Anderson going to France with Chipotle

Jan 13, 2012 by editor

PORTLAND — Longtime Oregon racer Jim Anderson has taken a job with Slipstream Sports and will spend most of the upcoming cycling season in Europe working as the head soigneur for the Chipotle Development Team.

Anderson, who has been president of Team Oregon for six seasons and has run the USA Cycling Northwest Athlete Development Camp in Forest Grove for the past three summers, signed a one-year contract to help run a team house in Toulouse, France for UCI Pro Team Garmin-Barracuda’s feeder program.

The concept of a European team house is new for Slipstream’s development team, which has been a staple of the American racing scene for many seasons but will focus on an almost-entirely European program this year. The team has 15 riders who will live in Toulouse throughout the season, with as many as four or five rotating with the U23 national team at any given time.

Chipotle was looking for someone to help out as the head soigneur for the races and also take on a lot of different roles at the house. Anderson, who worked last year with the USA Cycling Development Program’s team house in Izegem, Belgium, brought a unique set of skills to the table, so he contacted the team and got the ball rolling.

“On kind of a whim I e-mailed Chann (McRae, the Chipotle director) and the assistant director Rick Crawford,” he said. “Living in Belgium last year helped a lot, and working as a contractor with USA Cycling, running the camps.”

That e-mail and a follow-up resume detailing Anderson’s experience led to a trip to Durango, Colorado to meet with Crawford.

“I met him and his family and stayed at his house,” Anderson said. “We went to collegiate mountain bike nationals. It was kind of a fun thing. We all went there and got to do some riding. So we pretty much hung out and talked about the team, talked about what their needs were. We got along really great.”

Another interview with McRae eventually led to an offer from the team just before Thanksgiving. Anderson started working on team clothing, etc., on Jan. 1 and next month will leave for France, where he’ll oversee the traditional soigneur racing duties as well as day-to-day life at the team house.

“The traditional soigneur takes care of the riders and also takes care of anything that pretty much touches them, whether it be their food and nutrition or their clothing and helmets,” Anderson said. “But this job is a little different in that I’ll be living with them a lot of the time. The mechanic and I will kind of be running the house. The other directors and Chann will come in here and there. And there will be some other assistant people that will come in. We’ll be developing some house rules and regulations. There will be a rotating schedule for cleaning and cooking.”

Anderson left for Boulder, Colorado this week to work with the team mechanic, preparing materials for the team’s upcoming training camp outside of Austin, Texas. They’ll pack up and drive down to Texas for the camp, which runs Jan. 20-28 . Then they’ll drive back to the home base in Colorado before leaving for France some time in February. The team starts racing in early March with several one-day races and then the Tour of Normandy. The team will return to the states for the national championships in June and then head back to Europe to race through the world championships. Anderson will get several breaks throughout the season, which will allow him to return to Oregon in July and run his fourth Northwest Athlete Development Camp.