NEW VENTURES

Well the last blog gave some hints at the new things to come. I can say that we have launched an entirely new program. The USA Cycling Neutral Support Program is now 100% up, running and functional. Slightly under the radar and as quietly as we could, we approached the USA Cycling JR, U23 Elite and Para National Championships with anticipation. It was no easy feat to support an event with over 1,000 competitors, 3 full days of road racing, 1 full day of time trials and a very full 14 hour days of criteriums. You can view some photos from the event here.
About 2 months ago we had some internal discussions and decided we could do this. We looked to some long time sponsors like Shimano, Park Tool and Thule for much needed equipment support. We called on those with current mechanics licenses to come out and join the fun. In the end we accomplished what we set out to do with success. We changed about 40 wheels, assisted in around 10 crashes, changed somewhere around 10 bikes and modified about 20 of a certain carbon bike frame to make it UCI compliant and had fun in the process.

The mechanics who volunteered their time now have the experience that6 months on the race circuit could provide and they achieved that in less than a week. Kurt Holtzclaw, Neil Nessle and Chris Moore were what you could consider green in the bicycle race mechanics profession. All attendee's at the 2010 Bill Woodul Race Mechanic's Clinic they didn't know what they were in for. We brought in some veterans to help show them the way. Guys like Pete Hill, TJ Grove and myself were solid in support of the newbies.
As the year goes on we will be supporting a few other events and adding more as time and budgets allow. Up next for the USA Cycling Neutral Support Program will be Larry H Miller Tour of Utah followed by the Aspen Pro Women's Challenge. At the end of August Masters Nationals in Bend Oregon will be our next epic event on the same level of the recent nationals in Augusta.

We will hope to see some of you out there joining us in support of racing in the US.