ST Road Show – The Woodlands

The Slowtwitch ice cream truck rolled in to Bike Lane in The Woodlands one week after IRONMAN Texas. Many who came out to this Texas Road Show had raced the previous week, so no group rides or runs were scheduled and instead the itinerary was chock full of local experts presenting on a variety of topics including swim technique, faster transitions, cycling with power, and race day nutrition.

All photographs © Lars Finanger

Local coach and one of the region’s top mountain bikers Nathan Winkelmann, demonstrating a flying mount during his transition clinic.

Who needs running shoes? This guy perfected the art of transitioning into his loafers.

Gemma Hollis is a swim technician based in The Woodlands and provides video stroke analysis through her company PushGlideKick. She provided open water swimming tips and freestyle stroke pointers.

It takes a village to organize and produce these Road Shows. One week after competing at IRONMAN Texas, Steve Hardy and his wife, Ana, took signups for the raffle drawings throughout the day.

Gareth Adams was one of a handful of raffle winners. Adams took home one Slowtwitch's Castelli T1: Stealth aero tops.

Local coaches, including Dana Lyon of FinishStrong Coaching, were on hand raffling off group training plans for upcoming marathon and triathlon races.

UCAN has been an active vendor at many of our Road Shows. Lauren Vogel of UCAN, who competed at IRONMAN Texas last weekend, will be at the Road Show at Austin Tri-Cyclist next Saturday. We’ll drink to that!

Former Marine Preston Hernandez didn't know how to swim seven months ago when he signed up for IRONMAN Texas, but with guidance from Gemma Hollis he completed the 2.4-miles last weekend in 1:37. Hernandez recently purchased a Quintana Roo from Bike Lane and was thrilled to meet Trey from the company.

OutRival Racing Coaches Dawn English and Heather Jorris talked about equipment must-haves and how to use them.

Tim Floyd runs Magnolia Masters, a swim club focused on triathletes, and he shared insights for maximizing your time in the pool. A few times each year Floyd hosts pro camps, and top athletes including Matt Hanson, Lauren Barnett, Lisa Roberts, Justin Daerr, Cody Beals, and Balaz Csoke have spent time in town training under his guidance.

Start them young. Dr. Geoffrey Zubay is a father, neurosurgeon (he performed a successful diskectomy on this writer nearly one year ago), and a handy triathlete, most recently racing IRONMAN Texas last weekend.

In between speakers, attendees visited local coaching groups and clubs, including Kerry Huston and his Be Bionik team shown here, to take advantage of promotions on offer.

The Finish Strong booth was a popular stop as they had the three NormaTec recovery systems available for use.

Amy and Gail from Conroe Triathletes, a local triathlon club, brought lawn chairs and stayed all day.

Ken Thurlow is the General Manager at Bike Lane and he has an ever growing flotilla of “Go See Ken” car window stickers around town.

Dr. Stephen Clouthier (far right) runs a successful chiropractic business in town and spoke about Functional Lab Testing for endurance athletes. Ana Hardy (far left) is the Office Manager at Alternative Health of The Woodlands, Clouthier’s business, and Kirk Noyes (middle) is the Sales Director at Ventum.

Michelle LeBlanc from Mach Five Racing and Karen Ponette from Bala Racing spoke on the topic of race day nutrition. Both LeBlanc and Ponette are multiple-time Kona finishers and long-time coaches in the area.

Brian Leib of Cervelo had his personal S5 on display. He will also be in Austin next weekend at the Austin Tri-Cyclist Road Show

One of the top cycling minds in town is Steve Elliott (seated on left). The Australian, a decorated track and road cyclist, owns and operates VR Cycling Studio, complete with 20 CompuTrainers, and he offers his own power based training plans.

Herb Beimgraben (in striped shirt), owner of Bike Lane, was a gracious host for our Road Show stop.