Salt Lake Ciity, 2008-12-23

With training camp just weeks away, BMC\’s Louder excited for the season to
start.

Though BMC\’s Jeff Louder has not made a point of getting out of the cold
and snow Utah has offered these last few weeks, he has been pleased with the
results from his creative training regime.

Content to make use of the wintry conditions by snow-shoeing and
skate-skiing, Louder nevertheless is looking forward to returning fully to
riding on the road at the team training camp in California.

How are you coping in the cold; has it been snowing for you since September?

Jeff Louder: Ha, no it hasn\’t been that bad. We had a really nice autumn
here and only in the last two weeks or so has it gotten pretty cold and
snowy. It hasn\’t even been that cold since this past weekend it was
supposed to be way down in the single digits, but we seem to have dodged
that artic air mass. Still too cold to ride on the road much, though!

Do you enjoy the cold weather and what sort of training do you manage to do
in such cold conditions?

JL: I train in the cold because I have to, and I try to get creative. I do
spend some time on the trainer doing intervals, but I like to supplement
that with snow-shoeing and skate-skiing which are both really good aerobic
exercises. I am lucky here in Utah because I have to drive just 10 to 15
minutes to find some really great hiking and other sorts of recreation.

Does being really close to great recreation opportunities which must make up
for the harsh winters?

JL: The weather isn\’t really the worst part about it; since in Salt Lake
we\’re sort of a bowl in the mountains, we get some pretty severe inversion
effects which mean that all the cold air and pollution gets trapped at
ground level, and you can\’t really exercise with that sort of air quality.

Do you have anybody in the area that you train with?

JL: For the last several years I have trained a lot with Burke Swindlehurst.
We like to go snow-shoeing and skate-skiing together, and during the season
we ride together a lot. I ride a bit with Zabriskie when he is in town.
It\’s good that we can ride together because we can keep each other
motivated. He spends this time of year in Southern California, I think, so
he avoids the cold weather in Utah. But you know in the southern part of
the state it can be warm like a little banana belt, so sometimes I\’ll go
down there to get some road riding in even when it is really cold around
where I live.

Do you feel ready for the BMC training camp in January?

JL: I am really looking forward to the camp, especially since it will be two
weeks long. It is hard to be away from my family for that long, of course,
but the long camp gives us a chance to get into a real rhythm and program.
There is always so much outside stuff that you have to do at camps too, that
the shorter camps are often too packed with other stuff to allow for proper
training and recovery. But with two weeks, we can spread out the external
obligations, and still have a chance to concentrate on the riding.

What will be your early season goals?

JL: For the start of the year, the Tour of California is definitely priority
#1 for me. It is one of the biggest races in the US and so we will
certainly be focusing a lot of our efforts there. I will personally be
trying my best to be as fit as possible, though it is a bit of a bummer that
the race is so early in the year. That means that most of our preparation
for it will have had to be done in the winter and mostly alone; we don\’t
have the advantage of racing into shape, so it makes it tougher to be
completely ready. Of course, it comes at the same point of the season for
everyone, so that is a levelling factor at least.

Do you think that races in the US and even Europe are going to have a hard
time dealing with the current economic climate?

JL: Races are always in flux just as teams are always coming and going. We
hope that the good races can make it. It is too bad that Georgia had to be
cancelled for 2009, but considering it has been around for 6 years, that\’s
actually a pretty good run by American standards. Sponsoring a bike race is
comparatively cheap, though so I hope that corporate America will see it
still as a viable form of advertisement. But honestly, the US race
situation seems pretty alive to me. California is still going strong,
Missouri just was upgraded, races are expanding like the one in Oregon
taking over from Mt. Hood, and the Tour of New York seems to be a reality,
so there are many bright points that we can feel hopeful about.