Lost

I spent the morning of Easter Sunday on this road, and it felt as endless as this picture makes it out to be. Instead of spending my time sitting in church, I found that this road was the appropriate path for me to do some searching. I was crushed by my struggles from the previous day at the infamous Copperopolis Road Race. My past few races prior to this had been some big events which were events that I had found myself making big leaps of improvement, but it didn't seem to show much on paper. Copperopolis is definitely one of my favorite races on the calendar, even though it has treated me badly the past few years. I had found myself climbing quite well at the Sea Otter and was confident and ready to do a good ride at Copper. Mentally, I needed to find a good result, after pouring myself into the bike this winter and giving this thing everything, I have yet to find a podium, which definitely wears on you, well definitely has worn on me.

With all that said, Copperopolis did not help me with my mental struggles. Our general plan for the race was to get someone up the road before the big attacks came from Ben Jaques-Maynes and Nate English, and save our guys Jesse Moore and Ozzie Olmos to try and follow these moves. So my goal was to get in a break. I was hoping to establish this break on the flat section before the climb, but as the race started one of the Strava riders decided to drill it for the entire section leading to the climb, which basically prohibited any type of attacking. I'm not exactly sure what Strava was aiming to do here, but they had a lot of strong guys at the race, so maybe it was just a pure show of intimidation and force. Anyhow, just as we hit the base of the feedzone section of the climb, the pace slowed, and I decided, aww I should go into my small ring and spin up the climb, to try and save my legs for when the real action happens. My bicycle disagreed with this decision, and my chain fell right off, I desperately tried to shift it back up as a few teammates pushed me for a bit, but it refused to cooperate and I was forced to jump off and pull the chain back on.

I peered up to see the field charging over the top of feedzone riser. I hoped that the pace would slow a bit so that I wouldn't have to blow too many matches chasing back on, as this was only the first of 5 laps on the menu. To the contrary, it seems that the pace didn't slow, as I was redlined the entire climb and could not catch. As I crested the top of the climb and began to put myself into a TT position, desperation running through my mind as I imagined not catching on and the terribleness I felt considering that I had woken up at 3:45 AM to be here. This is not how I had imagined the first 25 minutes of the race going. At this point the moto ref pulled next to me, and he smirked at me: "What's your number kid???" As if he knew my day was over and needed to know my number right now, as I was giving this everything that I had, and didn't have the time to take off my vest at this exact moment, if only he knew how I felt, maybe he would have thought a bit more about how this made me feel. Luckily I did remember my number and weezed out: "77" He then throttled his engine and revved on back up to the field. As I slammed my way through the left hand corner by the lake, I could see some hesitation in the field and saw that I would be able to catch back on, my day was not completely over, even though I had just burned a few matches so early into this thing. Just as I caught on, we were on a roller, somebody attacked, and I was immediately popped back off, but luckily my teammate Ozzie was fiddling with his powertap or something, so he was off the back as well, and after we crested the roller he came rippin up to me and pulled me back into the group.

I sat in the back of the field, legs feeling terrible, praying that a break would be let go so that I could have a bit of time to recover. Alas, it was not to be, BJM decided that a break wasn't going to go without him in it, and everyone else in the field wasn't going to let a break go with BJM in it, because that clearly meant that all of our days would be over. I suffered up the climb on the backside of the course, so I was at the back as we hit the nasty, rocky, copperopolis of a descent. And there, the field split, and I found myself continue to be redlined going into the second time up the climb. On the actual climb I felt good, but not great, and with the break that was already up the road, the group I was in split.

Over the top of the climb I could see the other half of the group about 30 - 60 seconds up the road. Ahead of that was a break of about 5 riders which was out of my sight. I knew that I needed to catch that other split on this lap though if I ever wanted to be anywhere near the front of the race again. So along the whole flat section I buried myself on the front of the group, and tried to inspire the other dudes in my group to also give it a go. Nearing the climb on the backside of the course, we were close, and I knew that if I wanted to catch them I needed to do it right here. So I hit that short climb with all I had, and over the top I was about 100 meters from catching, and through the whole descent I couldn't close the gap, and then over the finishing roller I kicked again and got excruciatingly close, but couldn't quite get their. Through the whole flat section from there to the climb I was only a few 100 meters off the back of the group, head down, screaming at myself to close the gap, I was beginning to crack though, I needed to get their, I needed some sort of relief. It's odd to have given this much into the race only 45 miles into a 105 mile race, but that's the kind of effort that was needed on this particular day. As we hit the feedzone climb, I began to lose faith that I would catch, I was near cracked. I had come here to win, not to just finish, that's the way that I had decided to race. Then I made the miserable decision to shift into my small ring in nearly the identical place that I had on the first lap, and boom, chain dropped again. I spent a solid 30 seconds, fighting through tears to reapply the chain, grease getting plastered on my white arm warmers.

I rolled through the feedzone, barely able to look at my dad, who had also woken up at 3:45, and driven me here, the middle of no where. Other than Redlands, this was the only other race he had been to, and I wanted to put in a good ride in front of him. I continued up the climb, and was passed by the guys in the group that I had been working with last lap. I was completely beat physically and mentally. I turned around and returned to the car. At this point my teammate Brandon Trafton was heading up through the feedzone, I switched wheels, as these carbon ones were no longer relevant and decided to ride another lap. The legs felt terrible, the head all messed up, it was not a good lap.

And this is what I spent my Easter morning thinking about. Trying to figure out how a morning with so much promise...

had become one of my worst days on a bike. And it seemed to be appropriate that I pondered the suffering that I had endured the previous day as I rolled down this perfectly straight road on a religious holiday. In school I have been studying Emile Durkheim and reading his book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life and in this book Durkheim talks about the use of suffering in religion, and in my paper that I wrote I spoke about the relationship between suffering in religion and in my sport, cycling.

In other words, the negative cult cannot be developed without inflicting suffering. Pain is one of its necessary conditions. So people were led to consider pain to be a rite in itself; suffering was seen as a state of grace that had to be sought and sustained.

Indeed, the way he braves pain is the best indication of the greatness of man.

The suffering they impose are not, therefore, arbitrary and sterile cruelties, but a necessary discipline in which man is shaped and tempered, in which he acquires the qualities of disinterestedness and endurance without which there is not religion.

And with all these thoughts, I made a left turn off of this road, into a nasty headwind, and the thinking was over, and the suffering began again. It seems, that there is no escaping it.

recap of the season so far

back to the blogging world since Alec Kassin requested that I update my blog once in a while. If anyone is actually reading this then I am willing to throw out some stuff about what I am doing/racing. I am currently sitting in the library at Occidental College with my friend Ethan Weiss who is writing a paper. I am on spring break, hanging out in LA after San Dimas and waiting for Redlands which starts in a few days.

There seems to be so much going on with the social networking internet stuff that I am sort of bored by it now. It seems like every person has a twitter and a fb and a blog and constantly updating what they are doing etc that I don't really feel the need

to be doing that. It's just too much it feels now, so I have shy'ed away from it a bit. Anyhow here is a quick recap of the racing that I have done and some pictures to keep it a bit entertaining maybe. I am very lucky to be on a great team this year, California Giant/Specialized and they have been giving me some fantastic support so far this year and I am really excited to be racing for them.

Training Camp

It seems that the season started at training camp. I got to meet the team and we hung out in a sweet place in Watsonville right on the beach. The weather was great for the most part and we got to tour Specialized and get in some great riding. My team is awesome and they have got their shit together and I felt like a pro walking into camp being handed a suitcase full of clothes and shoes and helmet and sunglasses and a new bike. It was awesome.

Cherry Pie Criterium

First race of the season. Excited. It was just the new guys on the team at the race. Me, Chris Stastny, Andrew Talansky and Brandon Trafton. Chris and Andrew got into the break and Brandon and I were left to patrol the peloton. I took one of the primes during the race. Was feeling pretty strong and confident in the front of the group. The break stayed away, Chris got 2nd and I rolled in near the back after not being where I needed to be with 1 to go, no sense in making dangerous moves near the end sprinting for 10th or something place since there was a big break up the road.

Snelling Road Race

The first big road race of the year. I was excited. Drove all the way out to the middle of no where and was planning on staying their for the weekend and doing snelling and merced crit. The race started and the field was pretty huge. The neutral section was pretty sketchy with everyone feeling ready to start out the season and get it going. Neutral section ends, 10 seconds later some guy in front of me is hitting the deck. I had enough time to think and jump off the bike and somehow ducking as people flew over me. I then had to pull 3-4 guys off my bike and get it going to put in a hard chase. No luck, field was gone. While I was finishing I was told by a guy riding with me that my frame looked cracked. Wow. disaster. it was in fact cracked on the seat tube. So I came out of the crash with 0 scratches on my body and a cracked frame. Just great. Luckily I was able to go to Watsonville and get a new frame from my boss the next day. Once again, my team has just been giving me great support.

Bike #2

Merco Criterium

I was a bit worried about this weekend since last year I had been crashed out of both the crit and the road race, so I was looking to stay safe this year. My dad was also working for Sram at the race though, so I wanted to race well in front of him. The crit started out well, I was in the front going with some early moves, trying to maybe grab a prime, which my team was doing a great job of getting. I then started to hurt and the rest of the race was a bit of suffering as I was trying to stay near the front, but not doing such a great job of it.

Hurtin

Hangin on

Merco Road Race

Race went with a bunch of attacks going on throughout the first lap, me trying to get in a few of them. Then during the 2nd lap, my teammate James Mattis helped me get to the front and told me to follow the next few moves. Just then my teammate from last year Evan Huffman attacked on my left and I jumped on and we started rolling. And then we were gone with a few other guys from Bissell and United Health Care. I was the only representation from my team, so I was feeling the pressure to perform so I did not want to dig too deep too early. We still had like 90 miles to go. I had a feeling that this break might stick it all the way though. During the 3rd lap a chase group caught us and my teammate Steve Reaney was in it, so I was happy to have someone else there to help me out. At this point I still felt good, but there was a long way to go and I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the distance in the break. I was not doing as much pulling, and a few of the pro's were getting pissed at me. That was not making me happy, I did not want to piss them off, but I wanted to do all I could for my team. At the end of the 4th lap I got popped from the break on one of the rollers leading into the finish. My team car loaded me up with bottles to bring to my teammates in the field and I sat up for a bit and waited for the peloton to catch me. Once in the field again it felt so easy to have so much draft. Then mid last lap I started to bonk hard, then I found a snickers in my pocket. I downed it and started to feel great. I moved near the front in preparation to go for the sprint finish, even though the break was going to stay away. Then with about 5k to go, psss "oh dang sucks some guy got a flat right now" - I thought, "oh shit that's me" My dad actually came out to change my wheel. I just spun it on in to the finish. Disappointed with how the day had worked out, but glad to have made the break and learned some things.

Madera Stage Race

Day 1 - Hill Climb Time Trial

Drove out to middle of no where. Legs didn't feel great. I'm not really the gc man, so not super worried about the tt's, but still wanting to put in a good ride. The first half of the ride I felt good, then got passed heading into the climb and lost confidence and couldn't find anything on the climb. Pretty miserable time.

Day 2 - Time Trial

Legs still not great, pretty windy out. First half of tt was a piece of cake, then the last half was straight into a head wind. I did not want to destroy myself with the crit coming up in the afternoon, a race that I could actually do some damage in and might need to work for the team leaders.

Day 2 - Criterium

Super windy at the crit. Break got away with 2 Bissells and 2 yahoos. Immediate danger. We were able to get out whole team to the front and gutter the rest of the field. We basically did a team time trial for 2/3's of the crit. Brought the break back with 2 to go and had caused serious damage to the field, with only 20 guys left in the lead group. We got destroyed in the sprint after using all our men for the chase, but it was fun, and we kept our gc guy in 4th.

Day 3 - Road Race

Early morning road race, cold. Lots of attacking, I was in a few moves. A break ended up going with our gc guy in it and the leader of the race. They got far enough up the road that our man had virtually gone into 2nd place overall. Then Bissell decided that they didn't want to lose their chance of sweeping the podium so their 2nd and 3rd place riders, Paul Mach and Rob Britton, attacked and got away. We stuck our team on the front again hoping to pull them back so that our man, Jesse Moore, could move into 2nd. Even with our whole team chasing, the gap was growing. I was starting to crack, then through the rough section and the rollers with 1 to go I did blow. I finished the last lap in a small group.

San Dimas Stage Race

Day 1 - Hill Climb TT

terrible, warm day, legs felt pretty bad after driving all yesterday to LA. Couldn't get warmed up too good, nothing felt right. TT started, was hurting from the start and never stopped hurting, but just could not find that rhythm or speed. TT's are something I really need to work on. Another miserable time, but it was a great day for the team as we had guys in 3rd and 5th. In 3rd was our new rider that I just met today Sid Taberlay, who is an Australian MTB rider who has gone to the Olympics. In 5th was Andrew Talansky, a kid who is going places on the bike, watch out.

Day 2 - Circuit Race

Excited for today, I did really well in this race last year in the cat 2's and I was excited to see how it went in the pro/1's and especially excited to help out my team after some great rides yesterday. The first few laps felt like a crit on a circuit loop. It was fast, but I felt comfortable and was feeling better as the day went on. Then on the fourth or fifth lap I flatted on the descent going into the climb. I swear that it felt like my rear was flat, and so the guy changed that and started to push me off and I realized that my front was (also) flat, at the time I thought that I had double flatted. Turns out that it was only my front, my bad. Anyways, after putting in a hard effort, the field was no where to be seen, my day and stage race was over. major bummer. I rolled to the feed zone to help feed the rest of my team. I was able to feed a few of them and then I found out that 2 other riders on my team had flatted as well and we were left with only 3 guys in the race. No good. I rolled a few more laps with my teammate Chris Stastny aka The Staz. disappointing day.

Day 3 - The Crit

Since I did not get to race the crit, My teammate Ozzie who also flatted and I rolled to the top of Mount Baldy. It was freakin steep at the top and I was not loving life the last few miles of it, but it was a good ride and I got to ride up to the snow. Then I got to do something even more miserable which was watch a race that I was supposed to be in. not cool.

Looking forward, Redlands is next week. This will be the biggest stage race that I have ever done and I am looking forward to the experience and helping out my team. My goal is to make it through the race and I think that I will have to suffer more than I ever have before in order to even accomplish that.

Because when your writing an essay you always find something else to do

Here are a few pics from the past year:

Mount Hood: My first big stage race
Giro di SF
Copperopolis
Cat's Hill
Racing with Lance at Nevada City

Once again, its been a long time...

A lot has happened and I have not written on here for a long time, so here goes nothing.

I am sitting in the North Reading Room at UC Berkeley, there is a protest going on outside about the fee increases which have been approved yesterday by the board to increase our fees 32% putting the tuition over $10,000 for the first time in history of UC, sweet huh. Well yea, the protest is not really accomplishing very much though, they aren't very organized. I think that it sucks but reading over the issues I tend to side with the regent in that I think that they are doing the best that they can and this is the answer in order to uphold the system. It isn't the regents fault, basically california is in shambles and we have to deal with it. awesome huh...so hopefully I can afford to keep going to school here.

On to the brighter side of things...

I accomplished my goal for last year and got my upgrade to a category 1 cyclist. Now the only next step is to make it professional.

Also, after having some great support and a good year with Lombardi Sports I have now joined a new team, California Giant. I think that this is a good step to be able to do some more NRC races and get some experience racing with a bigger team. I am very excited.

One of the most fun things that I have done this year is hike half-dome. It was an awesome experience. It was the first time I had ever been to Yosemite and it was definitely one of the best places I have ever been. Just opening my window as I drove into the park it smelled like heaven. The hike was brutal, but we killed it and it only took about 5 hours roundtrip. Here are some pictures:

These crazy fools sat on the edge with feet hanging over

Coach

The Stairs

So on other goings on, the cal football team is having an interesting year. The Pac-10 has been a crazy conference, in which no team has really dominated. Cal got destroyed by Oregon and USC, but have played some good games the rest of the year, especially last week against Arizona, which was one of the best games that I have been to. We are now back in the rankings at #25. On saturday we go to Stanford, a game that I will be going to and we will win.

Also, Cal basketball is off to a good start and they play today at Madison Square Gardens - you know that really famous court in New York. Well they are playing Syracuse at 4pm and hopefully I can watch it if I find a TV and if I finish this essay that I should be writing right now. If they win then they will play North Carolina tomorrow ( I think) so that would be an awesome game as North Carolina is always one of the best college basketball teams.

Also, today Tim Lincecum won his second straight Cy Young award, the one good thing to come out of another miserable season for the Giants.

The 49ers won their game last week...

And my newest team that I have become a fan of is in a sport that I just started watching, soccer, and my team is Chelsea, since my sister is over in England, and they are in first place and beat ManU, their biggest rival a few weeks ago.

So there is my sports update...

Im not going to promise that I write any more often than I usually do, but it could happen,

Tyler

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

The Scott Nydam Technique

So basically,
I have realized that most race reports are boring,
its true, I guess that they are good for sponsors, but actually just writing out what happened in the race is so boring to read,
I would know...if it is boring for me to write.....then how can it be fun to read???

"We went really hard, and then someone attack and then we went hard again and brought him back and then we did this sprint at this line and it was great!!"

The type of race reports that I like reading are not usually about the race itself,
its the odd stuff that goes on, Will Frischkorn is good at writing these, and I also particularly enjoy reading reports by Michael Barry.

But,
my favorite writer,
is Scott Nydam,
he writes these posts that are like poems,
its a race report poem,
and Im not sure how he does it

He used to have this awesome blog
"sluffbugger"
if I recall,
just kidding,
I couldn't forget that

Since then he has gotten a pro website and has hit the bigtime,
so he doesn't post as many of his awesome "Poems"
but thats OK,
since he is getting interview by big time websites
left

and

right

and hes training his butt off,
it's understandable...
I suppose,

before he was really big time though,
my teammate Ryan Eastman and I decided to name a hill after him.
It was Trinity road.
Now you must understand,
that we named this "Scott Hill"
BEFORE
he conquered it in the Tour of California in 2008
We told him that morning before his big day,
that we had named this climb after him.

He dismissed us tho
You see, he is a modest guy,
He told us that he didn't deserve to have the climb named after him.

Then he took off that morning,
racing his bicycle,
while he took off we drove to the climb,
hopped on our bikes and rode halfway up to where we could watch this guy climb,
and the rest of the "world class" field.

As we were driving, he had attacked,
as luck would have it,
he was alone off the front,
He was climbing his hill by himself,
faster than the rest of these world class riders.
I like to think that we helped inspire him
either way, he definitely earned his hill that day

Standing along that climb...we heard that there was one rider off the front,
we hoped in our heart of hearts that it was Nydam,
when we heard it was we went crazy,
We had a BMC banner and had put on our running shoes,
literally,
and then around the bend there he came,
we were on a rather steep section,
and for that reason when he neared we were able to run along next to him
and keep up
we yelled and cheered
and
he even smiled...

and that was the most fun that I have ever had as a fan.

Anyways,
It is Scott Nydam's birthday today,
and so this post is just a Happy Birthday.
and a commemoration to his great writing,
hoping that the sluffbugger will return,
I know that he will race great,
but where has his writing gone?

Either way,
let it be remembered
Trinity is SCOTT HILL

Snelling Road Race

Not a great picture of me, but that was the sprint


I think I will start posting again,
so we will start at the beginning of the year,
this was my 2nd race of the year,
and I got a 4th in the P/1/2 race, which was a big result for me,
starting to find my way in the real races, so here goes:

Today we had the first team race of the year, Snelling Road Race. When we got to the race we got to pick up our new Pinarellos, so I was definitely excited and ready to go race.
We took off for the neutral rollout and there was a lot of tension in the group. We finally got the go ahead that we could race and it was on. The pace was fast throughout the race, with constant attacks. We tried to make sure to have a rider in the dangerous breaks, so through the first half of the race Sean, Vince, Blake and I were covering moves. None of the moves were sticking though, perhaps due to many large teams in the race.
Unluckily on Eric went down early in the race and messed up his elbow. He was taken to the hospital for some stitches, and we saw a gnarly picture of his torn up elbow. Hope he is doing alright.
On the last lap and there was a small break. I expected that they would be brought back so I decided to get ready to see if I could put in a good sprint. I found where Daniel Holloway was and preceded to follow him for the lap. On a small hill about 3 miles from the finish Holloway attacked. I followed and was able to bridge to the break. I hit the last rough section with the front group, where upon the field had caught our break. I was still happy that I had bridged to the break though, since it put me into perfect position. I followed Jackson Stewart and Holloway sitting 6 or 7 back from the front as the Cal-Giant team led out the sprint with about 3k to go. I came around the final corner right next to Blake and Holloway led out the sprint from there. I gave it everything and was able to finish in 4th with Blake right behind me in 5th and Evan in 11th.
Jackson Stewart ended up winning, Rock Racing’s Danny Finneran was 2nd and Daniel Holloway of Garmin in 3rd. Followed by Lombardi! A good day for the team.


This is what it looked like driving home. In my little suzuki car we fit 3 people, 4 bikes, 10 wheels and everyones luggage etc. I can't believe it fit!!

Alright

...so I lied....
Did not exactly update
I know that EVERYONE is going crazy waiting for a new post from me

So I am on a sweet U23 team called Lombardi Sports

And I got tested yesterday by Daryl Parker, a professor at Sacramento State.
Got to hang out with him for a long time and he explained all the results of my test, as well as told me a lot about science of cycling and gave me some textbooks since I told him that I am studying to have a job like his.
Anyways, the test went real well. Got to see huge improvements since my last test two years ago.
Have had a 29% increase in my VO2 max, to put that into perspective, taking EPO would give you an 8% increase...
So with my VO2 max at 76.5 I am feeling pretty happy as well as putting out 6.5 watts/Kg. I am psyched, physically I have the body to make it in this sport, now just have to keep working like crazy and hope it works out.
Body fat at 4.29% was also good, definitely did not have the freshman 15.

Speaking of school, passed my first semester so that was awesome. Was pretty worried, was so difficult was very unsure of where I ended up. With just about a 3.0 at berkeley, I am definitely happy.

Am trying out this new twitter thing. Seems to be the new cool thing.
check it out:
http://twitter.com/tylerbrandt

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