At the Sports Performance Center at UC Davis

The Tale of Two Doctors We draw directly from 50 years combined experience at: 17 Tours de France 12 Giro d'Italia 10 World Championships 3 Olympics   It all started in 1985 when Massimo Testa, M.D. (or Max as friends call him), became team physician for the 7- Eleven professional cycling team. We didn’t know it then, but this American team would usher U.S. cyclists into the international spotlight for the fi rst time. Team 7- Eleven with team manager Jim Ochowicz (now USA Cycling president) and team director Mike Neel (the fi rst American to ride for a Eu rope- based team) was also a “Who’s Who” of people who would go on to become cycling legends: Andy Hampsten (the fi rst and only American to win the Giro d’ Italia—the Italian version of the Tour de France), Bob Roll (currently a Tour de France commentator), Davis Phinney (a Tour de France stage winner and author of one of the classic books on cycling), Chris Carmichael (who went on to train Lance Armstrong), Ron Kiefel (the fi rst American to win a stage in the Giro), Tom Schuler (one of the most successful cycling and sports managers of all time), Jonathan Boyer (the fi rst American to race in the Tour de France, and a two- time winner of the Race Across America), Jeff Bradley (a national champion multiple times and currently a successful bike shop own er in Iowa), and Jeff “Peppy” Pierce (the fi rst American to win the fi nal stage of the Tour de France in Paris). And then there was Eric Heiden. Eric was twenty- fi ve years old. Five years earlier, at the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, he had won all fi ve men’s speedskating races. After he had retired from speed skating and started medical school, he turned to another passion of his—cycling—and joined Team 7- Eleven. Together, we observed that the team’s cyclists did not enjoy the benefi ts of scientifi c exercise training. (Even today, in the United States, sports medicine is not a preventative medical specialty focused on exercise science and per for mance as it is in Eu rope.) Eric had been exposed to a scientifi c approach to exercise training as a skater. Max had studied training science as part of his specialty as a medical student in Italy, applying structured, individualized training to all kinds of athletes from amateurs to professionals. In contrast, 7- Eleven cyclists’ daily program focused mainly on volume, without the full benefi t of the structure or or ga ni za tion we knew advanced per for mance. Their approach was to simply ride, and ride hard, but without a plan, a target, or a goal, and without distinguishing between the various types of fatigue. The team’s cyclists displayed great enthusiasm and discipline, but to us they seemed miles from reaching their potential, and many were essentially pedaling up the wrong road. We convinced some of our teammates to try a more structured training approach. With that, this program was born. For American pro cycling, it was a pivotal moment. Ours was a unique combination of athletic experience and cutting-edge sports medicine knowledge. With it, Team 7- Eleven went on to astonish the Eu ro pe an cycling world with stage wins in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. It gradually shifted the axis of American professional cycling, and this is refl ected in America’s showings in the international arena today. A young and talented Lance Armstrong joined the team and won the world championship in 1993, and the rest is history. —Eric Heiden, M.D. —Max Testa, M.D.