Today marked the second clinic of 2015 that Tom Peterson and I gave to a Seattle based club team. Back in January we hosted the SCCA / Starbucks Men’s Cycling Team and this past weekend we hosted the Hagens Berman Society Consulting Men’s Team. I can safely say, based on post clinic feedback, that both were a success.
When Tom and I first started to put the clinic together we were not 100% sure on what to include, what to exclude, how long the clinic would take, etc. So we opted for over-preparation (-kill). Initially I tossed a couple of ideas to the teams on what we could offer, got a response (“these all sound great!”) and then proceeded to nail down specifics with Tom. Tom then put together a preliminary presentation that I tweaked and off we went. We knew that we wanted to have a classroom session followed by some riding. I knew that I wanted to give the clinic participants their money’s worth and make sure that they left feeling that their day was well spent. Both clinics ended up taking most of the day with a total time of about 6 hours equally spent between classroom and ride time.
The classroom session centered around:
- Professionalism and what that means for a local amateur club team. This included what it means to be a team, how the team – sponsor relationship works and how to provide value to a sponsor
- Pre and post race team meetings including a discussion on tactics
- Pack and Race Etiquette
- Formation riding. Specifically pace lines – the different kinds of pace lines that are used and when to use them
Although we went down quite a few tangents the questions were very good and the discussion that they instigated were valuable. Both clinic classroom times ended up being around 2.5- 3 hours but I never really saw anyone looking at their watch with the “when will this end and when can we get riding” face on.
We tried to cover some slow speed drills with the SCCA / Starbucks Team during the first clinic but decided to scrap that for the HBSC clinic instead getting straight our ride to practice some pace line riding. Fortunately where I live we can ride to a very good stretch of road that is 4.5 miles in length that is perfect for running through the various kinds of pace lines (2 x 2, up and off, single, echelon) as well as discussing lead outs.
As I said, based on feedback, it seems that the clinics were a success and that all the participants got some valuable take-aways. Tom and I also got some valuable take-aways that we will use moving forward to improve on future clinics.
I also want to give a special thanks to Ward Zauner for assisting with both clinics. Ward is a member of the Seattle based Tête de la Course Cycling team and is contemplating getting into coaching. He has been racing for over 20 years all over the United States. He is also responsible for the photos on this post. Another thank you to Logan Owen who spent his Sunday (the day before he leaves for his team camp in California) helping out with today’s clinic. Neither clinic would have been as successful without their help.
Anyone interested in a Tête de la Course Cycling clinic please feel free to get in touch. We have a variety of clinic formats that we can custom tailor to your specific needs. Also keep an eye out for an extended training camp in Southern California sometime in the future.
Cheers.
Joe
