A ride out with “The Cycling Professor”

So via twitter I heard that Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing) – also known as the “Cycling Professor and “The Engineer” was in town to do a one day training camp at Cadence Performance at Crystal Palace London. The “Italian Cycling Expert” – Simone Magherini and I follow him on twitter, and we were shouting out for him during the Olympic Road Race (Leatherhead Hill – shouting out to the “Engineer” in the MTB Firenze jerseys). I also saw him compete in the Olympic Time trial (I was viewing on the St Georges straight) in which he came 5th – just out of the medals. So just for fun and under influence from the “Italian Cycling Expert” I signed up for the one day training camp with the man himself.

It was the hottest day of the year, and I started the day in a typically Italian way with a cappuccino and some light reading.

Caffeine and light reading

The guys at Cadence Performance are great, everyone is more than happy to chat about anything you need – bikes, techniques, as well as try out equipment and ideas. There is a whole range of people there from experts to beginners and everyone is friendly and happy to chat.

A retreat for cyclists, more of a club than a shop, definitely recommended

The day consisted of a couple of hours in the class room, which consisted of some general chat and a Q&A session. There was some interesting insights into the life of a Pro-rider (especially how the rivalry between Mark Cavendish and André Greipel came about). It was a very informative session, especially as Marco had a lot of his data outputs from various competitions (including the London Olympic Time trial).

After the chat session I stuffed some food down me and grabbed some water / energy drink (it was already the hottest day of the year) and we set out for a ride into the Kent country side. I managed to hang onto the group for most of the ride until Marco got us to do a hill climb exercise. Well – after one attempt to keep even close to him I just cracked. (along with quite a few others) and very rapidly fell off the back. The pro guys just go up the hills like they don’t even exist. It is really demoralising to watch him go up to the top and then descend and come past you again as you are struggling to make forward motion. But- as Marco said “It’s my job”.

Thanks to the guys for a great day out.

It was a fantastic day out, beautiful weather, a great crowd and many thanks to Marco Pinotti who lived up to his reputation of the “Nicest guy in the Peloton” – Wishing him luck in the up and coming Tour of Poland. If you want to know more check out his book on Amazon The Cycling Professor There is new bit in the English version about the London 2012 Olympics.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LPBJLK8hOek width=”320″ height=”180″]

I am only holding on, because my legs are about to give way.