team will have to be a rider down - already in the Giro. Not good for their overall plan".
Not in my wildest dreams, did I think that the story would go from that to the harsh reality of the situation.
Next Ben called, "Joe...(his voice was breaking up and immediately I knew it was bad), I just spoke with Luca in Italy. Wouter Weylandt has crashed, and he did not make it...." I was completely crushed. I had to sit myself down and choke back the tears. I could not believe it. This is not supposed to happen. I think I sat there for a long time. Unable to react, unable to process it.
Shock has settled on my office, and all of Trek. There is no music playing, there is a lot less talking in the halls. People in the office who have never met anyone from the Leopard Trek team are crushed. I am having a hard time describing how heavy my heart feels, and I can tell there are lots of others at Trek that feel the same way. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be with the team in Italy right now.
As difficult as it is to be part of the team, that is surely nothing compared to how a few families feel. Wouter's parents and siblings, his girlfriend who is pregnant with their first baby and all his friends in Belgium are surely completely devastated.
Cycling is the most beautiful sport in the world. The Giro is the kick off to the glorious summer race season. We sponsor cycling, because it is such a fantastic sport and that cycling is such a life affirming activity. I am shattered that any rider would die doing it, but for a young talented rider at the top of the sport to pass in such a horrible way is beyond that.
I did not know Wouter well. I have met him, along with meeting all the other riders with the Leopard Trek team. I thought he was friendly and a good looking Belgian kid. I thought he had funny hair. I have a huge respect for what he can do on a bicycle. I know that at Paris Roubaix, he looked deadly serious going into battle.
I suspect he loved cycling. I do not think you can be a pro cyclist and accept all the dangers of the sport for just the money. There has to be a huge amount of passion for cycling as a pro cyclist, because there are easier ways to make a living. As this weeks event shows us, there are certainly safer ways.
There are 2 photos that I want to remember Wouter by.
This first one is fun to me. It make Wouter look like a young kid ready to be part of an exciting new cycling team. It speaks volumes on his pride and passion for the sport to me.
I had not met Wouter when this one was taken, but I am sure this is how he would want to be remembered - at the top of the sport on that moment with his arms held high - happy for the success he was achieving.
We all thought there would be more, but that was stolen away from Wouter, while doing what he loved.
I know you are thinking. What the..? Have the Trek guys gone bonkers? Do I really want to read this? Yes you do, that title is meant to catch your attention. Worked, eh? Bear with me, it will all make sense.
In spit of the lack of oatmeal involved, this past week has to rank as one of the most amazing since I have had this job. There have been a lot of really great things that I have been allowed to do with this job, but of all of those - this story has to be at the very top.
If you have been following along, you know that I have been building up to do the Paris Roubaix (Hell of the North) bike race. It has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time. The allure of the pave, cobbles buried in the ground at a million different non level angles, roads built centuries ago and left to deteriorate through wars and winters that cannot even be counted, the pain, the danger etc… I was looking forward to all of it.
I spent 62.5 hours this past month watching old footage of the race. (I know, my wife kept track. I'm a little bit obsessive.) There were years when it was a slog though the mud, and years where it was a dust bowl. This year was to be fast, dry and warm. Our race was the day before the pro race. We would do 140k of the pro race and it would include 18 sections of cobbles.
Friday was bib pick up day and sign up at the expo etc… After that, we went for a ride. Last year at the TDF, I ran across Liam and his dad Bill, as they were riding a bunch of the stages at the tour and documenting it all. They are big Livestrong supporters and have done an amazing job documenting their riding exploits while they are fortunate enough to live in France. You can check out their stories at www.fathersontour.com.
They were up in northern France for the Challenge as well, so we all went out for a little shake down ride in the fields of the St Quentin area.
That is Liam in his trademark Livestrong jersey. He is a madman. (Michael from Trek stands in with him)
After a nice little shakedown ride, we had some dinner and all retired to our rooms to try to get ready for the next day. I was left to myself to struggle with trying to remember how to change a sew up if I flat (have not done that in a long time), how do you manage across the cobbles, how fast would it be, do I have enough miles yet… It was not a good night of sleep.
My steed for the ride. Leopard Trek cobbles set up.
Huge phat tubular wheels and tires.
The team bikes all had these stickers on the top tube. Tells them when the pain is coming.
Getting some advice on the starting line from Nick our country manager in France. (I am so out of my league there).
After a nearly sleepless and nervous night, I can tell you this much – the cobbles are indescribable. There is nothing like it, and I mean nothing. I cannot even begin to describe just how rough they are. It is not like riding a rough dirt road. It is not like a piece of bad pavement that I think I have on one of my routes. There really is no way to prepare yourself for just how rough it is. At kilometer marker 50, we entered on a fast left hand turn into the first cobbled section. Section 18 of 27 for the pro race.
Immediately, your whole body starts to rebel against the beating it is taking. Your head shakes, your arms convulse almost uncontrollably. The pain coming through your wrists, feet and but is felt immediately. The sound coming out of your bike is frightening. Your mind tells you that surely the bike is going to shatter at any moment. You find yourself terrified that your wheels are going to just crumble at any moment. When that pack entered that first section, there were bottles flying everywhere, bodies on the ground, riders careening off into the grass and fields - chaos.
All the advice that I had gotten, flashed through my head – stay on the tops, do not slow down, ride the crown in the middle of the road, stay loose, do not slow down… Of course, 25 meters in, I failed and went for a down shift. With the loss of just 2kph, the bike starts to buck and shake so violently there is no way to hold on. looked for the path on the side and became dejected and sucked the gutter. We all learned to love the gutter in that first section.
More than one person told me afterward, that they did not think they would be able to make it after that first section. Then the advice began to come back to me. “Rest during the smooth parts, go like hell during the rough". A funny thing happens during the race, you start to figure it out after the first few sections. By the 3rd or so section, you are able to ride the tops and stay loose and pedal like hell when your in it.
Here I am doing a much more credible job getting over the top. You cannot imagine how rough that is at speed. This is the only picture that I have that I do not look like I am in horrible pain.
Of course there is a big chunk of time in the middle where you actually start to enjoy the brutality and pure beauty of it all. I can tell you right now that the guys that do this for a living are absolutely nails. This is not for the faint of heart. The penalty for getting it wrong is really really high, as in this years pro race there were alot of pro - some that had even won the day before - who did not finish the race due to crashes. In our race, the ambulance was out on course a lot.
Here is a really good description of all the cobble sections that I saw, from Podium Cafe.
Our group all finished. One busted up head from a crash, one broken wrist from a crash a few flats – it was the most incredible day any of us had ever had on a bike.
Pro Race Day
The next day we watched the pro race. We got up early, and made our way to Compiègne, north of Paris. (I know, it is called Paris-Roubaix, not Compiègne-Roubaix, why doesn't it start there? Trust me, it is ok that it does not start any farther away.) There is the usual pro race circus at the start, and the race really doesn't officially start anyway until they get out of town.
The pros go fast, really fast. They average more than 45kph for the first couple of hours, and then they hit the cobbles. You cannot believe how violent a pack of riders is when they go across the cobbles together at nearly 50kph. The video below tries to show that, but only does a mediocre job of that.
This is the pack coming by on section 15. Still all together, the race had not blown apart yet.
On another section of race, I watched a bottle bounce out of someone cage and then bounce along on the road in the middle of the pack. It was basically a huge rock bouncing along, just waiting for someone to hit it and take the whole peleton down. Magically, no one did. They are all pounding away in a pack like the video, they cannot see past the rider in front, there is dust everywhere, they are fatigued and yet no one went down. Wow.
If you watched the race, you know the results. It is hard for that result to tell the whole story. Fabian Cancellara is the most amazing athlete ever to ride this race, or any other spring classic for that matter. But, one of the great things about racing is the strongest man doesn’t always win. There is more to racing than that.
Paris-Roubaix is such a spectacle. It is the most beautiful race ever. I hope it never changes. After the race, I asked Ben King what he thought of it. His answer, “That is the most amazing thing ever. I cannot wait to do it again.”
That is why "Hell", is actually quite beautiful. I will definitely be back.
Ben King after the race.
I spent the day with Francesco Moser in the car chasing the race. He is no longer a racer, but he is still a hero. He does not speak much english, but his French is a bit better so we communicated that way. He was one of my childhood heroes, so that was amazing all by itself.
I am not sure what these 2 thought the Leopard Trek truck was doing there, but I am pretty sure they did not think it was a bike race.
April is the best. Springtime, birds chirping, snow melting, longer days, the mountain bike trails become clear of snow, bikes get dusted off, roads become clear of debris. April showers bring May flowers and all that stuff. It is a glorious time.
Sometimes in past years, I have thought of one last ski trip or an early trip to Fruita or something like that. But this year I have been completely preoccupied with Paris-Roubaix. This year I have been all about that one thing. April rivals July for bike racing excitement, especially with the combination of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix on successive weekends. There is a bone-jarring, cobbles-induced, glow that takes you all the way through the month. And although there are a lot of Belgians and Dutch that would argue about which of those races is more important and a bigger deal, for me Paris-Roubaix is the mack daddy. Paris-Roubaix is the baddest bike race of all time. L'enfer du Nord. But for this year, I have a new twist on that behemoth. Oh baby.
It all started for me last fall. I had the opportunity to meet with the people from ASO about Trek continuing involvement with their citizen events during the Tour de France as we had been for the previous 3 years. During the course of those conversations about the July events, the ASO informed us that they were going to put on a Paris-Roubaix citizen race the day before the pro race.
It was going to be hard. After all, Paris Roubaix is for the hardest of the hard. If you win that race as a pro, you are THE MAN. ASO had the goal of showing a bunch of citizens exactly how hard it is the day before the race. All the banners and barricades would be up and there would already be people in the forest preparing for the pro race the next day. We made the decision for Trek to sign up with that bad boy. Holy cow! I made the decision right then and there that I was doing that race. After all, I kinda like a challenge.
So since that day in October I have been planning to be there on the start line, with a few thousand other people preparing to go into hell. I have been riding crappy pavement roads, looking for dirt roads, riding the trainer, etc. I have been soliciting advice from teams and mechanics all over the world. What do I ride? How do I prepare? How do I ride it the day of? My mind is swirling with all of that advice. Double handlebar tape, big tubular tires, keep your pace and your cadence up, do not under any circumstances slow down and down shift (downshift equals death), no watches or wedding rings as your wrists will break and you will have to cut the ring off as your hands will be so swollen after the ride, ride the path on the side if you can, stay on the crown, do not change your line. I already have butterflies in my stomach. The great gang over at Rapha did a recce of the course a couple of weeks ago. You can see that here.
If you are a cyclist, and anywhere near my age, you have grown up watching Fabian Cancellera, Francesco Moser, Gilbert Duclos Lesalle, Bernard Hinault, George Hincapie, Sean Kelly, etc. tackling the "Hell of the North." When I was just getting into cycling, I remember watching A Sunday in Hell featuring Eddie Merckx. Now, I am going to ride the same roads and the same cobbles. Wow.
It is kind of a popular sentiment: When your heroes are larger than life, you might not really want to get to know them. When you get to know your heroes, there is a chance they may not live up to their public image. When you get to know them, you realize that they are human. They make mistakes, they have trouble with their relationships, they say awkward things, they crunch their car in the parking lot at the mall, they get a bad haircut…in other words; they become human when you get close to them.
For a long time, Lance Armstrong has been one of my heroes. When he first came back from cancer, we all watched with amazement and hoped for the underdog. We all knew someone who had been touched by the disease, and we wanted him to conquer because not everyone else had. He was a hero and everyone was a fan in those early days of Comeback 1.0.
In 1999, I was at the Tour de France. Trek was doing a mountain bike intro nearby, and we decided to take the journalists to the race. Not because we somehow knew what was going to happen that day, but because those who say they are not really interested in the Tour de France, have just not yet been there. It is, of course, the single greatest sporting spectacle in the world. We were at the summit of the Galibier that day in 1999, when Lance came over with the front group and then went on to put the race away on the Sestriere. I was in awe of the display. I immediately called the road bike brand manager at Trek and told him, “I know this is crazy, but I think he can win this.” How silly my shock sounds now, right?
People who follow cycling like to rooti for the underdog. So, it was natural for everyone to root for Lance when he was the comeback kid. It was also in a lot of cycling fans' nature to turn against him when he became uber successful. Trust me, even people who say they are not fans now, were fans back then.
For me, he never fell from being one of my hero’s. When he won more, he just became more of a hero. I loved to see him ride at the front of the group all the time and wait for his competitors to wilt. I loved to see him attack. I loved to see him chase back after being knocked down. It was always exciting and fun.
I also know that during all of this, he was doing everything that he could to help kick the proverbial butt of cancer as fast as he could. Trying to help millions of people around the world. He was helping his foundation and seeing cancer victims in person around the world. He retired, and some people were glad. I was thankful that I got see him race, and I understood that it could not go on forever.
Then Comeback 2.0 came along. I was excited because I got to see the hero in action again. Sure, he fell down a lot more. Sure, he suffered injuries. Sure he had a run of bad luck that didn't strike before. Sure it was not always graceful. But he was still badass and he still remains one of my cycling heroes.
Tough guy!
There are a lot of people in the cycling world who now claim that he was never their hero. There are also people out there debating if Lance’s legacy changed cycling and the cycling world. I do not really care to get involved with that debate. I will leave that for others to spend too much time on.
I do know, that I have been lucky to get to know one of my heroes. Not as well as I would like to, but I am fortunate nonetheless to have gotten to know him the small amount that I do.
At the beginning of this, I talked about the dangers of getting to know your heroes and having the veneer stripped away. For me, getting to know him and watching a rough Comeback 2.0 did not change anything.
With Lance announcing his retirement for the final time, Comeback 2.0 comes to an end. I do not know what Lance will do next, but I know that whatever he does will involve helping as many cancer victims as he can.
Oi, this has been a long time coming. You do not know how long Trek has been working on this.
It all started at Rotterdam for the start of the TDF. Ben (our team liason) and I, along with John Burke (our president), had been talking about if we wanted to expand our team efforts and racing presence. We started with the same way a lot of things start in business; with a spreadsheet. We built a big sheet of all the Pro Tour licensed teams, showing who their roster contained, title sponsor and how long that was meant to last, when their license expired etc... From that, it appeared there were 3-4 teams we should meet with. We did that, and quickly ended up narrowing that down to just the Luxembourg Pro Cycling project - as it was known then (more on that later).
Racing is really important to Trek. We like to race. Helps us to understand the highest end of our product usage and keeps it about riding a bicycle at the highest level, instead of the many other things that it takes to run a bicycle company. The Trek brand has been associated with racing at the highest level for a long time. These days, those efforts are spent with the RadioShack team, the KSwiss Tri team, and with Trek World Racing etc... We dig it. There really is something cool about being associated with racing and races like the World Championships or the Tour de France are truly a spectacle. It kinda makes you a fan, no matter how jaded you are. But, the world is a big place and Trek has distribution all over the world. We wanted to have a bigger presence with a European road racing team.
Enter the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project.
Ok, so I got a little off track. Back to Rotterdam and the start of the TDF. That was the first meeting between Trek and the management of the Lux team. July wore on, and I was back and forth to France and to Luxembourg 2 more times. I was back there again, twice in August, and then finally was able to sign it all up at the beginning of Sept. Wow, it was an experience to say the least. Someday, I will write all of that down and it will be a story in and of itself. But for the mean time, suffice it to say, it was an ordeal. Sometime, if you can get me to tell you the whole story over a beer or 3, I promise you it will be worth your time.
Along the way, I realized how that team was going to be filled with a bunch of really really great guys. Jens Voight, the life of the party, the hard man of the group, Jakob Fugelsang the youngster with a huge future ahead of him, Frank Schleck who is almost the elder statesman now and just a all-around great guy, Andy Schleck who might be the skinniest kid i have ever known (really, my forearms are about the same size as his calves - and of course i am just that bulky), than of course there is Fabian Cancellera. Yeah, what can you say there - makes me want to bow down and do my Waynes World imitation: "We're not worthy..." As Kim Anderson said to me, "He is a special boy". That is probably lost in translation - you have to know Kim.
Team presentation and dealer event in Luxembourg this week.
So here i am in Lux again, for our dealer event with the riders, the press conference with the media, and the evenings big team presentation. It is a huge huge deal. Andy talking about the team, Fabian looking like a superstar, Frank and everyone else. Wow. Then there is me. The bumpkin from Wisconsin.
(I’m not sure, but I think I look pretty good in a jacket – NOT!)
I have been referred to as "Converse", for a while now. That is for my usual shoe attire. Yeah, I own like 20 pair. What can I say, I don't really do dressed up. I do own a suit, it is the same one that I got married in. But aside from that, I really do not own anything dressy. I have a sweater or 2, but not much more. I arrived here in Lux with one collared shirt, a few tshirts and jeans. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the event was really dressy. In normal Joe terms, I wouldn't care. But, Frank Schleck and his wife Martine looking out for me insisted that I could not be up on stage in a tshirt. So Martine found me a jacket borrowed from one of the riders that wears the same size as me. Lucky I had the one collared shirt...
(Frank Schleck and I on stage at the dealer event. Yes, I have to pinch myself.)
At our dealer event in the afternoon, we had 22 of the riders at a private cocktail party. Can you believe it? 22 riders came and shook hands with 50 European Trek retailers, signed autographs, stood around and chatted the crowd up. I have been around this stuff for all of my life. That is a long time, and I should be over all of this. But, I cannot tell you how nervous I am to be on stage with a rider like Fabian or Andy or Frank. I have gotten to know each of those guys, but still cannot believe it. I mean, Fabian can put out something like 1400 watts. Holy cow!
(Yep, that is 5000 people waiting for the start)
On the day of the presentation, we did a run-through in the afternoon. Brian Nygaard (the team's General Manager) decided he would like to have Ben and I come out at the same time as Fabian, Andy and Frank with the bikes. In rehearsal, that seemed like a good idea. We went out, answered a few questions about Trek and our involvement with the team etc... All good. No trepidation on my part, as speaking in front of groups really is not that big a deal for me.
The royal family is here. Press from around the world. All the cycling press. Phill Ligget. (I feel like I am all the way here from Kansas. No offense if you are from Kansas. Surrender Dorothy and all.) And, there are about 5000 people in the audience. This is a really big deal here in Luxembourg.
Fabian, Andy, and Frank were meant to come out on stage at the end of the presentation. The crowd had been there for 2 hours waiting for the 3 of them. When they were announced as the next riders, the crowd went crazy. I kinda thought they were going to storm the stage, like they were rock stars. The music thumped, the whole crowd was on their feet screaming, camera's were flashing etc... At that moment, I decided that Ben and I were not going on stage. We just stayed out back. The on-stage MC's did not ask where we were, and they adjusted. It was the right move, as the next day that shot of the 3 greatest riders in the world on the stage with their new bikes, arms raised to the crowd, was perfect. It was in almost every newspaper across Europe. It would have looked stupid with Ben and I just standing behind them.
Team Name
At this point, you probably have heard that the team name is LEOPARD TREK! Can you believe it? I still have to pinch myself. Trek is right up there at top billing on the team name.
I have been asked about 1000 times, "what is Leopard?" (pronounced "Lay-O-pard"). Leopard is the name of the company that owns the team. That company was set up to manage the team, so it doesn't have any other commercial offering. The team will be building that brand name with the team, and believes that the team name should be something to aspire to. The team name, is a brand of its own. Kind of a cool concept that is really new and fresh.
I for one, am pretty excited about the whole thing.
(New Bontrager team helmet – more info coming soon)
(a beautiful site)
(kinda inspiring, eh?)
(@trek_ben adjusting bikes all the way up to the last minute. In the normal attire for a team Liaison)
This team is going to be all about racing. They will be presenting themselves as serious about racing and hope to let their racing speak for itself. I, for one, am super excited about a return to the purity of racing.
For the time being, we start the season as the number one ranked team. That may not last, but we plan to win a bunch of races with this team.
