The Wager

WARNING - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO READ THIS ALL AT ONCE: IT IS A RIDICULOUSLY LONG POST AND YOU WILL COLLAPSE FROM EXHAUSTION


I think it was about a week ago, Nydam called, needed a ride home from the airport. So he called, asked if I would be willing to drive him. Me, with my busy summer schedule, wasn’t sure if I could fit this in. oh wait, all I do is eat, sleep and ride. It’s been a great summer, just being able to concentrate on riding. Well, anyhow, I said I could, he said he owed me. While I was driving him back he mentioned my last blog post, and that he had never responded to it. He said that he would reestablish sluffbugger as a way of repaying me for the ride home or else he would owe me…I thought for a bit, hmm those BMC jerseys are pretty cool, if you don’t restart it, like really start writing on it, then I get a jersey. He promised me, a brand new jersey, if I don’t restart sluffbugger. I thought for a second, now I hope you don’t restart the blog, cause I would like one of those jerseys. He was a lil bummed, “oh, wow, I thought you actually cared about the blog, your just another bike nerd.”

Well, its been a past a week since he told this to me, and I have yet to see a post on sluffbugger. So I’ve been thinking that I would bug him, but considering that I have not written anything on my blog either, I decided that I better post something before I bother him about something. But, on the other hand, if I don’t remind him, then I get a BMC jersey, tough call. But I will risk it to see sluffbugger come out of the cave.

So, initially when I started this blog I thought I would post stuff about each race and more, but now there are so many races that pile up that the thought of writing about each one piles up too quickly and I just get overwhelmed and then they start piling up and the job becomes to big and I don’t write anything.

Nydam mentioned that he should restart the blog, as it helps him let out stuff just as much as I and other people enjoy reading it. I told him that reading his blog a few years back was what opened my eyes, to yea, I can be a pro cyclist. He’s not some superhuman, I can be like that. It was a good day hanging out with him, talked about my racing, just keep learning, staying positive. Then we went for a ride, and even though he’s been hurt and not able to ride as much, he still looked like he belonged on the bike. He looked so comfortable on the bike, just a piece of him, it’s amazing how easy it is to see the smoothness of someone who rides their bike a lot compared to those who don’t. There is this point that you begin to look more at ease on a bike then doing anything else. It just becomes natural, Nydam just looks natural on the bike, that’s where he still belongs, even though he will not get to race the rest of this year, I know that there are more years of racing in those legs, I can see it. That BMC and him are just, one.

Now, heres a gap filler of all the blogs that I missed. Maybe I will write a sentence for what should have been each a blog post.

School – since summer began people have been asking me how I did my first year of college. I tell them “I passed” and I get looks or they ask now what does that mean, of course you passed. What were your grades…did you do well?? And I reply, yes, I passed. I guess that doesn’t seem like a big accomplishment, but for me it was, in high school, trying my hardest usually meant A’s. This year was different, I would give it my all and that would mean a B if I was lucky. College is different, its not so much about how hard you try, they don’t care how hard you try, it’s simply do you know the material or not. And I guess my best skill has always been that I will try really hard, and that doesn’t mean that I can show that on a test very well sometimes. So trying to step my cycling up a level and passing my first year of college was tough, to me, it was an accomplishment.

Mt. Hood – The pre-reg field did not intimidate me as much as it should have. I did not race the way I felt I should have. My first big stage race with pro’s, but these were pros that I race often, like every weekend, the guy who won the race, I race most weekends. It shouldn’t have been that hard. But it was, and I raced more trying to survive rather than racing racing. I was scared to attack, thinking that I should save something, so that I could survive. If I had attacked then there would have been a reason for exploding. But no, I was just pack fodder, just followed wheels around until I couldn’t follow anymore and then crawled to the finish. I never really got to race. All in all a disappointing week. But “stay positive” learn from the experience, now I know what to expect, I can race these guys, I just need to go out there and actually race and stop trying so hard to surive.

Nevada City – Took some time off from racing after hood. Recollected myself and got started with some track racing, which I have fallen into an excitement about. Anyhow, by now everyone has heard about Nevada City and how amazing it was with Lancemania etc. Well, yes, I got to race the man, and yes, it was cool. It was a really good weekend, I drove up the day before with my old team, team swift and hung out with my friends on Coach Laura’s property in smartville, about 30 minutes from Nevada City.
So, this is my favorite race, even before lance was coming etc, its been my favorite race, the course, the atmosphere, I guess I’ve just always been enthralled by this race. I remember being there when I was like 5 years old and watching it. Then I remember watching Steven Cozza race with the pros and I thought it looked so cool. I had done the Junior race, but there were so many more fans for the pro race.
Now it was my turn to do the pro race. My goal was to make it past the point that they stop pulling riders, since they only leave about 50 of the 130 starters on the course, the other 80 riders get pulled from the race and do not get to finish.
The first lap after the neutral period I got on Lances wheel, there wasn’t a lot of fight for it, which was surprising, I was like, come on, I’m riding on Lances wheel, Ive watched you on TV since I was 3, 4?? I rode by the top of the hill on his wheel and gave my family and friends a thumbs up, how cool is this.
I don’t remember any pain the first three laps, I couldn’t feel any pain, I don’t know if my legs felt amazing, riding behind lance, the crowd, the adrenaline, the combo. Then on the third lap, a break had started to form, we were near the top of the hill and lance jumped, I jumped and couldn’t follow him, but was now pulling the field, I gave it a little bit of gas, and then gave the nod, for horner, who was on my wheel, and levi, just behind him, that they could pull, they sortof sat up, not about to pull lance back. I jumped back into the field. Some stuff happened the next time up the hill and I found myself not able to follow, and still it didn’t hurt, I just didn’t have the power to be there, I wonder if it just doesn’t hurt as much with that kind of crowd cheering you on. Found myself in a group racing for about 17th place, we were rolling and then Horner lapped us and my group decided to follow him, I should of dug deeper, I was starstruck or something, “no, no, no don’t follow him, wow, now horner is pulling my group, I cant follow this, chris horner is pulling” I eased up and tried to find my pace. Then with like 5 to go I was riding with my dad’s friend, Jeff Angermann, my dad raced with him in college and now I was racing with him, ha that’s cool. Then kids at the top of the hill started sticking their hands out for high fives. It was like a dream.

During my training rides there are those little flappy reflector things along road that are about the height of a kid, I like to pretend that they are kids asking for high fives, so I ride by and slap them, and they wobble, and I guess it keeps me motivated as I go out and train, like people are actually out their cheering for me. Got have something out there to keep you motivated on some days.

So when I saw kids actually wanting a high five, I was like, hell ya, and started giving those kids high fives the last few laps. I didn’t start putting around, but I opened my eyes for the last few laps, and just tried to embrace the moment, it was an experience that I wanted to savor, I remember racing down the hill, smiling as I looked at all these people, for a bike race, wow.

The best part was after the race finished, there was a victory lap thing, and fans everywhere I could see had their hands out giving out high fives, I rode around giving high fives around the entire course, it was surreal.

So I guess, thanks Lance, that was awesome.

This past weekend – Still trying to get my upgrade from a cat 2- to a cat 1. So I was gunning for this weekend as a good chance to get some points and finish this thing off. First was Leesville gap, I was riding pretty well, racing for 5th place, tire started splitting, bulging, about to explode, I was really hoping it wouldn’t go flat, I would be stuck out there in the valley until my dad decided to drive out and find me. I got dropped from my group just before the feedzone, got there and was able to get a wheel change from my dad and then I finished it off riding solo most of the way, finishing 14th or something.

Then Davis 4th of July Crit – I signed up for 2 races, there was a cat 2/3 race that I thought that I could win, haven’t won a race in a while, thought it might be nice. Got a break going in the first few laps, got caught, was about 10th wheel going into the second corner, bang, people go down in front of me and Sam says I went straight over the bars, landed on my head, scraped up my hip a bit. Don’t really remember a lot, hit my head pretty good, I was sitting on the pavement and I remember thinking I should get onto the sidewalk. Then I was sitting on the grass, heard some guys fighting, I was thinking to myself, chill out guys, this sucks. Some medics came and I was still pretty dazed. Cleaned out my wound, said I might want to go to the hospital for the road rash, naw I’m racing again in a few hours, just clean it up so I can go put on a new pair of shorts. Pro race didn’t go so amazing either, couldn’t find legs to get to the front and make anything happen, was hoping to gun it for the sprint, get some points, but with a lap to go I was too far back and it was sketch, so I sat up and rolled it in.

So it all came down to Sunday, the SLO crit, drove all the way out here because they had a lot of money on the line, even though there was a local crit in Oakland. I was happy when we got there, it was a really cool downtown crit and there were quite a few people out to watch. The course was good for me, a bit of a hill makes a crit so much easier for me, I can move up at ease when theirs a hill for me to move on. So I was following attacks, went solo a few times, then with 20 min to go, hmm, rear wheel felt weird around that corner. There is this thought process that I go through when I think I have a flat, I need to be sure, because it would suck to sit up and realize, wow its not actually flat and now I need to get back to the front, so I moved to the side of the pack and jumped up and down a few times to test if it was feeling flat, I hit a few bots dots, yea, its going flat. Rolled into the SRAM pit, got a wheel, my director was their, told me to go straight through to the front. Then the official didn’t put me in till the last moment, into the very back of the field, “wow are you kidding me, ive been top 20 all race and you put me back in the very back.” I was so angry and I jumped as hard as I could on the hill to move to midpack, next lap, jumped again and found myself solo off the front, “hmm, im not going to hold this” and I eased up a bit and got back in the pack, tried to stay on Bahatis wheel, field kept swarming on me and found myself in about 25th place through the 2nd to last corner, rider in front of me rolls his tubular, sh** not again, bam, right hip destroyed, I watch as a rider flys over me and into the fence. I am so mad, cannot believe this happened to me again. I rolled across the line fuming. Not my weekend.

We went camping that night, that was cool, except sleeping was terrible, since both of my hips are destroyed with road rash.

Maybe I will actually do short little updates for the rest of the season, only time will tell, I still need to write thank you cards for my sponsors people who have helped me that I had meant/should have sent out in January, wow those are way overdue.

Seriously, this blog post is way too long, and I think I wrote it more for myself then anyone, so if you made it this far…wow, I hope it wasn’t terrible to read all of that. Mostly I wrote this so that I could bother Nydam that he needs to update Sluffbugger.
So until next time,
Maybe I will add some pictures, that will be more fun to look at than reading all of this.

Thanks,
Tyler