podiuminsight.com

Catching up with Team TIBCO’s Amber Rais

Posted on 04. Jun, 2009 by stephanie in interviews

Amber Rais at the very wet 2009 Amgen Tour of California Women's Criterium

Team TIBCO’s Amber Rais is one busy rider. Now in her fourth year as a professional, and based in Austria, she divides her time between Europe and racing here in the US. I caught up with this very talented rider at the Sugar CRM Memorial Criterium in Morgan Hill, CA to see how the year has been for her. There have been many exciting developments for Amber and Team TIBCO in 2009.

Thoughts about the changes in Team TIBCO….
The whole team infrastructure changed a lot with some of the staff. Linda (Jackson) brought on Jeff Corbett as our assistant director. He has been directing us in the road. Jeff Sobul was brought on to do our marketing and communication work. Linda has been able to focus more on the fundraising and sponsor relations. That has dramatically changed the structure of the team with the addition of the fact that we have added new riders. It introduces a whole new dynamic.

It has definitely been a change not having Linda as the DS. Jeff is a much different personality than Linda. It has streamlined the whole process though. She does not have to go back and forth between her manager hat and her director hat. She can be making decisions as a team manager, owner, and overall director and then Jeff is the one making the calls on the road. In that sense it has been a real blessing because Jeff can really focus on what we are doing on the road. It has been a huge stress release for team management and that trickles down to the team.

Amber Rais (Tibco) crashed during Stage 1 of the 2009 Redlands Bicycle Classic, the Beaumont Road Race

Team tactics in 2009….
This year the structure of the team is very different. We have a lot of riders with very similar strengths. What that does is gives us the advantage of numbers. When you have the advantage of numbers you really want to us that to the max by being really aggressive. It doesn’t do you any good if you have a ton of really good riders and not using them constantly to put stress on the other teams. I think that’s been a big part of the aggression you are seeing out there. Last year’s crew built up a lot of momentum….it’s just carrying through this year….even with the different people. It’s all part of the same trajectory so we have a lot to thank last year’s riders for this year in building that momentum and for creating these new situations. There are a lot of lessons learned last year that have been applied this year. Linda built this team from the ground up and each year she has built a positive momentum.

Racing in Europe….
Linda’s ultimate goal is to have the team race full time in Europe. In the meantime a lot of the riders go to Europe and race for the National team. Alison Starnes raced in Europe as part of the women’s development program. I went over along with Kat (Carroll) for the spring races. I get questioned a lot about the difference between racing here and racing in Europe. It’s actually hard to make a comparison. It is simply really, really different. The skills you learn here at the NRC level is similar but not the same as racing in Europe. The style and the courses are very different. When I went over for the Tour of Flanders I never raced over cobbles before. I have ridden over them but never raced. It was so hard! The day before the race we previewed the course….pre-rode a couple of the cobbled stone sections, one climb that was relatively short, and then two flat sections for about 2-3K a piece. I thought at that time, “Okay, this is no problem. I am a big rider I can do this.” We were just pre-riding the course and we were just riding and my body felt like I finished a three hour race. Just the gyrations and trying to hold your course as you go over the cobbles….it was hard. Now add being in a race and that you are with 100 women chomping at the bit to kill each other….it was amazing! Nothing that you do here prepares you for that. On the other hand, a lot of European racers who have primarily raced there come over here and try the US crits and they are not used to that style of riding. It does take an adjustment period. I think the challenge for US riders is that you go over get adjusted but then have to come back and race too. Riders like Amber Neben and Kristen Armstrong have been doing this for years now and they have no adjustment periods. They can jump from one race to another while the rest of us are working on getting there. Team TIBCO would like to get where Amber is in racing in Europe and the US. We would like to have an infrastructure in Europe.

Amber Rais chasing the break at the SugarCRM Memorial Day Crit

If you ask Linda if she would like TIBCO to be #1 in the world like Columbia-High Road….it doesn’t matter what it is…Linda would like to be #1. Right now our focus is the NRC and as we build the momentum our focus will include Europe.

The umbrella goal for the American women is to also prepare for the Olympics. In the Olympics you are racing the top women in the world. Those are the field you see in the world cups. Linda would like us prepared to ride those races.

Living and training in Europe…
There has been an advantage to living and training in Europe but not in ways I would have expected and not in ways I really noticed until this year. It was a major challenge to move there…to make the adjustments culturally. I went through some up and downs when I first moved over there. I was able to settle into a good rhythm.  When we were in Flanders my fiancé David had come out to watch the race. He was staying with a friend of ours in Gent. The team was based about an hour and half away by train. I thought that since we had a couple of days off I would take the train to Gent and have dinner with David. I don’t speak Dutch but I was able to go down read the train schedule meet David and come back. My team mates were amazed that I did this on my own. I then realized that I have developed this nice comfort level of living in Europe…of moving in and out of different cultures and languages. That comfort level is going to reduce my stress level. It is something surprising that I never would have pictured would be an advantage but I think in the end it will be a really good asset.

Amber will join her team for the Nature Valley Grand Prix, June 10-14.

Amber Rais racing in her hometown at the 2008 Tour de Nez

Tags: amber rais, tibco