Sunday, December 11, 2005
Trek Trip
Trek Trip
Erin and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to the Madison, Wisconsin and the worldwide headquarters location of Trek Bicycle, Corporation. In fact, it has been such a busy week that I have neglected the blog, but I will make it up to the faithful readers by posting some good photos in the archive section this week.
So, after landing in Madison, in a snowstorm, I found out that I DID have good reason to be nervous about such a slippery landing. Just hours after our own plan landed in Chicago a huge plan overshot the runway and ran into the highway killing a child in a car on the road and injuring a few people onboard. Thankfully, it wasn’t worse.
Poz picked Erin and me up with Sue, and our new teammate, Lea. We checked in at the hotel and went to meet the Bontrager product man and former Trek/VW team manager, Tyler Pilger, for a beer.
Next, we went out to a downtown grill for dinner with Zap, followed by the Rock and Roll with Bob Roll Christmas party that started at the flagship Trek Concept Store and later moved to a nearby bowling alley. It was really funny watching Bobke getting mobbed by the crowd. We managed to stay under the radar and enjoyed checking out the shop. They had some super cool murals and a floor with inlaid chain rings and bike tracks. Wow, that place was dialed in.
Bowling was a blast. We met up with Zap for a Team Trek showdown and found out why Zap is the boss when he kicked our butts. I was having good game, and for a change could keep the ball out of the other lanes. I actually scored pretty high, but Zap dug deep into his bag of tricks for 3 strikes and 2 spares. We all thought Erin was going to win until her game fell apart in her last two turns. But she still gave Sue and Lea a run for their money.
The next day was way busy!
We met with the Project Managers and they told us about next year’s product and asked us about feedback on the bikes, shoes, equipment, clothes, gloves, and bikes Pheww! Two managers would leave and two more would come in. It is great to apply our real world experience to help them improve the products.
The highlight of the day was some super fly ultra top-secret stuff that I can’t talk about, but lets just say it is the bomb.
We broke for lunch, the, Chris Peck took us on a fast factory tour that ended with our meet and greet at the new Trek Gym. While I was busy signing autographs, Erin got the chance to squeeze in a nice workout. The facility was awesome and had a jumbo TV playing the Tour in front of an armada of CyclOps spinning bikes and a slew of other new contraptions for making you tired.
After that, we entered command central, the top-secret lair of Trek technology. The famed advanced concept group or ACG, a think tank of brains in charge of coming together on the ideas of the future of cycling. The ACG team’s most notable accomplishments are of course Lance’s bikes and gear for the tour.
We took a break back to the hotel where I worked out in the fitness room.
Then went to a company Christmas party and rubbed elbows with all the great people at Trek. We wrapped the night up by meeting the owner of Trek, John Burke.
It was tiring, but a very productive trip to the place where it all comes together, Trek.
Gotta Run JB
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