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

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