Ex ABRTer Chris Larsen arranged to have part of the team stay with his grandparents, while the others stayed closer to the top of the Blue Ridge, at Wintergreen resort. While not all elite and elite dev team members could attend, the team had an excellent turnout with:
Chris Larsen (no longer with ABRT)
Chip Hoover
Eric Krause
Nat Thompson
Yanni Papadopolous
Brian Fouche
Stephen Koeble
Paul Beyer
Mike Hefner
Lance Lacy
Ali Meller
Supported by Kyle Jones and Doug Milliken.
The wheelsucker feels honored and privileged to be a member of the elite dev team, and is not entirely sure how he made it onto the team, and worries about being able to hang with this crowd, some of whom are young enough to be his sons.
Almost everyone managed to arrive Thursday evening, enjoying the freshly falling snow on the trip down. The drive up the side of the Blue Ridge up to Wintergreen resort was impressive. The wheelsucker was trying to decide if the gradient was 15%, 18% or 20%, all while trying to stay on the road, while following Mike Hefner (aka Hef2) up the road.
Chip had arranged for the Wintergreen resort condo; it was quickly apparent that most team members (those who arrived in time to score beds) were not going to be "roughing it".
How hard can this be?
A team bike really adds to the decor
Lance makes himself comfortable
Those arriving earlier scored beds, others did not 
The view from the loft suite
Nutrition is important to elite team members
Do NOT mess with Hef2!
Team members awoke Friday morning to find several inches of fresh powder on the ground, balcony, trees and roads. After some quick phone calls with those at Larsen’s grandparent's ranch, Plan A (a long hard ride with amazing climbs) evolved to Plan B, then Plan C and finally Plan CV2. 
Is that two inches? Three inches? More?
Winter wonderland?
This is a cycling camp?
Plan C Version 2 was hike a section of the Appalachian Trail, specifically a hike called "The Priest", and described as "Hike the toughest part of the Appalachian Trail: This is the arguably the hardest section on the Appalachian Trail with a 3,000 ft vertical rise in about 4 miles." See: http://www.trailheadfinder.com/trail_editor/show/205 for more information.
What fun! A hike!
Plan CV2
Though not in the Burma jungle, this hike was a full-on "Bridge on the River Kwai"-style death march up the side of a mountain, in wet slippery snow, and then a race back down. With the possible exception of Chris Larsen, who seems to enjoy hiking and apparently does a lot of it, and who felt so strongly about cycling in the cold rain that he left the camp early Saturday morning and went home, just about everyone on the team swears they will never go hiking again.
March or diePicture yourself hiking up the mountain at a threshold-crossing-into-VO2-max pace, soaked with sweat, muscles-not-used-in-cycling in pain, perhaps wearing only running shoes and plastic bags on your feet, and then racing back down the hill, trying to cut corners on the switchbacks to pass a few team mates.
Paul wore socks, plastic bags and running shoes!
Chip cannot go any further
The wheelsucker at the top
The rock formation known as "The Priest"The wheelsucker – who as someone later pointed out should have taken advantage of any wisdom his advanced age had provided him – got caught up in this, and found himself running down the trail in pursuit of an agile, fit 23 year old. The agile fit 23 year old disappeared around a corner, stepped off the trail for a quick pee, and stayed silent as the wheelsucker went tearing by, risking twisting an ankle or falling at every step. By the bottom of the trail near the parking area, after sliding into a creek, falling several times, and covering his jeans in mud, the wheelsucker was nearly crawling with his back and every muscle in his legs reminding him that he had been foolish. But he was first back to the cars.
After the drive back to Wintergreen (for those staying there) everyone had trouble climbing out of Kyle's car and walking the short distance to the condo. The wheelsucker self medicated with ibuprofen, Goslings Black Seal rum and red wine (for medicinal purposes only).
The stronger ones made it to the hot tub, the rest collapsed in the condo
After a shower and short rest the wheelsucker was barely able to make it up the steps to Kyle’s car for the ride to Chris' grandparent's ranch, and dinner. But dinner was worth the effort, and several more glasses of red wine did seem to ease the stiffness in the wheelsucker's legs. While all the food was both excellent and plentiful, some of those participating were particularly taken with the extensive dessert selection.
It was a pleasure for the wheelsucker to meet the team members he did not already know, and everyone really enjoyed dinner and hanging out. Major kudos to Chris' grandparents for hosting many of the team for the weekend, and everyone for Friday dinner.
Saturday morning was harsh; everyone had stiffened up overnight. The wheelsucker was hobbling around getting ready, but noticed that Paul was having at least as much trouble walking up and down stairs.
Saturday breakfast at Wintergreen
The boys looking forward to a rideIt was just above freezing, and pouring with rain. The plan-for-the-day evolved into: meet at the ranch and ride from there. Strong man Doug Milliken decided to ride his bike to the ranch (this was a 35 minute drive by car!) and set off down the side of the Blue Ridge on his bicycle.
The ranch is at the end of a gravel/dirt road, so riders all looked like cyclocross racers even before they got to the paved road. The team headed out in a double paceline with the leaders taking short one minute-or-so pulls. Very soon after leaving, the team met Doug, who joined in. The wheelsucker noted that his socks were soaked through after ten to fifteen minutes of riding. The route was rolling initially, and the wheelsucker was able to suck it up and hang on the short climbs, but when the team hit the first climb longer than a couple of minutes he and another rider went OTB. The downhill on the other side was a series of switchbacks which felt very slippery in the pouring rain, so the two riders took it very easy descending and then worked hard to catch back on, with help from Kyle driving the SAG wagon. Once back on everyone was fine until the second longer climb which once again saw the same two riders off the back, chasing a third up the road that was losing contact. At the top of the climb Kyle and the SAG wagon were waiting and four riders took the opportunity to change some clothes in an effort to restore feeling in extremities. This took long enough that they decided they would not be able to catch on chasing, so they went down the climb the way they had come up, short cutting the route slightly. Once all back together, the team was hammering along in the pouring rain until the right turn towards Wintergreen. At one point the team crossed paths with the Coppi squad, who were also having a training camp that weekend. Everyone who was staying at the ranch except Chip, Eric and Stephen skipped the turn and kept going for the ranch, but Chip, Eric, Stephen, Mike Hefner, Ali Meller and Lance Lacy made the right turn and started up. The wheelsucker was miserable, he was soaked through, colder than he had ever been, and feeling the effects of the Friday hike and trying to stay with the elite team on the climbs earlier in the ride. Other riders were not much better, and one by one riders dropped out and jumped into the SAG wagon. The wheelsucker had no power left and was going slow and easy hoping to finish, and the gap between Chip, Eric, Stephen, Mike and the wheelsucker opened.
The riders came around one curve and found a fan dressed in a cockroach suit cheering them on from the side of the road. Check out the video.
omigod! That roach is enormous!
Then Stephen joined Paul and Lance in the SAG wagon, and it disappeared to ferry them up to the condo, leaving Chip, Eric, Mike and Ali on the climb. By the time the SAG wagon returned, Ali was more than ready to bail, and jumped into Kyle’s car to warm up while Kyle put the bike on the roof rack. Chip, Eric and Mike each made it to the top and rode to the condo. Kudos to these guys, it wasn’t just a very tough climb, the conditions were ridiculous, with pouring rain in near freezing temperatures, and very limited visibility (in the clouds). The only other rider who made it up the Wintergreen climb was ironman Doug Milliken, who had split with the team (recall that he had ridden to the ranch) and headed back at the Wintergreen turn. He made it most of the way up but managed to break his rear derailleur shortly before the summit, so disappeared in search of a bike store. Once back at the condo, the wheelsucker started self medicating with Goslings immediately, even taking his glass into the shower with him. After soaking in a hot bath, and several does of ibuprofen and Goslings, the wheelsucker regained enough strength to put some clothes on and make it down the stairs to the living room to sort through wet clothes.
Dry shoes are a must have!
Dinner at Wintergreen was a couple of hours later. The team hung out at the condo after dinner, with an epic Wii tournament and Hef2 playing his Wii guitar.
The Sunday forecast was for more of the same, so the plan was to drive north towards 66, hoping to get a ride in, north of the storm. The first convoy arrived in Sperryville to find it raining almost as hard as on Saturday, so everyone bailed and went home. The wheelsucker did get in a rainy cold recovery ride with Doug Milliken, the Doetsch and James, once back on the Annapolis area.
This was a very interesting weekend for the wheelsucker. The team has some very strong riders. Yanni is a big strong Jens Voight type who’s only claimed weakness is longer-than-five-minute climbs; this is of course a major concern in MABRA racing. If there are any long climbs, Brian Fouche is going to gap everyone, the others seem strong all rounders, and Hef2 clearly has the strength to get the last points he needs to cat up to 2 very shortly.
Team Latitude/ABRT looks pretty good at the cat 1-2 level. The wheelsucker is less clear on how the remaining cat 3s on the dev team will do in cat 3 racing. Few of the masters riders were there, and it is not clear to the wheelsucker if any of the masters riders are going to try to win the 35+ BAR, though winning a number of races should not be a problem with the masters riders on Team Latitude/ABRT.
Thanks very much to Kyle and Doug for supporting the team. Having a warm SAG wagon full of dry clothes made all the difference on Saturday, and the cockroach costume was priceless.
OK, despite the tongue-in-cheek whining... While the weather may not have been ideal for cycling, it was a great weekend with the team, members now know each other a lot better, have a better idea of what each team member can do, and had fun together.
CSC camp: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/nov08/nov26news2
Liquigas camp: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/dec08/dec03news
