Change

I guess this is a good time to write a post. It's been a while, yea yea, a long long while. There have been quite a few changes in that time. 

First off - Barack Obama - the new president. A brighter day 

will come, I sure hope so, I am happy, his election gives me more reason to stay in this country. Europe is still where I want to be, but I feel much more comfortable staying here with Obama leading.

A big change in my life.

I am in college now.

Living on my own.

UC Berkeley - GO BEARS

Football team is currently ranked 21st in the nation.

This is also the #1 Public University. 

It's an awesome place.

I have been working my butt off just to survive here, but I am having fun and learning a ton.

I have graduated from Team Swift.

And am off to another team.

Yet to be decided, I will let you know when I find out. 

Wherever I end up, I am working to become a professional cyclist.

That is the goal, my dream. 

"If you give something your all it doesn't matter if you win or lose, as long as you've risked everything, put everything out there." "I mean, haven't you ever loved something that much" - some quotes from my favorite movie "For Love of the Game"

That's how I think about my life, you got to risk everything to do what you love, and some people don't understand some choices, because they might have never loved anything that much. 

Well, I am getting back to training.

Finally raining, so it must be time to train. 

My first race for Cal is this weekend.

MTB on a course that I know pretty well, Tamarancho, about a mile from my house.

Hope that I have good legs, even though I am not training for it at all. Just for fun.

A brighter day...

I await

Next post I will know what team I am on.

I hope to find out soon.

I am sure tired of this process.

-tb

Junior National Championships - Day 2

Day 2 – August 5, 2008

Got up early this morning. Have to start acclimating to going to bed early and waking up early, which I have not been doing much this summer. I need to prepare my body because a few of my races start at 7 AM, which means I probably have to wake up at about 4…ouch. We were hoping to ride with the Slipstream boys at about 10, and being part of Team Swift we had to be prepared early so Laura wanted us ready to go at 9:30. So all of the Team was out there waiting and waiting and then waiting some more (We sat there playing with our new video cameras and taking before Nationals interviews with all the riders). We stood there until 10:30 when we decided to go ride without them.

Ethan guided us out to the Time Trial course and it was pretty cool. It starts on this bike path, but this is no ordinary bike path, at some points the path is as big as a regular road. We made it to the start and too bad they had not put up any signs yet (the day before) so that we could know the exact points of the start and turnaround, but we made do. The course has a few decent climbs that are definitely big gear climbs, but Ryan and I are happy for those at least so that we have a chance to compete with those big Time Trial dudes. It is definitely not a pure Time Trialist course, like Dunlap is for example. We got to the turnaround and then Ryan and I did our pyramids on the way back. My legs felt iffy on the way out, but on the way back during the efforts I felt good. I hope that will hold out through this week.

This is the peak of my season, so theoretically this should be my best form of the year, that is the way that it is supposed to work. There was one sketch part of the course during the bike path portion. We go through this tunnel and then it is a hard left and there is a drop in the pavement through that turn. We practiced that on our way back. Ethan raced back to the hotel due to a problem that I was unsure while on the road; he just said that he needed to get back.

We got back and Ethan was standing with his car. Turns out that someone broke into his room and took credit cards and their car keys. Dang, that was not good. I guess the guy came in while Ethan’s mom was in the shower…sketch. He did not take Ethan’s road bike or laptop or anything though…weird. So they had to deal with that and they have moved on to a Marriot hotel.

So the rest of the day involved getting registered, making some more videos and resting. Tomorrow is the big day, National Championships…I am excited.

over and out,

-tb

pictures from today:

Ethan and I leading the team

Down one of the descent's on the TT course

Interviewing Ethan...and waiting for Slipstream

Photo Op while waiting in the parking lot

Junior National Championships - Day 1

We drove 8 hours from our house to Irvine today and here was some of our entertainment, we were cracking up making these, I hope you enjoy them as well!

Day 1 – Monday August 4, 2008

Coach picked me up in the Team Swift van today at 12:30 and Lindsay and Ryan were already with her, plus moo moo, her cat. My dad came in the van because we ended up having some changes in our plans. My dad was supposed to drive my sisters car down because earlier this summer she had hit a deer and it had to be taken to the shop and fixed, but the shop was still not done with the car yet. So he will have to make another trip down to LA when we get back, that’s pretty annoying.

I am glad that he came in the van though so that we have the mechanic along with us to take care of all of our problems before the Time Trial. Having him along also means that I don’t have to sleep on the floor, which was the original plan. Instead we have extended our room stay and I get a sweet bed, Ryan still has to sleep on the floor though…bummer. He’s still just a little guy though, so he can handle it.I am excited to go race, this will probably be my last Junior’s race ever! Wow! That is a crazy realization. I don’t know if the magnitude of it will hit me until this week is over, but I am definitely hoping to exit with a bang. It seems like just the other day that I started racing, but it has been awhile. 4 years now I suppose, that is quite a long time, more than 1/5 of my life so far.I was working on my resume in order to get on another team for next year, because next year I will be too old for Team Swift. Anyway, I have kept track of all the races that I have done, it was amazing to see visually.

Team Swift has been an awesome experience for me and I feel that with this program I have learned enough to be able to compete on a more experienced team. I am driving in the van driving to Nationals. It will be fun to race and hang out with the team. I brought some ping-pong balls and small Frisbees for the down time. We are staying at an extended stay hotel, which is cool because we will be able to cook our own food. That way we can save money by not having to eat out every night and we can easily eat healthy. We are staying there until Sunday because that is when my final Road Race is, so it should be a good week.

I am happy that this year my races are spread out along the week instead of the three days in a row that it was last year. I might end up having to do 5 races though because my fields are rather large and this year they decided to not have field limits that way everyone that wanted to compete will have the chance. I think that is pretty cool, but it might be quite annoying. It might mean that we will have heats, which are basically pre-races that you need to do well enough in so that you can make the cut to compete in the actual race. Those types of races are weird because no one is racing to win per say. It is all about using the least amount of energy and still make the cut. Anyhow, it will be a tough week of racing, but that is the way that it should be so that you feel a sense of accomplishment by winning.

The Van has been pretty fun thus far; Coach got us these mini video cameras called flip video. So Ryan and I have been playing with those and spending a lot of time laughing. Good for our health I suppose. We also have watched a bit of the 2003 Fleche Wallone on my new Mac Book. There is also this sweet camera on my Mac Book, which has these crazy effects that are really funny. We made videos with those effects and they made us laugh for a while. Plus we listened to a comedian on my iPod = more laughing. I guess you could say we laughed all the way to LA.

-tb

Cascade Classic

Been a long time since I have updated, but finally have had some time to write a report, its been a long busy summer, so here you go

Pre- Race

I have been in Oregon for about a week now before the race, I had other family events that were taking place here, such as a wedding, so it already feels like I have been here forever and have not even been able to race yet. The racing starts tomorrow though and I feel ready to race hard and have some fun. Lindsay has already started racing with the pro women and has been doing awesome. Ryan and I have been trying to help her out with cold water at the finishes etc. Bend is an awesome town and it’s been fun to hang out here, but I can’t wait to start racing tomorrow.

Stage 1 – Time Trial

I got an early start this morning so that I could get a really good warm up for this time trial. It is all out from the beginning, as most time trials are, but the warm up was even more important for this time trial because it was uphill on the way out and then downhill on the way back so the time gains would all be made in the first half. I went out hard and was feeling good with my effort, I glanced down a few times to see my heart rate exactly where I wanted it. Then I got caught by a guy and the rest of the climb I pushed myself way past my LT to try and stay about 10 seconds behind this guy, I did not want to be losing more than 40 seconds in the first stage, that would not be a good start. I raced hard and gave it my all so I had to be content with that; my result was not where I wanted to be though. I was basically out of contention for the overall after the first stage, so now it was a tour for stage wins and good hard training. I found out how tough the category 2 competition would be and it was going to be quite a fight.

About to head out

Getting ready

Ryan Racing

Ryan after finishing

Lindsay tearin it up

Stage 2 – Criterium

Ryan and I rode back from the time trial to our host house. We got some lunch and stretched and rested to recover for the Criterium, which was in the afternoon. We then drove downtown to the Criterium course and got a quick warm up in. Then we had to stand on the starting line forever; there was a crash in the master’s race that was before ours. They even cut down our race from 40 to 30 minutes. It was a pretty sweet course through the downtown and there were pretty decent crowds. They would get huge later that night during the pro race. It was amazing; the crowd was 5 deep around the entire course.

We finally took off and I didn’t get out of the blocks too quick. I began to move up, but there were not a lot of sections that were beneficial to moving. I was getting near the sweet spot when the wheel that I was on took the corner way too wide and I was pushed into the outside curb and ended up in the rear of the field. There was not much time left to race and with the important mountain stage coming up tomorrow morning I just took it easy in the back and rolled in with the field. Ryan sprinted into 7th with a flat though, that was impressive! During the race there were Webcor women throughout the course cheering for us, that was really cool. After our race we went for a spin, then sat with Coach and watched the pro women’s race. She was coaching the Webcor team so we got to listen to her tactics as she talked to them through the radio; it was really fun to see how different coaching is for pro races.

Stage 3 – Road Race

We set out early again and drove out to the start of the Pro men’s race. We had to drop my dad off there because he was working for Sram and we got to talk with old Swifties Steve Cozza and Nathan Miller. Steve gave us some tips about the stage, it was really cool to have the inside knowledge. We then drove out of town to where our start was. We started on a climb and some guys decided to drill it from the gun, I was hurting, as I had not gotten a really long warm up. I made it over the top though and then we descended for about 10 miles, it was crazy. The race rolled on and I felt good. The pack was very large and we only got 1 lane so it was hard to move around, but I was good at it, sneaky. It was really fun racing with such a large field.

The race would come down to the last climb though and I was trying to save all my energy for that. In order to appropriate my energy correctly I would need to eat right and drink plenty. Unluckily though our feeder got lost and didn’t make it to the feed zone. As I was going through the feed zone and realizing that she wasn’t there I tried to get bottles from anyone but could not. It was really hot though and I needed some water if I was going to do well. I looked down at my stem, which I had written down the course details on and realized that we still had some flat sections before we would hit the climbs. I decided to go back to the caravan because we had been told that there would be some neutral bottles back there. I asked the commissar if he had any water, he said he did not and he said that the medic car didn’t have any either. (Even though on the last climb the medic car was handing out bottles of water, so the commissar didn’t communicate correctly with me) I ended up being able to get a bottle from a rider that we had been hanging out with, Chris Lyman on Z-Team. I really appreciated that. I made my way through the field and back to the front and soon we hit the climbs. There was a hard part then a plateau and then a last climb to the finish. I suffered up the first half and just hung onto the front group as the field split up. I recovered as best as I could during the plateau then we hit the final climb.

The group hit it hard and I began to realize that if I tried to hang then I would crack and burn, so I sat up and went to a hard tempo that I could maintain to the finish. I hit a second wind and passed quite a few guys that had cracked off the front group and finished in 57th place. A good effort, but still not much to be excited about.

Stage 4 – Circuit Race

The last day, I woke up tired, not a lot of energy on the last day, I can’t imagine racing another 17 stages – like the grand tours…amazing. I also have realized how much easier it would be to be on a pro team though when all that you have to concentrate on is the racing and not all of the other little details like having food and bottles ready and making sure the bike is clean and ready to race. It’s a lot of work. We got down to the start and had a chat with coach before the take off. After the neutral I dropped my chain just as the real race was beginning and just then I feel my teammates hand on my back as he pushes me and I get my chain back on. Now that’s a teammate! The course was fun; it was probably one of the best circuit races that I have ever done. It was a pretty long course; 17-mile laps and we did 4 laps. The course had a little bit of everything and one of the roads was called Tyler Road, which was cool. I got to race on my own road! I did not have great legs, but I was surviving in the front of the group and I was hurting on the climbs, but hanging on.

There was one really steep climb at the end of the lap and that was going to really hurt on the last lap just before the finish. I hit it hard in mid-pack and was able to hold on giving it my all. I hung in at the end of the pack for the finishing stretch and that was all that I could manage. Ryan had a super impressive ride, putting in a 4th place sprint, even with junior gears. I was not able to achieve the results that I had hoped from the stage race, but I got a lot of good training and I hope that will be very helpful for nationals. That will be the culmination of my season before I head off to college at UC Berkeley. Thanks for reading,Tyler Brandt

Sea Otter Cat 3 Road Race

Finishin in 2nd

Team Swift 1, 2

The final day of Sea otter, the adventure was coming to a bitter close. At least the wind chill outside decided so. The race was early, about 8 I think, and the weather was freezing. We all met at my hotel and had a good breakfast. Then put on all of our warm clothes to go freeze in the cold of windy Laguna Seca. Our warm up was putting warming cream on our legs while having the heater blasting in the car.

We shivered over to the start line and got to start with our thermal jackets because my dad was driving the follow vehicle and we would be able to drop them off with him during the race. What luck, a lot of other guys were standing there with just jerseys. We rolled out for a neutral start and you could feel the shivering of the pack as we descended. We hit the first climb and that warmed it up for everyone. The pace wasn’t too bad, but the roads out in Fort Ord are this old crummy concrete that seems to suck in the wheels. There is just no rolling of the tires and my legs felt crummy.

On the second lap I was sweating like crazy and Ethan offered to drop our jackets at the car. That was awesome, Ethan had been an awesome teammate to me the past few days. The race rolled on with a few non-threatening breaks. One break got rather large and Ryan got into it for safe keeping, but it got brought back in. One lap up the climb, I went to the front to see if I could find my legs, being on the front of a climb can have the effect sometimes. I set a good tempo, but never could find my legs.

I told Ryan how crummy I felt and with how he had been racing the past few days, I was sure that he could win this thing. I did not want him wasting himself for me if I could not put out the win. So I told him not to put out a crazy lead-out on the final climb, because that probably would have dropped me and then all of our options would close.

The field was all together, what was left of it, heading down the final descent. I sat in very good position. I knew exactly where to be even if I did not have the legs. I could see how the race would play out, and with my smarts I thought I could hang on for a podium if I was lucky. I did not have the legs to follow any hard attacks, but I knew I could suffer up a climb with anyone. So we started the climb and I was about 5th wheel. I would not have to do any work, but would be ready in case something happened. The group started to break up and I just sat. Eventually a few attacks sort of eased off the front. Then Ryan chased onto them. I tried to get on his wheel, but the gap that he had gone through had closed and I didn’t have much acceleration. I thought about going and then we hit a super hard headwind….on the climb…ouch. So I sat tucked in waiting for an opportunity. At 1K sign I went for it. I accelerated past the few guys that were off the front so that they couldn’t jump onto my wheel. Soon enough all that was in front of me was Ryan. With 500 meters to go the kid put in a hard effort and I never made it up to him. 1, 2 in the race. A good day for Team Swift.

Sea Otter Circuit Race

Big Junior field

Taking off

Ethan back after a rough early season

He's the best draft

A little happier today with my result

Podium

Ethan is back! The three of us went out for a warm up and rode up the steep climbs around the Laguna Seca raceway. It was awesome to have my teammate back. We returned to the circuit a bit early to watch our coach finish her race. We stood next to the finish to watch the sprint, and today, coach didn’t have it. Looked like she gave up a little early, but sometimes you just don’t have the legs. The girl that beat her went crazy yelling, that was funny.

Lined up next to the familiar faces. Legs were feeling alright. It was great to see my teammate there, knowing that I would not have to fight it alone. Then we set out. Ethan took right to the front as I sat in to evaluate how everything was feeling. Seemed like last year this race was super painful from the gun. We were going just as fast this year, but a year later, stronger and feeling good.

The race went by with the constant attacks. Everything seemed to break up relatively quickly. One break with a Davis rider got dangerous and Ethan was willing to chase that down, that was awesome, I really appreciated it. Then it was just the Taylor show I guess. He attacked a ton of times and we were left chasing him down. It was a smart tactic by him, and stupid of the rest of the field not to catch the hang of. He would be on the front then move way over so that was no one was on his wheel and then he would attack. I don’t know. But eventually one stuck. I chased like crazy on the climb, but then the pace slowed on the flats, and well, I couldn’t do all the chasing, and we were left racing for second. As we hit the climb on the final lap I was happy to hang with the front group over the top, I had put out a lot in the chase; I wanted to win and did not have much left. I saw Bryan behind me, and knowing his tactic for sprinting, or at least I thought that’s what he was sitting back their, I stayed with him so that I would not have to do any work in the final mile. Turns out Bryan was totally toasted and was hanging on the back for dear life. Well we went into the final turn already spinning out with a strong tailwind. A couple guys jumped, it was early, then behind me Bryan went and I jumped on his wheel. Then Rock Racing’s Finneran drifted into Bryan and the door was wide open for me. I took advantage for the win of the field sprint, and 2nd in the race. I was happy. I had raced as hard as I could and had nothing left. Taylor was too strong and I had put in a nice sprint that I was happy with.

I just want to race

I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.

-Tolstoy

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,-- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality...The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

-Thoreau

Respect...

Sea Otter Road Race

Sea Otter

Junior 17-18

Road Race

5th Place

Hangin out before the race

Final pre-race advice

Whistlin' away a boring race

Sittin in the pack

Not happy with my race

Whose got the biggest legs on the podium?

The first day of Sea otter. I had got into town the afternoon of the day before and since my dad was working with Sram we got to stay in the Embassy Suites, it was great. As an added bonus, no school. Get to race the bike instead, doesn’t get any better than that.

So we headed out to the line. It was a later start time than usual for juniors so I had gotten to sleep in and it was a nice day. Not too windy and did not even need arm warmers, which is quite unusual at Laguna Seca. So the start line was full of familiar faces, lots of the big guns so to say. I guess you could say that the rider that I had my closest eye on was Taylor Kuphaldt from the Davis Bike Club who had just gotten his Cat 1 upgrade, impressive. He also had 2 strong teammates, Alex Wick, a great rider in his own right and I guess there worker Chris Stastny, who had beaten Ryan last weekend for the win in the Madera Road Race. So basically, I was going to need to ride on the defensive, I was all alone.

My dad and I talked on the drive out to Monterey about riding a little more conservatively and not being the one who is always chasing everything down. There was another strong team, Ride for a Reason, who I thought should do some chasing given attacks and I also figured the Major Motion would have quite a few kids out there. I was hoping to have the race break apart on the climbs, but to have it be a group that could duke it out on the final climb, as I was by myself and that was my best opportunity I thought.

The race started and I sat near the front on the descent, staying out of trouble with a big junior field. There were a lot of new faces and some looked pretty unpredictable on their handling skills. We hit the first climb and there were some joker attacks that were going no where. Then near the top somewhere Alex Wick took a flier, and well, no one chased. Not a single bit in the whole group. I was going to let him go because I did not want to face the horrors of the counter attack that would presumably come from Taylor and the ride conservatively all in my mind. So, slowly but surely, we watched the race go right away.

I don’t remember much else about the race; it was just plain boring and no fun. I remember one kid asking “Does he really think that he is going to make it 50 miles by himself!” I responded, “Well yea, if nobody does anything!” An old teammate from Swift, Bryan Larsen, who also had no teammates at the race and I kept trying to get a paceline going. No one wanted to work though, and then Rock Racing’s Danny Finneran would keep putting in stupid attacks that would do nothing, but screw up any chase that we had going.

At one point I was on the front with another kid and a gap sort of opened as we were just spinning. So I attacked and that got the field chasing for a few miles, but then nothing else happened until the last lap. Through the feed zone, Taylor attacked and Evan Huffman from Lombardi Sports made it on as I just missed it. I chased hard with no one else willing to pull through to bring them back. We went into the descent and at the bottom Danny Finneran missed the turn. I put in several hard attacks along the climb trying to get some separation, especially from Bryan, because he is a good sprinter and I wanted to get him away before the end. At one point I thought that we would bring back Huffman and I set up a pace, but brought nothing back. Jeremy Ferguson of Ride for a Reason, put in a reasonable attack before cracking. Then after multiple attacks and nothing gained, my legs were toast. I sat in. We hit the 1k sign and I couldn’t feel any sensations in my legs that gave me a feeling that I could hold it. I would only have a little kick left. I needed to at least get 2nd in our sprint for a podium place. The sprint started and a rider to my left pulled out his foot and ended his sprint early. It was just me and Bryan, and well, not the finish I had imagined.

Was not the race that I had imagined. Seems like the biggest race in North America, for juniors, well usually, would have a little bit more racing in it. Because we just wasted a day riding in circles. It was horrible. So much for riding conservatively. I am not going to let my races end prematurely like that any time soon.

tb

Wards Ferry Road Race

one of the laps

finishin climb/sprint

stick your tongue out if it hurts

ouch

Elite 3 2nd Place

Another day in the foothills! Lindsay and Sam came down to my house the day before and we went for a little spin, it was super windy. We had an awesome dinner made by my father, some manicotti. We had to wake at 3 and got a bit a food before heading out. Lucky for me, my dad was willing to drive us, so we got to sleep in the car, even if it was pretty uncomfortable.

We got to the race early and went out for a warm up for a bit. Then the race was off and immediately there was carnage behind us. Some guy hit our friend from Whole Athlete, Peter Nicholson. Peter was left with worse than our junior gears having only being able to get into his 17.

We made it to the first big descent and the road was messed up, full of gravel and dirt. Then there was a huge truck and of course those cat. 3’s start blasting past it like madmen, so we had to go blasting past as well.

The course was awesome, up and down the whole time and we were having a blast, except there were very few sections to throw down our Clif Shots.

As I went through the feed zone on the 4th lap my dad told me to take a risk, then on the big climb I took off. I went solo for about 5 miles until I was caught on the descent with my junior gears. After the descent Ryan attacked and he was killing it.

As I was riding along I could hear the other teams asking if the swift kid was back and they saw me and thought that I was back and didn’t realize that Ryan had gone. I thought that Ryan had a chance, but I just sat trying to save it for the sprint.

On the 5th lap Ryan was caught on the big descent. Coach Troy said that if Ryan did not have junior gears then he could have held it. Ryan and I sat near the front making sure that nothing else went without us.

As we started the last few rollers the front of the field slowed dramatically and I felt some guy caught on my wheel, I kept going as I heard him crash in the ditch. We started the last descent before the final finishing stretch and Z-team rider attacked. I told Ryan to get on his wheel, which he did. Then on the little descent he couldn’t stay with him with the junior gears. I whipped it up in the sprint and caught a few guys that went too early and died, but I was never able to catch the Z-team rider, so I finished in 2nd. Ryan died in the sprint and finished in 13th. Overall it was a good day and I got an awesome neon orange Velo-Promo T-shirt.