2012 Elite, U23, Juniors & Paralympic Road National Championships – Day 3 (6/22/12)

ByMike Byrd

(Originally Posted 6/22/2012)

Today was a rest day for Chester and I at the 2012 Elite, U23, Juniors & Paralympic Road National Championships. Today were the Criterium Championships and unfortunately (or fortunately) they don’t have a crit class for tandems.  

We slept late and headed down to the races to see the Paralympians that were able to do the Crit race.  It was inspirational to see them racing.  Watching them race definitely puts things in perspective.  They don’t see it that way and race as hard as any able bodied athlete, maybe even harder, but for me it definitely makes me realize that I shouldn’t be ‘sweating the small stuff’.  I hope that makes sense.

Chester and I had a great southern lunch on one of the corners of the criterium and watched the races for a couple hours.  We went back to the hotel and cooled off.  Then back for the announcement of the Paralympic team.  Chester’s good friend Joe made the team and the tandem team that beat us yesterday also earned a spot on the team.  I guess I can always say that I almost made an Olympic team!

This evening, we changed out the rear wheel, checked our spare wheels which inevitably had a rear flat.  Changed the tube and relaxed.  Chester is hanging out with his friend Joe and I’m enjoying the Shawshank Redemption.

We race tomorrow at 8AM so we’ll be up real early.  We have a 72K race on a rolling course with 1400ft of climbing per lap.  I think we will do well!

The Bike Racer

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the Internet. My name is Mike Byrd and this is my website. I enjoy sports, being outside, new challenges, marketing and anything that comes my way. I am the author of the blog posts on thebikeracer.com. I enjoy writing about cycling, poiltics, coffee and anything else that fits in the "My World" category. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to say up to date on anything new that gets posted to thebikeracer.com.

Similar Posts

  • Cackalacky Cup 2010 – The Legs Fell OFF!

    ByMike Byrd

    This past weekend was the Cackalacky Cup held at Lake Norman State Park. Charlotte Sports Cycling hosts on a Mountain Bike Time trail on the Itusi and Mombo trails. The first TT is on the Itusi loop with some man made obstacles (a skinny, limbo and cones). If you were to fall off the skinny, not clear the limbo or knock over a cone, you were assessed a time penalty.

  • 2011 South Carolina State Criterium Championships

    ByMike Byrd

    Sunday morning started much like Saturday, early.  Neal and I left the house right at 5:30AM to get to the criterium course held in Hampton Park next to the Citadel in Charleston, SC.  We stopped, got coffee and headed down I17.  There was a full moon and it seemed like we were going to drive right up to.  One of the coolest moon sets I’ve seen.

    We managed to get the Start/Finish Truss and stage set up in record time.  The SC Criterium Championship is held on a flat course with two real turns.  It’s a super fast 1 mile course.

  • Leadville 100 Race Report by Mark Odendahl

    ByMike Byrd

    The LT100 is a 100+ mile long (more on that in a minute) bike race that starts at an altitude of 10,200 ft above sea level in downtown Leadville and travels out into the Rockies and up to 12,544 ft. There are more than 14,000 feet of total elevation gain on a course that is about 80% rough fire road/double track, 18% pavement and 2% singletrack. It has 3 huge climbs and about a dozen smaller ones. Entry is by lottery – 1500 get in and reportedly over 10,000 entered the lottery to try after last year’s movie. What makes it special is that the entire field starts at once on the out and back course – Tour de France pros and amateurs alike all race together.

  • 2009 Tree Shaker Mountain Bike Race Fort Mill, SC

    ByMike Byrd

    The Tree Shaker 12 Hour race in Fort Mill, SC was my last ‘race’ of the year. Anything from here on out will be for fun.

    Last year, my team of Neal Boyd, Scott Streuer and myself took overall honors in the 3 person team event. This year, TJ Wood took Neal’s spot as Neal had timing responsibilities.

    The forcast was for wet weather but thankfully, we only had a few sprinkles throughout the day. TJ took the first lap, me the second and Scott took the third lap. The first lap always seems to be the hardest as you are trying to go fast, learn the course and not blow yourself up for the rest of the day. I had a great first lap and was looking forward to a good day.

  • Race Across America 2007

    ByMike Byrd

    Most of you know that I returned to San Diego to participate in the corporate Race Across America 24HR corporate challenge a week ago Friday. I had a great time and wanted to tell the story.

    I arrived in SD on Friday and my brother picked me up. We went to JT’s new store (Moment Bicycles in Point Loma) because I wanted to check out JT’s store and I had forgotten my helmet and needed a new one.

  • Sea Otter Classic 2006

    ByMike Byrd

    I attended the Sea Otter Classic this past weekend and raced the Masters 30+ Cat 5 Circuit and Road Race. If you haven’t been to Sea Otter, I recommend going at least once. Riding the Laguna Seca Racetrack is great experience. It’s a tough circuit race that climbs 300 feet per lap in about a ¼ mile with the 2nd half of the climb being much steeper than the first half. Riding the corkscrew is like being on a roller coaster ride, you feel as though you are riding straight down a mountain. A fellow competitor’s computer said we were going 47mph by the time we hit the bottom of the corkscrew turn.