Spirit of the Dragon
I’m in Hong Kong with the new Champion System Pro Continental team, preparing for a flight to Beijing and the official presentation of what is China’s – Asia’s – first pro cycling team. I’ve been engaged to be the MC of the presentation, to be held at the HQ of the Chinese Cycling Association, right at the Laoshan Velodrome – the UCI Track Cycling World Cup begins a day later which will be a terrific bonus.
It’s been exciting to be around the team, to pick up the vibe of new season hope, when all the riders are still fresh and full of dreams for the races to come. The team staff, on the other hand, are in the hardest part of the season, frantically pulling together the myriad pieces that make up a pro team, getting racing equipment across all sorts of borders for coordinated pick up by mechanics and soigneurs.
Watching the team come together is fascinating, seeing things like the individual clothing interview each rider undergoes (“Chamois, thick or thin? Legs and socks, short or long?”), and the group meetings about pension plans and other financial protections the UCI mandates for the athletes at the Pro Conti level.
Equipment note: most pros are going for a thin chamois – I’m going to have to reassess the diapers I’ve been waddling around in….
The boys are some crazy bunch of characters. Only way to put it. Type of team I really love and used to be on. Guys are here that on paper have no business being in the pros, but when you learn their histories, and see the analysis behind the decisions to bring them on board, it all begins to make sense. International does not even begin to describe them: Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, Malaysian, Belgian, USA, Estonian, Swiss, German, Aussies and a Kiwi for good measure.
Making all of these different cultures meld over the intense pressures of a pro racing season is the challenge, and the team management organized one of the team building exercises that have become so popular since Bjarne Riis began doing his commando camps with the old CSC team. This one, appropriately enough, was a Dragon Dancing class.
We entered a Kung Fu temple and Dragon Dance school, where Master Chang organized the team – everyone, riders and staff with the exception of the poor bastard, slaving, sleep deprived mechanics, into rows for a Kung Fu warm-up. Then the team was divided into three groups: flag wavers, drummers and percussion, and the dragon. At first it was giggles and eye rolling, but, like on all teams, the natural leaders emerged and the hierarchy of the team unfolded before my eyes. Jan Kirsipuu, the team veteran (former Yellow Jersey TdF, four stage wins, etc.) who is the elder statesman of the team, a riding coach, was drawn to be the Spirit of the Dragon, the one who leads the team through it’s choreography and controls the tempo of the dance. Director Sportif Ed Beamon was the head flag waver and, in an interesting match, Belgian hard man Gorik Gareyn and the giant, scary Kiwi Clinton Avery vied for head drummer.
After two hours of hard practice, it was show time. Their performance was beautiful. The complicated drumming, the flag dance and the dragon all merged for a coordinated and completely entertaining show. In this, the Chinese Year of the Black Water Dragon, it augurs well for the team’s future.