As you may know, I don’t own a Trek but do ride some Bontrager components. I had also only been to the Trek store in Michigan Ave downtown prior to Thursday. That did not stop me from being continually impressed by Trek. The Highland Park location is huge. Partly due to the fact that it also houses a Vision Quest training facility as well. I was immediately impressed be the magnitude — and there was a lot of awesome old US Postal/Lance Armstrong memorabilia on display.

The event served as a benefit to ATA members and as a social get-together. The presentation by Ventura was to be the highlight (despite the bicycle powered blender’s best efforts).

small bike or big blender?

He went on to explain Vision Quests’ mission as well as telling some very interesting stories about providing commentary on the Tour de France for VS. It made me, and hopefully everyone else in the audience, even more excited to see what unfolds in July (Contador has it locked!).

I have known people to use Vision Quest for winter training programs and they all spoke very highly of them. During the Q & A portion Robbie also mentioned that the spectrum of instruction they offer at VQ includes lessons on riding in a pack. It made me think back to my first Hillsboro, last year, when I was in a chase group without any of my own teammates. The two Vision Quest riders in the pack were able to keep the paceline organized despite alot of other riders’ inabilities. It really solidified my opinion of them as a class-act — and now I know why.

Overall the event was great! Next time maybe I’ll get to tell Robbie a bike racing story; like about the time I saw him jump a curb on Zipp 808’s at last year’s Glencoe Grand Prix!