The perfect place — TOSH helps athletes meet their goals

Eric Heiden knows a thing or two about high-level athletic performance. He is, after all, a five-time Olympic gold medalist in speedskating and followed that up by winning a national championship in cycling and competed in the Tour de France.

Massimo Testa, likewise, knows a thing or two about turning great athletes into phenomenal athletes. He is, after all, a world-renowned expert on cycling and has spent two-plus decades coaching the likes of Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie.

So, when Testa and Heiden moved their medical and sports performance practice about two years ago from California to The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray, they quickly realized their new locale was the perfect place to coach, train and instruct athletes of all sorts.

"I saw the mountains, the long roads and knew this was one of the best places in the world for cyclists," said Testa, better known as Max. "We have some of the best resources in the world for this to become a destination for cyclists to train."

With that mind, Heiden and Testa held their first Utah-based cycling training camp last week. Put together on fairly short notice and designed primarily as a test run to evaluate how to hold a camp in Utah, the internationally respected cycling experts attracted more than a dozen campers from California, Massachusetts, Utah and other states.

Leipheimer, fresh off his winning performance at the U.S. Pro National Championships in South Carolina and helping teammate George Hincapie win the inaugural Tour of Missouri, agreed to be the guest of honor at the camp and led the cyclists on a 100-mile ride through the back roads of Summit County and over Wolf Creek Pass on Friday.

Attending the camp, the national champ said, was a welcome change and a great way to repay his coach.

"I really owe it all to Max," Leipheimer, who finished on the podium in third place at this year's Tour de France, told those at the camp over dinner. "He helped take me to an entirely different level. I was eight and ninth in the Tour de France, and I was wondering if that was as good as I could get. I started working with Max, and I've improved like I never thought I would. I'm at a different level now."

The cycling camps, which Heiden said can be used to become a better triathlete, cyclist, runner or just more fit, focused on science as much as action.

"What we want," Heiden said, "is to identify your potential and identify what makes you tick as an athlete. We want to help you reach your goals."