Gold Medalist, San Anselmo-Based Pro Cycling Squad Set Up Camp

After a quiet, wet winter, it’s that time of year again - when professional cycling gears up for the oncoming season.

Races start to appear on the calendar, teams finalize their schedules, and racers start to fine-tune their fitness and their goals. An integral part of any professional cycling team’s preparation for the competitive season is team camp.

Team camps are often at least a week long, allowing all the riders to spend quality time with each other as well as their staff and sponsors. They train together, eat together, sleep and wake together, all the while learning, bonding, and forging the ties that are imperative for a team’s success. It is a chance for sponsors to educate the riders on products and equipment, and for staff to lay down rules and expectations.

In short, team camp lays the groundwork for the grueling and exhilarating season ahead.

Later this month, Mill Valley will be the site of the Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty12 Women’s Professional Cycling Team camp. (Full disclosure: I work part-time for the team.) Founded and managed by Nicola Cranmer of San Anselmo, the team has a unique and tireless interest in its riders achieving the highest marks on an international stage. Team members include multiple national champions, world-record holder Lauren Tamayo and Olympic Gold Medalist Kristin Armstrong.

In an exciting move, the team will host a special VIP day, for which the general public can register in advance to ride with the team and even join them for dinner. This is a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the true stars of the sport, as well as see exactly how much goes into running a successful, professional cycling team.

Armstrong, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics, has come out of retirement to race again with an eye on the 2012 Games in London. In 2009, after finishing her career while on the Cervelo TestTeam, she made the switch from professional racer to Director Sportif of the Peanut Butter team, and guided them to dozens of titles and innumerable wins. Armstrong is now returning to the bike and riding for the team under new Director Sportif Giana Roberge.

“I am really looking forward to camp and the opportunities it will give us to bond as a team,” she said. “And I am excited to work with Giana, who is such a champion of and for the sport.”

Roberge, herself a former professional cyclist, also has a wealth of experienceas a team director. She lead the former Saturn Team to an internationally dominating presence on the circuit, and is looking forward to helping the women of Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty12 achieve together, and in their own rights as individuals.

“I am very excited to be working with a team with this caliber of athletes," Roberge said. "Nicola Cranmer and Kristin Armstrong have done an incredible job laying the groundwork to make this team one that can translate each athlete's Olympic dreams into reality. It was an incredible honor to have Nicola ask me to return to the director's position, which I held for the early months of the 2008 season when the team was starting out as Proman/Paradigm. And yes, this is a special team. The support this team has from the widespread fan base, to the sponsors, to the staff, is impressive. It makes for a cohesive unit that is unrelenting in its drive to succeed.”

The team and staff will be based at their sponsor hotel, the Larkspur Hotel in Mill Valley. The VIP ride will be held on Feb. 26 and will be supported by team sponsor in San Anselmo. Dinner after the ride will be held at Frantoio restaurant at the Larkspur Hotel. The meal will include authentic Italian cuisine that is both organic and locally produced, and special Italian and California wines will be served.

Register early. While the ride is open to unlimited participants, dinner is limited to the first 40 registrants. As Roberge puts it, one day of fun for you can go a long way for these athletes.

“In the capacity to which we are able, and on all fronts that are possible for our team, we will support our athletes in their Olympic pursuit," she said. "However, this takes money, and we are running on a small and grossly disproportioned budget for what our athletes' dreams require to become reality. As a believer in this team and each rider's potential, I beseech you all to join us on February 26th and become part of the Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 quest for Gold.”

More details and registration info can be found here.