Just finished up the evening meeting with the guys. Everyone in good spirits. We’ve had some strong results and ample fresh experience thus far at Camp 6. Someone asked me in an email what we talk about at a team meeting. Here’s tonight’s agenda:

1. Tallying up which riders still need to pay their camp dues. Most folks over here are shocked that the riders themselves must pay for their racing here. My goal remains: finding sponsorship for a US Cyclocross Development Program.

2. Which riders I need to enter for the Roubaix World Cup in mid-January. The deadline for entry through USAC is the end of this week.

3. The logistical schedule (short version) to tomorrow’s race in Loenhout:
6:00 Mechanics depart to race
6:00 Juniors rise
6:45 Juniors depart to race
7:00 U-23 rise
7:45 U-23 depart to race
8:45 Juniors Sign In
9:00 Elites rise
9:15-10:00 Juniors Training on course
9:45 U-23 Sign In
10:00 Elites depart to race
10:30-11:00 U-23 Training on course
11:00 Juniors Start
12:00 U-23 Start
12:00 Elites Sign In
12:15 Juniors return to Izegem
13:00-13:30 Elite Training on course
13:30 U-23 return to Izegem
15:00 Elite Start
16:30 Elites return to Izegem
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Team Meeting to go over the day and preface the next day’s plan

4. Some specifics about the Loenhout circuit tomorrow. (Most of the guys have already watched last year’s race on dvd earlier in the afternoon). How the race (and all Gazet Van Antwerpen series races-GVA is the big Antwerp daily newspaper and series sponsor) starts with a traffic light going RED-YELLOW-GREEN. The bridges, mounds, whuups, and ditches. And the challenges of the non-equidistant (time between pit 1 and pit 2 is not the same as time between pit 2 and pit 1) double pit with 9 juniors racing and 7 U-23. We break it down this way:
Pit 1
Box closer to front:
Juniors: Cox, Dombrowski, Emsky, Kaiser
U-23: Weighall, Ferguson, Llewellyn
Box closer to back:
Juniors: McDonald, Mannion, Goguen, Ryan, Wallace
U-23: Hackworthy, Dugan, Summerhill, Selander
Pit 2
Box closer to front:
Juniors: McDonald, Mannion, Goguen, Ryan, Wallace
U-23: Hackworthy, Dugan, Summerhill, Selander
Box closer to back:
Juniors: Cox, Dombrowski, Emsky, Kaiser
U-23: Weighall, Ferguson, Llewellyn

5. A reminder about the importance of everyone doing his chores. Later in the evening I will rotate the jobs so the same guys don’t get stuck with the dreaded duty of “pots and pans”.

6. A final kudo to how well things are going and how proud I am of the guys for keeping their heads yesterday when we got royally flicked with the start call ups in Deigem. I’m quite sure I’ve been black listed for my contentious “discussion” with the UCI commissaires before each category race yesterday. I’ve since taken corrective measures with the powers that be, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow in Loenhout. Bottom-line, one of the most important tasks for a coach over here is to advocate for his riders. Otherwise, it’s a full on Belgie steamroll.

Tot ziens!
Geoff

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