All work, no play for Caribbean cyclists at Blaine velodrome

Erin Hartwell looked like a guy ready to relax on a beach last Thursday, when he showed up at the National Sports Center velodrome in cargo shorts and flip-flops. But once he arrived, he never stopped working, not even as the sun crept below the bowl-shaped wooden track in Blaine.

The three-time Olympic cyclist is running a Minnesota summer camp of sorts, without the s'mores and singalongs. As the new coach of Trinidad and Tobago's national cycling team, Hartwell brought eight athletes from the tiny Caribbean nation to the thoroughly unfamiliar suburbs of the Twin Cities for a three-week sweat fest. They are still unfamiliar, unless you count the three places where the men have spent nearly every minute since their arrival: the velodrome, the hotel and the nearby Gold's Gym.

"Our coach has us inside, locked up," said Njisane Phillip, who is training six to seven hours a day with his teammates. "The only time we really see anything is when we go on road rides. We passed a little water park the other day, and we told coach we want to go. He said he'll see how it goes."

This is a business trip, after all. Hartwell, 41, was hired in April to prepare the island's cyclists for the ultimate summer experience at the 2012 Olympics. With the London Games only two years away, Trinidad and Tobago has committed more money and resources to its national cycling program in the hopes of sending riders to the Olympics for the first time since 1996.

Hartwell's team competed on a smaller stage last week, in front of perhaps 200 spectators watching the Thursday Night Lights races at the National Sports Center. Though his casual attire made him look like a tourist, he was finishing another 14-hour day managing his athletes' intense schedule of racing and training. And this is not even a peak period.

"Oh, we're not near our max," Hartwell said, just before sending Phillip out for multiple races on a day that also included a morning training ride. "We're two weeks out from competition, so this is a taper camp.

"These are work camps. We're not here on vacation. It's a relative thing; cycling isn't necessarily fun at this level, but it is rewarding. We're here to put in the work, and I think the guys are having a good time doing that."

The 250-meter oval is similar to the track that Trinidad and Tobago will race on later this month, in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico. The Thursday Night Lights series has allowed them to practice racing tactics, and some will make the short trip east to compete in this month's Superweek road races in Wisconsin and Illinois.

When Hartwell proposed the Blaine camp, his cyclists knew nothing of Minnesota. Now, they are raving about the track, and area racers and cycling fans have enjoyed hosting international competitors.

"We're happy to have them," velodrome director Bob Williams said. "The U.S. national team trained here on a number of occasions, and the Italians have been here before. We've found that most international riders like our track, and they spread the word about us. That's added prestige to our facility."

Hartwell won Olympic bronze in 1992 and silver in 1996 in the 1,000-meter time trial, and the opportunity to build a national program lured him to Trinidad and Tobago. His promising group of young athletes already is showing results. At the recent Pan American Road and Track Championships, Phillip won silver in the sprint and was part of a three-man team that won bronze in the team sprint. Christopher Sellier won gold and set a Pan Am record in the 1,000-time trial.

But Hartwell knows there is much more work to be done to carve a consistent place among the world's elite. He does plan outings to the Mall of America and a Twins game before his team leaves Minnesota. Other than that, any resemblance to leisure travel is purely coincidental.