Soulsport Cycling & Endurance

Our Sports & Team Structure

SEASONS OF ENDURANCE: OUR SPORTS

Fall -- Cyclocross Racing (pre-season Nordic Skiing).
Winter -- Nordic Ski Racing (pre-season Cycling).
Spring -- Road Bike Racing.
Summer -- Mountain Bike & Road Racing.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
Our team concept has undergone a recent genesis due to the merging of several distinct entities and through this a new idea for its organization has emerged. Instead of the traditional Elite team-Club team formula, we have decided to focus on a Racing-based versus Training-based design and have added a Club Squad for anyone who wants to join regardless of their level and experience: friends and family, shop patrons and sponsors, etc. Our mission is still the pursuit of our passion for cycling while building friendships and team rapport, and to help provide a network of support for those who have racing and fitness goals.

1- The Race Squad: Simply put, this is the group that races most consistently and is getting the team name out into the racing community. These teammates spend a great deal of their personal time and energy racing and training, and they provide our sponsors and team with a valuable level of legitamacy and exposure. We all want to be a part of a successful team, but keep in mind that at Soulsport we measure that success through our racing results as well as the amount of good times we generate.

2- The Training Squad: Equally formidable cyclists, but is composed of the type of riders who do not commit to racing day-in and day-out for whatever reason. These teammates are passionate about the sport and they love to ride and train, and they have the fitness to back it up. These are valuable members because they could become the true heart and soul of the team, but also because they bring fresh legs to the team rides and the help keep it real.

3- The Club Squad: The rest of us. Those who want to be a part of our team and our program through participation and/or via their support of all kinds. They want to sport the team kit and belong to a great group of like-minded cyclists, as well as to pick up some of the energy and skills from those who are more experienced. This group is likely made up of those who are most passionate about cycling but either cannot or do not wish to commit to racing and/or training at the highest levels.

Taking Care of Business

Our Business is Your Business!

Seriously. We understand that in order to achieve our ultimate goals of developing athletes into quality athletes and people, we need to develop a certain amount of infrastructure and support to serve as our launch-pad for success. Each serves the other and we propose to develop an endless cycle of success: if we win we are taking care of our sponsors; if we can find sponsors who partner with us then we are better able to win... its that easy.

We are currently seeking Northwest-area businesses who are interested in partnering with a true Northwest community builder so that we can achieve our goals of improving our communities through the development of young and adult alike. We recognize that our passions can be transformational in nature and that they are sustainable lifestyles which can positively effect both the individual and the community. Bicycle racing is about teamwork with a focus on the individual -- take responsibility for your own actions and in doing so, improve us all!

The Future & our Racing Goals

The Soulsport team has been around and growing steadily for 4-years now, but its finally time to step it up in 2011! Our goal is to pick-up a full complement of sponsors this Spring and be ready to unveil the new team before Cyclocross season starts this Fall.

We are in the process of finalizing our secondary supporting sponsors and will be submitting our jersey order right away, and until then we will try to organize the team a bit more so that we can all benefit from our combined resources that are available and so that we can be as fit as possible and achieve our individual and collective goals.

During the Cross season this Fall we will be working hard on next years team development so that we can continue with the progress and team exposure made during Cyclocross. By early Spring '09 we should be firmly planted into the NW cycling community, have beefed up our racing and training roster, have secured an amazing amount of team support and resources through our sponsorships, and will be set up for success and a season of fun and fitness.

A Few Goals for the Elite Cyclocross Squad in '08:
--To have a big turnout and team "basecamp" at the entire Seattle series races as well as major NW races. Basecamp will include a team "pit" for warming up, fueling up, and getting tuned up.
--To make an impact at Seattle Cyclocross series races in a variety of races.
--To bring new junior races on board and provide the support necessary to help them learn and grow.
--Attend a few Portland Cross-Crusade races and show "the other" Veloce shop what the real Veloce is all about (Veloce Cycling is Doug's old team from PDX).
--Some personal goals: Portland Cross-Crusade race wins; US Grand Prix of Cyclocross: 6-National level races, Oct-Dec; Star-Crossed: National-level race result, Redmond, WA. Cyclocross National Championships 2008: December, Kansas City, Kansas.

Soulsport Cycling is Eco Velo

The Soulsport Endurance programs' United States Cycling Federation (USCF) name is Eco Velo, and is a name that we don't take lightly. We chose the name to represent our commitment to being as eco-friendly as possible in practice and through promotion.

Our sports are human powered and so by nature produce a relatively low carbon footprint, but the travel involved in racing is intensive and we want to do something about it. Not only will we commit to doing our own carpooling and riding to races when possible, but we are committing to changing the entire Northwest racing scene by developing and hosting a "Rideshare to Races" website where racers from throughout the region can network with each other regarding carpooling.

We also want to promote other eco-friendly businesses in our communities and want to help promote them as much as possible by partnering with them in some way: by stamping their logo on our jersey and our website is one way to get the word out to the bicycling community, but there are other ways to more actively promote these messages that we are keen on exploring with each individual business.

Re: A Day at the Beach

The third installment of Seattle CX came to Silver Lake on Sunday and in stark contrast to last week, was sunny and dry. Long beach runs, tight twisties in the woods, and off camber run-ups with barriers made for an exciting day for the Soulsport crew. Here's a few pics to show the day.

Mental Calculations:
6 laps
~20 turns per lap
get through each corner 1.5 seconds faster and I'm at 180...
two run-ups per lap over 6 laps
12 runs ups done faster could get me 60 seconds....
Must go faster everywhere, be more technically proficient and seek small gains relentlessly. CX is death by a thousand cuts, losing a second or two here and there adds up to a big, big gap.

(by JA on 10/1)