The Stillwater criterium has been coined the 'toughest criterium in America.' With its famous (or shall we say 'infamous') Chilkoot Hill averaging 14% grade, it is certainly no walk in the park. The rest of the course offers no reprieve. After racers sprint off the finish line to tackle the 250+ yard climb (think 2.5 football fields), they turn a corner and continue ascending to the top of the course. They then face a screaming descent where they have to navigate 4 90-degree corners at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Good bike-handling skills are essential, and riders have to stay alert as they maneuver their bikes at such high speeds. Plus, riders who stay with the main field, are doing very little coasting to recover.

from Dr. Allen Lim
Today was our last day of our Pyrenees or “Pre-Tour” training camp. For the last ten days, David Millar, Christian VandeVelde, Ryder Hesjedal, and Danny Pate have been finding their form in the mountains just outside of a little ski town called La Molina. At about 6,000 feet in elevation, the town sits just above the beautiful Cerdanya Valley that separates Spain from France. It was the perfect location for what turned out to be a truly productive training camp.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

Progress, we all want to make progress, we all have goals. Yet, many of us may just be working out instead of training. A workout is just about getting out there and feeling great, burning up some calories and “getting it off the list” – nothing wrong with these things. A training session is something more – a training session has a focus, it will take you someplace more efficiently down life’s road. It could be weight loss, it could be a race, an event, or a personal best. To create a training session, instead of just a workout, starts by understanding where you are today, and then creating a plan for a future target. This helps you maximize your time!

by Joanna Zeiger

I have been training with power on the bike for several years now but switched to the PowerTap earlier this year. I knew that the power meter I had been using was measuring too high and was not terribly consistent, so in my preparation for the Olympic Trials I wanted the most accurate information possible to finely hone my biking for that race and subsequent races this summer.

Photo ©: Ryan Staab

Stage 5 of the Nature Valley Grand Prix challenged riders to a 92 mile road race with 83 miles of open road through the Minnesota countryside and 4 2.3-mile finishing circuits. Each time through the circuit, riders had to haul themselves up Mankato's Main Street hill, a .3 mile pitch averaging a 14% grade. In previous years, it was both hard-driving cross winds on the open road and the hill in the finishing circuits that pulled apart the field. This year was no different, but all the riders on the ISCorp team were able to stick with the main group coming into Mankato's finishing circuits. However, staying with the leaders became more difficult on the Main Street climb. We'll take a look at the riders' power data to find out how much damage a .3 mile climb can do.