By Luke Seemann | Mar 17, 2008

Another fantastic training camp in San Luis Obispo, Calif., entered this books this morning when our red-eye flight finally touched down in Chicago. Over eight days, 33 of us rode almost 500 miles in about 30 hours of riding time. That included several monster days in the mountains, totaling more than 38,000 feet of climbing. (For comparison, one would have to repeat Chicago's most fearsome climb -- the lakefront overpass at 47th Street -- approximately 950 times to get a similar workout.) Among the many highlights was the chance to breakfast with former XXX Racing-AthletiCo member Rebecca Much and the women of the Webcor Builders professional cycling team, who happened to be training in San Luis Obispo and were using our hotel to fuel up each morning. A timely delivery from Pactimo meant we could ride in our great-looking 2008 uniforms. Our pockets were full of Clif product the entire trip, and many of our handlebars sported the familiar yellow monitors of PowerTap, thanks to our generous sponsor Saris. Evenings were spent poring over charts and figures, admiring the new personal wattage records we were breaking. Also helping us along the way were Troy and Mike of Mission Bay Multisport. Not only were they fun and spirited riding companions, but they provided invaluable mechanical and automotive support when they weren't on the bike. But most of all we are thankful for our coach, Randy Warren, who makes this trip possible each year. Attendance at this camp is truly one the biggest benefits XXX Racing-AthletiCo offers its members, and thanks to Randy's knowledge and hard work, it gets bigger and better every year. Some of us are a little sunburned and others are eager to let the massage therapists of AthletiCo go to work on their weary legs, but thanks to camp, all of us are more ready than ever to tackle the 2008 racing campaign. We're better athletes, and more important, we're better teammates.