Michael Barry's Diary: Die Mannschaft
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Last season was perhaps the worst year professional cycling has ever experienced. Victories achieved with panache were overshadowed by media headlines relating to positive drug tests, doping investigations and political strife between the sport’s governing body and the race organizers. It was a tough year to be a professional cyclist and with each news story my pedal stroke seemed to get heavier from the negativity. The sport I had gone to bed dreaming about as a kid was, very sadly, in the public’s perception, a sport full of cheaters and hoaxes. And, it now needs to change. T-Mobile, is a team and a company that is not only doing something to change the image of the sport but also to move the sport in a new direction.
During the last five seasons I rode for the same team—first sponsored by U.S. Postal and then the Discovery Channel—so it was a big change for me this winter when I received a training camp itinerary from T-Mobile. I was comfortable at Discovery and had grown to know what to expect; each year we had our training camps in the same locations, there was very little turnover in the staff, and I had a good idea of what my race schedule would be and how the team’s goals would be structured around the calendar. It was a comfort knowing what was coming but over the last few months, as the e-mails from T-Mobile popped into my mailbox, and my new Giant arrived in the mail, I began to feel an excitement I hadn’t felt in a few years.
As U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel made Solvang, California, its perennial early season training camp location, T-Mobile has always traveled to the Spanish island of Mallorca to get fit for the season. Mallorca may be a Spanish island but it has everything to make a German comfortable as it has developed into a booming tourist destination for Germans. All of the staff at our hotel spoke German, or was German. German beers were on tap, and there were certainly more television channels in German than in Spanish. The Spanish sun was the attraction and we saw it everyday, all day.
Bob Stapleton, the American businessman with a heart that beats for bikes, is trying to change cycling with the T-Mobile team, with his management skills and vision, and this was evident as soon as he took over the squad midway through 2006. He hired new riders, and didn’t rehire others, in a big effort to build a unique and international team that was committed to improving the image of the sport by riding clean, and proving they were clean by undergoing stringent medical monitoring and testing. To compliment the new riders, masseurs, mechanics, doctors and directors were hired that were equally as committed to the new program.
When I arrived at the training camp in Mallorca, I had no idea what to expect. I was used to a system, a team and an ambiance that I grew to expect in the peloton, and I was soon to learn that for me the norm is no longer norm.
Immediately after arriving I was given a schedule for the following day: a short ride, lactate testing on a trainer with the medical staff, a short medical exam and a core strength exam, lunch, core strength training, muscle relaxation training, dinner and then a team meeting. The day was full, and all of our days were to be full for the two week camp; but it was all positive and progressive and much of what we were to do was completely new to the “old school” ways of the cycling world.
From the testing we were told our weaknesses and strengths, and the team of 29 riders was then split into three groups based on our objectives and physicals strengths and weakness. On the bikes we were in different groups than we were in the gym due to the differences in ability in the wide spectrum of athletes and body types. During our rides in the training groups we did specific individual interval sessions based on our values in the lab. (I will analyze a team training ride and the data in my VeloNews.com column next month.) Very quickly our training groups on the bike were flowing smoothly and the natural leaders were coming to the fore.
With T-Mobile there is not a single leader like Lance was at Discovery and U.S. Postal but there are many talented riders that share the leadership within the team, and several young riders that will have the opportunity to grow into leaders. The management has hired several sprinters, which in my opinion, is a good move as it guarantees victories, and results in any virtually any stage race, and gives the team options in the finale of most races. The Classics team is deep in talent, and the Tour team is eager to perform and prove itself.
There was a bond amongst the staff and riders that I have not before felt in other teams; perhaps it is because we are all part of a “new” squad or perhaps it is because we are all involved something completely new to sport altogether. The riders sat at meals with the staff and chatted whereas in other teams the staff had their table and the riders theirs. The level of respect and openness was different and felt a lot more like a democracy than like the hierarchy that rules most teams.
We tested, we trained and we bonded which is what we got together to accomplish. It was interesting to witness the team grow through the camp and to watch the level of comfort between the group increase as the kilometers and hours ticked past. We went from being a group of cyclists and staff to being a team.
We see that sentiment everywhere, even when we ride. On the top tubes on our new bikes, close to the stem, it says in bold block letters: “Die Mannschaft,” which translated directly means, “The team.” Each time we put our heads down and pedal harder those are the words we will see, and hopefully feel, and also the words that will help change what the public thinks of cycling and cyclists.
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