Hello everyone from sunny California, I’m writing from Agoura Hills where I arrived yesterday for my weekend with the Team BMC training camp. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite sometimes as it will give me a chance to meet all of the riders and staff, get some valuable feedback and of course ride with the boys.

After a delay leaving Atlanta and typical Los Angeles traffic heading to the hotel, I arrived at the team hotel around 9pm. I got to hang out with most of the riders and staff as they were finished from a long day of riding and meetings. These camps are not only about training but also involve a lot of details such as media training, nutrition, clothing fit, bike fit programs and the list goes on and on. With such a big organization (total of 64) planning is of the essence to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible and that goes for suppliers such as us as well.

We are super excited to be sponsoring the team as with the world class riders and organization it can easily catapult us to the next level. Having Riders like George, Cadel Evans and Allesandro Ballan will quickly put us on the world stage and from seeing the excitement of the first race and recent camp coverage we are well on our way. Part of our responsibility sponsoring the team is the obvious, Team kits and lots of them. Thousands of Caps, headbands, bennies, winter hats, 4 types of base layers, 4 styles of short sleeve jerseys, 4 styles of vests, long sleeve jerseys, arm warmers, 3 styles of riding jackets, 3 types of rain jackets, skinsuits, bibs shorts, Roubaix shorts, tights, warmers, 4 styles of shoes covers, thousands of pairs of socks, 4 styles of winter gloves, 2 styles of summer gloves and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Where things get complicated is outfitting the staff with all clothing they might need for all conditions, Dress Shirts, Vests, Merino wool G Coat (very popular) jogging suits, tech t-shirts, casual wool socks, ball caps, podium stickers, musette bags, fleece jackets, rain jackets, ski jackets, Hincapie Denim, winter caps, polo shirts, casual nylon shorts, compression products, core workout tights, podium pants, Summer short sleeve dress shirts, 4 pieces of luggage etc. If that doesn’t seem complicated enough there is also the layer of sizing for 64 team and staff members, printing, exact colors, embroidery and you can see this can quickly become quite the project. Thankfully we have an amazing crew at the factory in Colombia as well as in Greenville that ensure the process goes as smoothly as possibly. The feedback from my individual rider and staff meetings has been great and everyone is excited to be supporting the brand all I ask is that if they have a complaint not to bring it up to George the morning of Roubaix or after 17 stages of the tour as it might not get addressed too quickly.

Thanks for reading

Rich