Palm Springs Wrap Up

Wow. What a great way to start off the season! Weather was fairly consistent with temperatures in the mid to high 20's and very dry. We did one ride where we climbed for over an hour and the temperatures dropped to around 5, and the rain started lightly falling. Thankfully the temperature rose very quickly again as we descended back in to the valley. The wind (especially on the last few days) proved to be a force to be dealt with. Some days were steady, but our very last had steady winds with gusts exceeding 80km/h.

Team photo overlooking Palm Springs.

What we had climbed already (with lots more to go). This is also what we got to descend after :D

On the second week I was awarded the "Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Rider of the Day Award" - presented by Cycling BC for my organization and strong pulls during the ride's team time trial efforts. 

After two weeks of training we rode close to 1500 km spanned over 52 hours of ride time. It was a great camp, and it has prepared me well for this season. When I got back I did NOTHING for a whole day, then headed off to Victoria for a Russ Hays Team Camp. We had a good meeting at PISE on friday night to talk about the coming season. Then saturday came with cold temperatures and POURING rain... After returning from California, the three hours in the cold/rain in Victoria felt so bad! We did get to preview the provincials course for this year though, so it was worth it. I wasn't feeling great on Sunday, so I did a recovery ride with the team for around an hour and a half. I then called it a day and drove home to recover before I ramp up my training again in the coming week :)

Racing starts pretty soon!

Jordan Duncan

An Update from Palm Springs

Over the past week I have been living and training in Palm Springs, California with Cycling BC. This week we had both the women's and men's junior teams training here. The women's team left today, and will be replaced later today with some more men riders. They will be here for the last week. The junior men's team will be here for the full two weeks (myself included).

Over the past week we got some really good rides in, and hopefully we can keep that going! Our first day (last wednesday) consisted of building bikes, grocery shopping and going for a short, easy spin to loosen the legs up after our flight. Every ride after that has been over 4 hours and over 100 km long. Those rides have included some pace-lining drills and sprinting drills, as well as some climbing efforts. Our longest ride so far was 183 km, that took six hours.

I'd like to thank Cycling BC and all of the sponsors for making this training camp possible. It's given me an opportunity to get a kickstart to the season by training with the team and getting lots of base miles in.

Jordan