Check out the in-depth behind-the-scenes article on VeloNews profiling what it takes to get Team Garmin-Transitions going at the beginning of the season, and keep them going through September! Also see former Argyle Armada member Will Frischkorn in his new role.
For back office staff, the weeks leading up to a Pro Tour team’s traditional January training camp are anything but a season of holiday blowouts and coffee rides. To get a sense for the logistical preparation that takes place in advance of the 2010 season, VeloNews visited the Garmin-Transitions service course facility in Girona during the first week in January.
The team’s service course is a central hub; a combination bike shop, storage facility and distribution and logistics center that supplies everything required for a 28-rider ProTour team to wage a ten-month racing campaign. With battles sometimes taking place on three continents in a single day, it’s a mammoth preparatory logistical challenge that requires the rigor and precision of a military supply line.
From the service course facility in an anonymous industrial park on the outskirts of Girona, Garmin-Transitions events and logistics director Louise Donald admits that this time of year, her job is a 24/7 affair. Donald directed logistics for US Postal and Discovery for six years before her current position. The no-nonsense daughter of an English Lakes District farmer works with a staff of some 80 worldwide team employees including Will Frischkorn, who retired as Garmin-Transitions rider last year to take on a logistics role with the team.
