Winter Road Camp: Seven Days, 400+ Miles, and Friends from Across the Country

From Coach Ignacio: Building community. Making friends. Meeting new people. Encouraging each other to believe in their goals for the upcoming seasons. These are just some of the goals of our Winter Break Road Camp at BEYOND Racing. We want to inspire young people to believe that they can do anything, and we know that building a support network for them is a critical piece of success. That network includes like-minded riders who can help each other normalize the process. The cycling world is still a tight-knit community and sometimes it can feel isolating. We created this camp to help young riders meet others who are striving just like them and love bikes too.

This year we invited friends from all over the country to enjoy the beautiful riding Tucson has to offer this time of year. Twelve participants joined us, two of them young women and two of them new team members from Hermosillo, Mexico.

We rode seven straight days, and many riders covered over 400 miles in about 25 hours. It was a huge week for everyone, maybe the biggest week they have ever done, but we did it together. Every rider learned that they can do a little more than they thought possible, and they did it with friends. Every rider who committed to this block now has a lifelong memory with other riders from all over the country. Taking on challenges with others and working through them is how we build confidence, and I am super proud of the work we did together.

From Coach Kim: Our invitational junior winter camp was an amazing week, giving our kids the chance to train hard and ride with juniors from all over the country who they'll get to race with all season at national events. It was awesome to see everyone step up and lean into a big week of crazy-hard rides.

Two standouts for me were Louis, who showed up on day six of camp and, despite the fatigue, rode like a champ and didn't let it affect him mentally, and Olivia, who showed up every day and gave it her 100%. After a tough day on Lemmon, she listened to her body, recovered, and was able to show up the next two days and crush it.