Thursday, July 10, 2008

The 30 mph bike change

Today's stage was yet another brutally fast day that finished with a long 10 mile climb to the finish.  The elements and mishaps of the day made the race, but TLE prevailed and one of our strong climbers, Ian, rode into the top 20 in the finale.  

One thing we are mastering is patience.  No matter how well you are prepared, mishaps and unlucky moments will happen, and it is how you deal with these moments that determines if you are still competing in the end.   You can choose to get freaked out and lose your head, or you can choose to be patient, do all you can to improve your situation in the moment, and weather the storm successfully.  One of these moments, which showed how well we are gelling as a team and how cool-headed we are becoming under stressful conditions, is when Ian's bike broke down, again.  Brad and Ian promptly motored to the front of the peloton.  Andy shot up the left side on the shoulder of the road, and all came together to switch bikes.  Props to Brad for giving up his bike and riding Andy's "backwards" bike.  (The brakes are backwards, right brakes the front, and left brakes the rear...and it is Campy)  Other than the bike change, Paul visited neutral support twice.  Rich made laps to the car retrieving water during brutally hard moments of the race.  And Dan learned how to go back and get teammates in distress.  In the end, we were able to get all of our heavy hitters to the front and establish position for the finishing climb.  Ian, Rolf, and Jarred finished the stage as super stars; all were somewhere in the top 40.  At this time, we are still waiting for results, but please visit http://www.mbsef.org/CascadeCyclingClassic/Results/2008/index.cfm.  

Thank you for tuning in!

-Phil

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats guys! What a unique and special group.

Anonymous said...

All right Andy, consecutive communique's.....Awesome!

Daniel Schneider said...

Looking good guys, rubbin' shoulders with the big dogs. I hope to see some sprinting action a little later in the week from you Phil! And way to go flat lander Ian, working those climbs!!

Anonymous said...

In the top 10, amazing!