Team TIAA-CREF spent their off-day (Tuesday) during 'Philly Week' speaking to students Conshohocken Elementary School in Philadelphia, USA. In two assemblies, racers Chad Hartley, Taylor Tolleson and Brad Huff, as well as mechanic Damian Shanks and soigneur Lara Pate explained professional cycling to the kids, and used it to reinforce the year's academic lessons.
Chad Hartley got things rolling in both sessions by talking about all the countries in which the team races, prompting a deluge of questions. Next to speak was Lara Pate, whose husband Danny finished in second place in last year's Philadelphia race. She focused on the nutrition of professional racers and demonstrated how they eat their lunch in the midst of a six-hour race. Brad Huff, fresh off an epic 80 km breakaway in Saturday's CSC Invitational in Arlington, Virginia, next spoke about teamwork.
Mechanic Damian Shanks impressed the crowd when he compared one of the team's racing bikes to one of the student's bikes that had been brought to school just for this occasion. Shanks explained that the team has 100 bikes that each weigh half of what the child's bike weighed, and cost $6,000 apiece. Finally, a very banged-up and stitched-up Taylor Tolleson explained how wearing a helmet probably saved his life in a bad crash he suffered in Sunday's Triple Crown race in Lancaster.
The student's questions were varied. Some were easy, such as "have you ever raced in China?" (Huff races there next month). Others showed that the children clearly grasped what the racers were teaching. One child asked, "If one person on a team wins a race, does the whole team win?", which the team used as a springboard to explain diversity and working together for a common goal.
Some questions, though, required more diplomacy among a mixed audience of seven and eight year-olds. Brad Huff's response to the question of how riders go to the toilet during a race was, "we've learned all kinds of neat tricks to go while we're riding."
Afterwards, the team signed autographs for the students underneath the giant banner they had painted to welcome the team. The banner will be hung beside the course on the Manayunk Wall during Sunday's race.
