Nationals

SUNDAY

I woke up at 7am and drove 6 hours to the house we were renting in Anaheim. We arrived at the house at 2:30 and we unloaded the whole car. It was really hot and humid. I rode on the trainer for 1h with the AC on high and then I did some stretching and core exercises. Then I washed my bike and shaved my legs. We were sharing the house with Peter and his family. We ate dinner around 7 and watched Little Britain.

MONDAY

I slept well even though I woke up at 7. I had breakfast and around 10 I went to pre-ride the RR course, the RR was on Friday. Peter was on his rest day, but I ran into Joel and Andrew (both Specialized) and rode a couple 8k laps with them. All of us thought the loop was counter-clockwise, but we were wrong, and I pre-rode it the wrong way. So then I went back out and rode it again. The course starts at the top of a small hill and shoots downhill before a wide right-sweeping turn. It continues on a 3 lane road before turning right uphill into a high school. It winds through the parking lot of the high school and turns left still rising. It turns left again and goes uphill some more and then descends a fast mile where you do a U-turn and climb a mile back up to the finish. It was about 90° when I rode at 11am. When I came back, I put my aerobars on for the TT on Wednesday. Later we chilled in the pool and watched more Little Britain.

TUESDAY

I slept well again and had breakfast around 8. At 9:30, we left to pre-ride the TT course. We met up with Jason where it started on a bike trail. It started out slightly uphill on the trail for about 3 miles, then it turned right into a tunnel and a sharp left out the other side. The trail lets out on a road which is uphill for about 1.5 miles and then descends quickly for 5 miles to the turnaround. It comes back uphill for 2 miles before the finish. It's 18k and I liked the course. There were so many people out pre-riding the course today and teams were motorpacing a lot. Then I rode the RR course with Peter because he hadn't ridden it yet. We just did 1 lap. We came back and ate lunch and around 4, we went to register at the official hotel. Afterwards we listened to people speak. One of them was Ben Sharp, the man in charge of sending juniors to Europe. We came back and put our numbers on our bikes and cleaned them.

WEDNESDAY

The day of the TT. I ate breakfast 4h before my start time of 11:54. We left around 9 and arrived around 9:30. We setup everything and then I waited until 11 to start my warmup. I tried the cooling vest technique that Slipstream uses, but it didn't work too well for me, I preferred just being in the shade. I was feeling very good during my warmup. I did some ME intervals but nothing more because of the heat. I left 15 before my start to roll down to the starthouse. I rolled around as I was a bit early. I stood in the line and knew my objectives which I had set the night before. Pass my 30second and 1minute man and not get passed. The hills come early on and it's all downhill from there, so I wanted to be tired by the top of the hill. I started out fast and within a minute I was breathing hard and my HR was up at 175. I passed my minute man on the hill, but my 30second man was nowhere in sight. I kept going and arrived at the turnaround which confused me because they had cones all over the place. I overshot the corner slightly, but I recovered from it. I passed my 4minute man going towards the finish and I could finally see my 30second man. I sprinted to the line and I felt like I was going to throw up because they made us do rollout right after we finished, no chance to cool down or spin or anything. The announcer said I had come on 16th for the time being. I ended up finishing 39th out of 83 at 4minutes and 2seconds behind the winner. I was pleased knowing I didn't use a TT bike or disc wheel.

THURSDAY

The day of the crit. I ate a big breakfast 5h before my 2pm race time. I ate little munchies

All throughout the morning. We left at 11:45 and drove 5 miles to the Anaheim Angels

baseball stadium. I pre-rode the outside of the course inspecting turns and pavement.

There was only 1 dangerous turn, a sweeping U-turn. I warmed up for 40minutes and went to the staging area. I squeezed into a spot on the first row. There was a headwind on the finishing straight. The race started fast and I slotted into the top 15. I was taking a drink, but had to drop my bottle, because someone braked hard in front of me. That meant 13 more laps without water in really hot weather. This race was insanely dangerous. There were so many close calls. With 5 laps to go I started moving up. With 2 laps to go, a 5280 guy clipped a pedal on the U-turn and then rolled a tire, taking down about 15 people behind him. The 5280 was 5th wheel. Everyone tried to go around, but not everyone could. Huge gaps started opening between riders as a result of the crash. Yesterday's winner, Lawson, took a flyer and almost won, but he was brought back. I was 24th out of 75. I was pleased. Peter was stuck behind the crash, but he didn't go down.

FRIDAY

The day of the road race. It was 56k, 7 laps of 8k. 35 miles in all, a short, short course. My race was at 2pm and it was the last of the day. I arrived around 12 and warmed up on the road. When I went to the line with 10minutes left still until race time, I was very surprised to see everyone already lined up. I had to settle for a spot in the way back. The field was 80 strong. I knew I had to move up. The race started flying down the hill and I moved up through the high school. Going downhill towards the U-turn on the first lap, 2 guys touched wheels and about 15 people went down. Ryan Eastman (Swift) broke his collarbone. I was right behind this crash and had to accelerate hard out of the U-turn to catch up. During all this mayhem, 3 guys broke away. Anders Newbury (Hot Tubes and a cat 2), Alex Battles-Wood (Team Power Train and a cat 2), and this Australian kid. You don't have to be a permanent resident unless you are competing in 17/18s or U23s. They built up a 20 second lead but nothing more. Lawson, the TT winner made many attempts to bridge, but was unsuccessful for the time being. On one occasion, he attacked before the U-turn and slid out. He caught back up though, he's a cat 2 and very strong. (Anders, Alex, and Lawson all went to Belgium this summer). With 3 laps to go, these two guys start fighting for a wheel and the one who lost, lost control of his bike and started grabbing my leg to stay up. I could see he had no chance of regaining control, he was basically making me pull him, while he dragged on the pavement, so I hit his hand away and he took a couple guys down. With 2 laps to go I was feeling great. I pulled up next to Daniel Tisdell (Specialized) and I asked him if he wanted to bridge. He said no because the break was being brought back, but I disagreed. Lawson attacked around the U-turn like before and since nobody chased him, I followed his wheel. I knew he would be able to get us up to the break. Tisdell joined us and that helped a lot. We were halfway across the gap when I started getting tired. We had 1 lap to go and I started skipping pulls. Turning uphill into the high school, I was dropped. The field caught me and I stayed in there. I could see Daniel and Lawson make the junction and I was pissed because I know I could've been up there. I was dropped from the main group going towards the finish on the last lap and I finished 2minutes and 1second behind the Australian kid who won. I was 32nd out of 80 and it boosted my confidence knowing I almost made the winning break. It says I finished 33rd, but the guy in front of me crashed out for sure.

SATURDAY

I went easy today, doing a 1h ride around Anaheim.

SUNDAY

We drove back. I though Nationals went really well for me and I think I can improve next year.