2024 Spring Blue Ridge
Power Road Camp
Get ready to experience your newest passion
with Hunter Allen and Rockin' PCG Team in
Bedford, Virginia
April 23-28, 2024
"Are you ready to ride over 300 miles, with over 20,000' of climbing, and over 1,100 TSS??? Yes! Cyclists of all levels--from fitness enthusiasts to racers--have been visiting my camps to train for over 26 years!"
-- Hunter
The "brochure" can't even come close to describing all that happens at a PCG Camp. But let's try anyway! There's WKO analysis and season preparation by the master himself. There's daily rides where skills like sprinting, counter-steering, descending(!) and pacelining are taught and practiced. There's on-the-road race scenarios where teams battle it out for all the glory. There's stories from Hunter's many, many years in the industry and as a professional cyclist. There's SAG support, amazing A, B and C Road Groups for different levels, massages, yoga, stretching, on-staff bike mechanics, incredible food, bike fits, rider video analysis... There's just so much!
The goal of this amazing camp is to focus on improving your ride skills and techniques as well as race tactics and strategy--while accurately developing your power profile in TrainingPeaks WKO software and setting up your 2024 season according to your goals! The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains are the perfect place for a spring cycling camp with awesome climbing opportunities, quiet country roads for race scenarios, and it’s the hometown for the Peaks Coaching Group Headquarters!
Welcome To Bedford
Tuesday - April 23
2:30pm- 3:30pm - Check-in for all campers.
4:00 - 5:30 pm- 1.5-hour ride to loosen the legs and make sure your bike is dialed in. We will go over the basics today including riding in a paceline and getting ourselves acquainted! Our backdrop will be the amazing Blue Ridge Mountains and what a sight to take in! Just know you'll be up on those mountains in a few days time!
6:00pm - Dinner- Beale's BBQ right behind the office! Seriously, less than 100' away, Beale's is a brewery with outstanding beers and tasty foods, even some vegetarian options.
7:30pm - 9:30pm -Intro to PCG staff, review of week's agenda and details.
100 HILLS?!?!?!?!
Wednesday - April 24
Breakfast on your own
8:30am - Morning Demo: Pacelining basics and how to sit on your bike.
9:00am - This is the infamous "100 Hills" loop other campers have told you about..... Because 100 hills aren't enough, you are going to the base of the Peaks of Otter and doing a 1-and-5-minute power tests. Hunter is going to give you critical instructions to maximize your power numbers, so listen up! After concluding your testing, we all head out for the 100 hills loop. Seriously, there is NO flat road at all on this loop. Hills range from 100meters to 1kilometer and everything in between. You are going to get in the best hill repeat workout in ever by just riding this loop. We have multiple re-group points along the way, so you don't just ride off into the sunset. In the last 12 miles, we find a "flatish" road to hone our paceline skills and then head back on the tiny country roads of Bedford County to conquer the remaining 24 hills back to world headquarters and a WELL deserved recovery shake, yoga class and lunch. Whew!
Lunch - back at headquarters.
2:00pm - Hunter Allen Group Power File Review
3:00pm - 5:00pm - Power Education
6:30pm - Dinner as a group at our favorite- The Station- It's the old RR train station in Bedford, now a great restaurant.
"The Hundred Hill Loop"
The White Mailbox that Changed Cycling Forever
Just as the small, innocuous supermarket on the road up to the Col de la Madone became the "official" starting point for so many professional cyclists to test themselves against the best, the White Mailbox in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the official starting point for so many of Hunter Allen's industry-smashing testing protocols.
It's a place of history, where Olympians, National- and World-Champions routinely visit to test themselves; both against themselves--and past champions. (The latest just stood on the podium at ITU's Worlds in Lausanne, Switzerland.)
It's the mail box that helped to define an entirely new science of training and racing that has been called the single most-influential development in cycling in the past 20 years.
Campers will get to know the White Mailbox very well--since part of this Spring's camp is to define your power profile through Hunter Allen's testing protocols. All in an effort to understand your phenotype and to help set up the training for your 2024 goals.
And at the top of the climb? The Peaks of Otter--first accurately measured by Thomas Jefferson in 1815 and from where the "Peaks" in "TrainingPeaks com" comes from.
THUNDER RIDGE
Thursday - April 25th
Breakfast on your own
8:30am - Morning Demo: How to do an FTP test! Hunter gives you his now world-famous lecture on how to pace yourself on a 1-hour FTP test.
9:00am - Skills and Cornering. We trundle over to an abandoned parking lot and set up cones to teach you the difference between "steering" and "counter-steering". You'll hone your skills in preparation for the descent off the Peaks of Otter later in the day. You have a monstrous descent coming and speeds can reach over 50mph for the brave and experienced.
We cruise out easily for 20miles to the base of Thunder Ridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway. You'll want to go easy, rest assured, as you are about to do an all-out 1-hour FTP test up a solid and steady climb. This is a unique opportunity and you'll want to take advantage of it. It is not often we can do an hour FTP test on a perfect steady gradient on a super quiet mountain road. It's a 12.5-mile climb and over an hour for most. We will have 3 groups today, and if needed we can even have one group shuttled to base of climb.
After the climb, food, clothes and then speed down the Parkway to the Peaks of Otter. Once at the Peaks, we'll bomb down the road, with sweeping curves, tight corners and steeps. Safety mode ON here.
Six miles home and if the legs are good, it could get spicy...
Thunder Ridge FTP Test Climb (55 miles).
Lunch - Recovery Shakes, and food back at headquarters
2:00pm - Hunter Allen Group Power File Review
3:00pm - 5:00pm - Power Education
6:30pm - Dinner as a group -
We eat Mexican tonight and make sure to have some of the fresh Guacamole!
Thunder Ridge
FTP Test on Legendary Thunder Ridge!
Pros, National Champions, Olympians and Amateurs from all over the world come here to challenge themselves on Thunder Ridge . It's roughly a 12.5 mile climb with grades from 5- to 8-percent. We'll do it!
And the views from the top at 4,000' ? Magnificent !
After our Storming Thunder Ridge post-ride yoga , Hunter and the PCG coaches will help analyze your FTP data in WKO5 and TrainingPeaks. Hunter will then review video footage of everyone's climb and offer individual suggestions in terms of bike fit and climbing strategies .
Sprint Day!
Friday - April 26th
Breakfast on your own
8:30am - Morning demo: Sprint Technique and Position
9:00am - Sprint and Race Scenario Day (30 miles). This promises to be your favorite day! It's everyone's favorite day and I promise, you'll love it too! So much fun! We start out with an easy ride out to our sprint course. We'll spend the day racing up and down this road. You learn the proper sprinting technique, from how to hold your handlebars to how to wobble your bike a maximum force! Small rings, big rings, faster and faster you'll go! Just when you think you are gassed, we break into teams and do some mock races that are about 4k long. Each team has a strategy and a coach and has to stick to it and try to win the race. You will find an extra gear and be going for it!
Cruise home for most of us, but those that have gotten the competitive juices flowing will be pushing the pace for sure.
Lunch - Thank goodness for recovery shakes and compression boots!..... back at headquarters
2:00pm - Hunter Allen Group Power File Review
3:00pm - 5:00pm - Power Education
6:30pm - Dinner as a group - CARBO loading! We eat Italian. Order an extra bowl of pasta. You are going to need it!
*NOTE:
Daily schedules and routes might change due to weather and other factors.
Hunter's Road Gran Fondo
or.....LONG DAY!
Saturday - April 27th
Breakfast on your own
8:00am - Morning demo: course overview and long day strategy. This loop has everything: two major climbs, rolling hills, great descending. The perfect "Kitchen Sink" loop. It's Hunter's favorite Long Day loop and maybe we'll even see who paced themselves well at the end for a spirited final 15miles push home! We start out with a climb up the Peaks of Otter and you'd better pace yourself! We descend down the other side of the mountain using all our descending skills. We roll along the base of the western slope of the mountains for about 30miles meandering on country roads and beside mountain rivers. At mile 55, we hit the second climb of the day up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Longer but not as steep as the Peaks of Otter, this is a great place to really push it at FTP as you get lunch and a break at the top! After our lunch and obligatory photos at the Buena Vista overlook, we roll along the Parkway. We reach the famous 13 mile downhill and if you are in the right group and it's motivated and smooth, you can do a rotating paceline down the whole mountain. It is SERIOUSLY fun, so pay attention and be in that group! We stop with 20miles to go, fill up bottle, drink cokes and red bulls and then head home. For the "A" group, it always gets spicy with about 10 miles to go, so be prepared for those attacks! For the rest of us, it's just enough to finish the day! You will have finished Hunter's Road Gran Fondo! (93 miles total)
8:15am - "B" Group Start
8:45am - "A" Group Start
Lunch - on the road
4:00pm - High Fives all around!!! You did it. Hunter Allen Group Power File Review
6:30pm -
Dinner as a group at The Bedford Social Club!
BREAKTHROUGH DAY!
Sunday - April 28
Breakfast on your own
8:30am - Morning briefing
9:00am - Why is it called "Breakthrough" day? Your legs are tired, your body is tired, your bike is tired. You don't want to ride, but you muster up the courage. You start out and yes, your legs remind you that you just rode 5-6-7 hours the day before. You continue on and pedal up the little hills and soon you find yourself zipping down a country road with a big smile on your face. After our food stop re-grouping point, you find that you feel even better and even want to push the pace... Once home, you get it. You have broken through the glass ceiling of your previous self-imposed limits. You can go harder than you ever thought even when you are tired. You take this lesson home and realize this is what it takes to go to the next level..
Breakthrough Loop (55 miles or 35 miles - two options today)
Lunch - PIZZA!!!!!!! Recovery shakes... back at headquarters
2:00pm - Power analysis wrap up and head home
GENERAL INFORMATION
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SPRING ROAD CAMP? WE ARE HERE TO HELP.
HunterALLEN
Founder and CEO
Experience an unparalleled coaching experience in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains. And learn a thing or two about power.
Paul
OZIER
Peaks Coaching Group Elite Coach
Each athlete is an individual with varying abilities, skills, capabilities, qualities and un-tapped potential. Most athletes have undiscovered potential that is not realized until they have an unbiased, outside view of their talents. It is the 1 and 2% differences that add up to a wealth of improvements for the athlete. I look at each person, learn their talents and their limiters. Each person is a unique work in progress. It is an artform to learn and develop a personalized training structure, so the athlete grows into a well-rounded rider with an array of skills and abilities. Communicating with each other is a critical part of the success. I am an open book of experience, knowledge, and feedback. Sharing what I have experienced
and been educated with over the last 30 years, then seeing an athlete reach a new milestone with a smile on their face is what it is all about.
Whether it is Road Racing, Gravel Racing, Mountain Biking, Gran Fondos, or Zwift, Paul has the passion and experience to help you succeed with your goals.
BT
CJ
“The brochure can't even begin to describe the value of these camps. Hunter starts talking and instructing when we first arrive and doesn't stop until everyone leaves. I thought there would be much more down time like other camps--but thankfully there is not as long as Hunter is talking!”
TD
TRAIN WITH GREAT PRODUCTS AT A DISCOUNT FROM OUR SPONSORS!
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