Notes from USA Cycling Women’s Development Camp, Aug 3-8, 2008
DeSales University, Center Valley PA

Day 1

Kristen Dieffenbach picked me up from the bus terminal in Easton, PA.
After loading up the car we hunted for dinner on the way back to DeSales;
Kristen said the dining hall there wasn’t open yet and the other campers
would have had dinner by the time we got back. Finally we found a
mom-and-pop pizza place, and we got to know each other a little over
dinner. When we got to DeSales, four of the other campers were already
there, and the fifth arrived from the airport shortly after. I met Ray
Ignosh, the other co-director of the camp, and finally our camp officially
started. We took turns introducing ourselves. There are six campers:
Barrett, Sara, Kristen, Nora, Kaelin, and myself. We are all Cat 4’s, but
still have a range of ages and levels of experience in the sport. Kristen
is the youngest at age 17, I am the oldest at 26. Two or three of the
women in the group explicitly state their long-term goal is to go pro,but
we all want to improve and learn as much as we can. Then the camp staff
introduce themselves.
Kristen is a professor of athletic coaching education at West Virginia
University and sports psychology /physiology expert, as well as a
professional multiday adventure racer. She’s very intense, doesn’t mince
words, and right away I had a sense that there was a lot under the
surface. Over the next few days I’d also realize that Kristen has tons of
real-life experiences to draw upon and add to discussions on almost any
aspect of cycling.
[http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/coaches/performance_coach_kristen.html]
Ray is a certified USA Cycling coach who started mountain biking in
college and was hooked by cycling as a sport where, as he said, “you have
to work hard just to be bad at it.” He found his way into track cycling
where he ended up racing at the elite level, having found his niche there.
He has a degree in exercise physiology as well, is married and just
recently became a dad. Because of now having a baby daughter, he says he
has even more of a vested interest in seeing women’s cycling continue to
grow as a sport, and in helping female riders develop their abilities.
Kurt Begemann is our mechanic but is also a professional coach and former
pro. He rode bikes for years growing up in Zimbabwe and moved to South
Africa at age 15. He competed all over the world, eventually burned out
and quit for several years, then returned to the sport and coaches as well
as competes on the road and the track. As he talks he fiddles with a bike
on a mechanic’s stand, a Ridley carbon bike painted in US champion colors,
with “Fast Freddie” on the top tube-when asked about it he says the frame
is one of six made for Freddie Rodriguez in US champion colors, and he
bought one of the extras from Freddie himself (who only used 2). Kurt
avoids dropping names but there’s a lot he doesn’t say. [www.rideecd.com]
Kristen and Ray then talk a bit about the goal of the USAC
women’s-specific development initiative, which is in its inaugural
year-this is only the second women’s camp ever held. A few main points
follow.
First: that USA Cycling as the national governing body of the sport
believes that women’s cycling “is where the medals are;” women’s cycling
is gaining recognition as an area of the sport that needs additional
development, time and other resources that it has not received thus far,
even though Title IX was enacted back in the 1970s. Kristen talks about
an ‘amazing’ USAC women’s development summit she attended last year, and
mentions that USAC has recently opened a women’s European residence
center to provide a base of operations for pro women training in Europe.
Second: important differences exist between men’s and women’s cycling.
Men come to the sport earlier; they spend years working their way up the
ranks and in the process learn those race skills they need to succeed at a
high level. Women tend to come to cycling later in life (often in college
and not as juniors). They have good fitness from other sports and quickly
develop an “engine” but don’t have the skills needed to survive in pro
peletons. For instance, they haven’t fully or even partly learned
tactics, cornering or other basic skills and only discover this in race
situations, and at a level of racing they often reach very quickly. Only
very recently have women begun coming to the sport as juniors. Kristen
estimates this is still rare, that there are maybe 200-300 female juniors
in the entire country.
Third: women’s cycling is currently seen as cleaner than men’s pro
cycling-there are fewer doping scandals. All of the doping problems that
continually plague the pro men’s cycling world have not affected women’s
cycling in the same way, therefore “the door has been opened” for women’s
cycling to come forward and become a sport that gets more attention, more
resources, and (USAC hopes) more medals in the long-term.

After Kristin and Ray talk, the next item on the agenda for the day is
Kurt’s detailed demonstration, with accompanying typed handout, of how to
break down bikes for packing, step by step, and how to rebuild them,
including a basic tune-up in the reassembly process. He recommends either
a hard-shell case or the BikePro case (the only soft-cover case he says is
worth using). Kurt breaks down “Fast Freddie,” and in the process,
discusses the importance of developing a relationship with your favorite
mechanic…this means a few different things: for example...
1) You NEVER bring a dirty bike in to be worked on, EVER.
2) If your mechanic helps you out by doing a favor like getting your bike
ready in time for an important race on short notice, maybe you might want
to consider bringing him a six-pack of beer or maybe a nice pizza if he's
working long hours. Then maybe next time you bring in your bike your
mechanic might consider doing those little extra bits like maybe running a
clean rag over your frame or giving your bike a little love in other small
ways.
3)If it's a big bike shop with multiple mechanics, request your mechanic
by name-it will let the manager know that mechanic does good work and may
be somebody worth keeping around or maybe giving a raise next time he's up
for review.
4)If you get friendly with your mechanic ask him to maybe save a few
things for you, like some of the gadgets they put on bikes when they ship
in boxes from the factory to the shop. For example, those little plastic
pieces they put on wheel hubs to protect them, or whatever foam or wrap
they use to protect new frames. You could use those the next time you ship
your bike.
Kurt also makes a plug for using tools and products specifically made for
the bike industry-not only are they designed for bikes but he believes we
should support companies specific to the industry, such as Pedro’s or Park
Tool. Then, since I’ve come in a bit late that evening, he uses my bike to
demonstrate reassembly. He opens Glenn’s bike case and slightly
embarrasses me with overly effusive praise of my first-time packing job,
eliciting giggles from the other girls, then points out a few things I may
want to do differently next time. For instance, I may want to just secure
my chain a little better to prevent it from moving around, and perhaps
wrap a rag or something soft around my rear derailleur for a little extra
protection. He also notes my skewers and pedal axles are rather dry and
applies a tiny bit of Pedro's Syn Grease before reinstalling them. Also
the end of my cable on the front derailleur has lost its ferrule and is
pretty frayed, so Kurt says he will replace it (and show me how in the
process) before our ride the next morning. He keeps running a hand
through his hair, which we campers agree later is an odd habit especially
considering how greasy his hands have gotten from working on the bikes.
[By the end of the week we will get to know Kurt and Ray and Kristen well
enough that we can tease and take cheap shots at them all...but we will
get as much as we can dish out. More on that later.]
Because we've started so late, by the time we finish with the bike demo
it's nearly midnight. Ray informs us that we will push wake-up time back
to 7am the next morning instead of 6 or 6:30. Collective sigh of relief,
and it's off to bed for everybody. Tomorrow is our first dawn-to-dusk
full day of camp.