Tyler Brandt: Junior National Championships

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: