THIN AIR ADVENTURES AT AEVOLO TEAM CAMP
May 26th, 2021
Over the last couple of weeks, Manitou Springs, Colorado, offered the Aevolo squad more than 6,000ft of quality training on some of the best training roads in the Rockies in preparation for their goals this summer. In between climbing the snow-capped Pikes Peak and easy spins around Garden of the Gods, the team racked up podiums at Lookout Mountain Hill Climb, Louisville Criterium and Bear Lake Classic, a three-day stage race in Garden Valley, Utah that featured a tough, muddy gravel event.
"The racing was good," Aevolo director Michael Creed said. "The whole week was good. It's good to have the boys training together and rebuild the team spirit. With Covid, it was obviously really hard to keep everybody in contact with each other, especially because they are spread across the country. This will be a good build into the Armed Forces weekend and then the two national championships. Hopefully, by the end of the national championships, we have a clear picture of what the rest of the season has for us."
Next, the team heads to the Armed Forces Classic in Arlington, Virginia, on June 5 and 6 to compete in the Crystal City and Claredon Cup criterium races. After that, it's the US Pro and U23 National Championships - an important goal for the team. US Pro Nats will be in Knoxville, Tennessee, June 17-20 and U23 Nationals is in Clay County, Florida, June 24- 27.
Thoughts from the team
Cade Bickmore - "Camp went well. It was good to really put myself into a hole after a tough school semester. It's tough coming into a camp, not in great form, but the team has been really supportive and understanding of my academic endeavors.
"I was happy with how I rode at Bear Lake, it was good to get some race flow and intensity in again, and the boys were flying!"
Aidan McNeil - "The trip overall at Bear Lake was epic! Epic weather and epic racing and some crazy cows on the road created a unique racing experience. The part I enjoyed most was probably the gravel race on the last day. Even though the weather was far from ideal, with the snow line being a couple of hundred feet above where we were racing, it was a completely new experience since I had never raced my bike on dirt before. The dirt roads were sloppy, and the race started out fast and made it hard with 150 miles in the legs from the previous day.
"My teammates and I were completely covered in mud from head to toe and it was nice to be finished after a hard couple of weeks of racing and training. Also, seeing Charlie (Aevolo's unofficial team mascot) every day made everyone happy no matter what!"
Tyler Stites - "It was so good to see the guys again! We put in some hard training miles, worked on our race craft, and had a lot of fun times. Racing four stages in less than 48 hours was also a new experience with 250km on Saturday. I'm excited to see what we can do at Armed Forces and Nationals."