metromint cycling kicks off the new season

3/4/08
by Bruce Johnson, Metromint Cycling

"What is Metromint? Do you work there?" These are two of the most common questions that members of Metromint Cycling are asked while training all over the roads of the San Francisco bay area. The distinctive Blue Dots bring the team a lot of attention. While we don't technically work at Metromint, our philosophies are well aligned: choosing and promoting healthy lifestyles, building camaraderie by working together as a team, and setting and achieving goals through focus and discipline and fun, both on and off the bike.

As the 2008 bicycle racing season begins, Metromint Cycling is putting all the right pieces in place: hours of training on our local roads, coaching from Whole Athlete, technical bike support from Montano Velo and Big Swingin Cycles, and on the bike nutrition from Clif Bar Inc. More importantly, we're building relationships that are a prerequisite to performing well together as a team. The women held their training camp in December, and the men headed to San Luis Obispo in January for their training camp. The all-team camp returned to Petaluma in late-January during the epic rains which flooded many areas in Sonoma County. The sun broke through at the right moment and we had some epic, beautiful cycling both days, taking us along the north coast and through the Napa valley area.

One way to develop as a cyclist and take the team to the next level is to compete in tougher events, against tougher competitors. This year Metromint Cycling is excited about our initiative to travel across the United States and compete in some of the top races in the U.S. which are open to amateur athletes. These include classics such as Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota, the International Tour de Toona in Pennsylvania, the International Cycling Classic (aka Superweek) in Wisconsin, Mt. Hood, Elkhorn and Cascade Cycling Classics in Oregon, and Manhattan Beach Criterium and San Dimas Stage Race in California. Already there have been some positive early results in big races: Fred Stamm and Sean Rhea, both cat 2 racers, headed to Arizona to compete in Valley of the Sun Stage Race. They posted impressive early season results with Fred winning the road race, and Sean taking 8th overall for the general classification (GC). We're excited about the opportunity to take the team to a new level.

One big race that we want to highlight is the recent first ever Tour of California Women's Criterium, held in Santa Rosa, on February 18. Three of our cat 2 women, Jane Robertson, Elis Bradshaw, and Amanda Eaken fired up to put on a brilliant display against some of the best women on the national circuit. You can read about their adventures on our team website.

See you out on the road!!!