Pro Schmo. We all love watching the pros and striving to become better riders by emulating their riding techniques, equipment choices, and training methods, but most of us are not aspiring to become a pro. We just want to get faster in our local time trial, make it to the end of the Tuesday night group ride in the lead group, or maybe even win our state's criterium championship race. But one of the unique things about our sport - unlike the NFL or the MLB - is that once in a while, we can have a chance to ride amongst the pros - to see how we match up against the best of the best.

One such opportunity is on the horizon for one of our design engineers at Saris Cycling Group, and he is going to take us along for the ride. His amateur cycling team, ISCorp Cycling received an invite to race at this year's Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race, a premier cycling event in North America. All of the top domestic pro teams are on the start list - from Toyota United and HealthNet p/b Maxxis to the controversial Rock Racing Cycling team, so we can bet the racing will be fast and furious.

What does it take to be able to ride with the pros? We will be able to answer that question as all 4 of the ISCorp riders will be riding PowerTap SL 2.4-equipped Bontrager Aeolus wheelsets for the 5-day, 6-stage race.  We will track their power data from Stage 1, where riders tackle a fast crit course, to the last stage - the famed Stillwater course, where riders face the ominous Chilkoot Hill, a leg-tearing climb averaging 24% grade.  Along the way they will also tackle 2 road races, one time trial, and a technical crit in downtown Minneapolis.

The race starts on June 11th and goes through June 15th.  To learn more about the event, visit the Nature Valley Grand Prix website. Stay tuned to the CycleOps Power Newsletter and website to find out how they do.