Day 20

Nationals are over and everyone has gone their separate ways. This blog will finish with a poignant message from Stu, who sums up the racing better than I ever could.

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Hello. I am Stu Bone. I'm the bromobile driving, dish washing, number pinning, breakfast cooking, check writing, trainer setter upping, ice sock wrapping, chipotle buying, bottle feeding, team car driving, instagraming Senior Director of Fun at Bear Development Team. Tim was after me to write a guest blog post for the last few days of our trip to USA Amateur Road Nationals in Madison, WI. I kept putting it off. Mostly, because I was mired in the details of supporting the team at time trial, road and criterium nationals.

Today Tim and I flew home from Madison to San Francisco while the rest of the team continued on in the bromobile to Bend, OR to race the Cascade Classic. I'll meet them there next weekend. Tim will head off to Europe to race a European campaign with USAC. On our flight, we had a chance to chat about many of last weeks' moments and characters.

To be honest, some moments during the last week really sucked. For example, our sprinters: Tommy Lucas and Matt Schaupp were crashed out of their respective criterium events yesterday with one lap to go. Matt's crash was fairly serious. He will be OK, but he suffered a concussion and has some serious neck and back pain today. His season is over. The crash that Tommy was involved in cracked his fork and he walked away with road rash.

Watching these fields sprint across the line without Tommy and Matt, I couldn't help but realize how many things went right last year when Matt Schaupp sprinted up onto the podium at USA Junior Criterium Nationals. Or when Tim Aiken won the 2s road race at San Dimas. Or when Tobin Ortenblad won the Pro12 race at Santa Cruz Criterium. This is a game of centimeters and split seconds. Bad things happen fast. In order to win, so many good things must come together. We really have to savor those moments. Sometimes, wins and losses appear to be the product of karma. Other times, they're just chance.

Another disappointment was that a couple of our riders were humbled as they got dropped in super strong fields. In some of these cases, our riders had to just own up to the fact that they didn't have the legs to stay with the leaders. This is never an easy thing to do, especially in a development environment that is geared towards helping riders move forward into the professional level of the sport. These vulnerabilities present teachable moments, when we are forced to see the world as it really is. In order for these moments to have value, we must adjust our thinking, training and focus moving forward.

Yep, we had to eat some dog poo sandwiches in Madison: broken bodies, broken equipment, broken race plans, broken dreams. Things did not go our way. In this, there were plenty of moments to learn from. And plenty that we might as well forget.

That said, there are many other moments I really enjoyed and won't forget. Like the moments when Bryan offered up some tactical insights to the juniors after his U23 road race. Or the time when Matt sold out on the front of the 17-18 road race for Tim, stringing out the field and keeping him safe in an uneasy, nervous first lap. Or the times in the team van, heading to race when just the right song came on and everyone felt connected and excited to be out on the road, racing on such a grand stage together. Or the times we walked over to the UW Terrace to hang out by the lake, eat ice cream and make new friends.

Mostly, I won't forget the feeling that we were all a part of something, helping each other out and having fun together. Bear Development Team is a brotherhood. And the time we spend together, out on the road, becoming better friends, sharing vulnerabilities and successes makes for some really good moments. We've been collecting them for two years now. The joy of contributing to and being supported by a real team is something many people will never experience. I wouldn't trade the experience of this dynamic for anything. I will not forget these moments with these guys. I will most definitely smile whenever I think back on our trip to Madison, WI.

I can't wait to return to Madison for 2014 road nationals with this team.

With that, I sign off with a shout out to Tim Aiken, Bryan Duke, Sam Cerruti, Trevor Ellsworth, Tommy Lucas and Matt Schaupp - my little brothers on the Bear Development Team.

Day 19

As those of you in eastern time zones will notice, Day 19 is being posted on the 20th day of bro camp. It's 1:00 am, and everything is finally packed for the departure tomorrow: Sam, Bryan, and Trevor will head back across the country with Steve Ellsworth (thanks again Steve!), while Matt, Stu, and I fly back to California.

Attentive readers will remember that Matt was also supposed to participate in the long-haul drive to Bend for the Cascade Cycling Classic. Unfortunately, his scary crash in the Junior 17/18 national criterium was just one of many things that didn't go right today.

While sitting in a position to win the 15/16 criterium (that's not even an exaggeration), Tommy was crashed out by an overzealous rider. My brake was rubbing for half the race after nailing one of many potholes on course, rendering me unable to help Matt to a podium spot. Worst of all, Matt hit the deck at one to go, leaving him dazed and with a concussion.

Some days are magical, but today was not one of those days. Luckily, we all survived the experience relatively unscathed, and will live to fight at another race.

Day 18

Howdy blog readers.  This is Bryan Duke coming in live from the Madison, WI Best Western Inn room 321; Tim Aiken will be sitting side lines for this one.

Today is a rest day.  That's right, nothing to do. Oh, besides laundry, prep bikes, pin numbers, ride for an hour, get haircuts, pack the van, prepare for departure on Monday, shop for groceries...

We started with a double purpose bike ride: an easy one hour ride with a little course recon of tomorrow's crit course around the state capital.  As we rolled up to the block around the state capital, we came a cross a huge farmer's market.  Hundreds of locals were enjoying live music, food, and illegal jaywalking. This made course recon very unproductive. We fled out to the epic bike paths that surrond Madison - pictures below.

We came back, showered, replenished our energy reserves (aka stuffed our face with food), Tindered (yeah, it's now a verb), and then explored the darker side of the internet (not explaining it anymore than that).  Then it was time for some laundry.  A week of dirty kit and sweat logged clothes really make for an unpleasant entrance to our hotel room.  Sorry cleaning staff! We started our laundry at a nearby coin wash and shortly after had diner at Chipotle with the PDX Devo Team from Oregon. Of course this was followed by a trip to the Terrace and a game of Heat Seeker.  Heat Seeker is a game in which your close friends choose an attractive female who you must approach and start a conversation with. As Stu has been advising us, "Don't talk about it, be about it".  So this was our time to not talk about attractive girls, but rather talk TO attractive girls. I have to say, I was proud of Tommy and Tim. They approached two girls and immediately took the two open seats at their table.  They then said "hi". A solid twenty minutes later they returned to share their stories.  There was a lot of talk about cheese curds and little swapping of numbers - actually there was no swapping of numbers.  Tim had some redemption later in the night in which he chased down a girl walking in his direction and scored some digits!  To his disappointment  the number was fake.  She missed out.

Now it is time for some Zzzz's and dreaming of podiums.

Day 17

In the end, really no matter what happened (except for a podium, obviously), the national championship road race was bound to be anticlimactic. I finished a decent, if unnoticeable 15th place, fighting my way into the front group and then riding as hard as I could to the finish.

Tomorrow is a day off from racing (though, as anyone who follows bike racing will realize, a "day off" means at least 1.5 hours at a moderate tempo), and in general, the stress present in the bromobile in the time leading up to nationals seems to have dissipated. Though we are focused for races, as soon as they are over everything is back to fun and games. Stu, especially, is a child at heart: after purchasing a large bottle of sparkling water, he couldn't help but channel his inner Tour de France stage winner by showering us all with the closest to bubbly he's willing to drink. Of course, a prank can't pass without a retaliation: at the next available opportunity we assailed Stu with a barrage of flying brownies left over from the wonderful dinner Julia hosted for us (even after races we aren't willing to eat sweets).

Though he has not managed to make the blog yet, we have lately been blessed with the presence of the one, the only Tommy Lucas (or Big Money T as he prefers to be called). Tommy can have us all on the floor laughing with his various stories, especially surrounding his life on the internet. That's all I'll say here.

Day 16

On the Fourth of July, most people are out barbecuing, watching fireworks, and generally enjoying themselves, but a select group of individuals, the male junior cyclists, are nervously pacing their hotel rooms, pinning numbers, filling bottles, and prepping bikes.

A year of hard work culminates tomorrow in the Nationals Road Race. This is the end of the long road. Dreams will be made and dreams will be crushed. We're ready. We're stoked.

Day 15

What's special about July 3rd? Firstly, it's the day before the fourth of July. It's the day of Bryan's U23 National Road Race. It's also my birthday. I told Bryan that all I wanted as a present was for him to win nationals. Considering the head cold he went into the race with, 29th place is basically a victory.

This is the second year I've been away from home on my birthday, and to continue with the trend set last summer in New Zealand, my parents had some baked goods delivered to me at a completely unexpected time. As I stepped out of the van returning from Bryan's race, a slightly disheveled guy driving a Toyota Corolla handed me a box of (gluten free!) cupcakes and merrily said "happy birthday Tim!" before driving off. Not weird at all.

On a similar note, despite being thousands of miles away, my wonderful sister still managed to make me feel right at home with some well-planned messages on Facebook. The original images and text can be found below. Love you Emily!

As the actual national championship races approach, the ritual arrival of the parents begins. The opportunities to win a stars-and-stripes jersey are few and far-between, and considering we actually have a decent shot this year, many moms and dads have shown up to make sure they don't miss what could be a once-in-a-lifetime moment. With the Cerrutis, Schaupps, and Ellsworths here, we just need a few surfboards and a sparkling sunset to make us believe we're back at the winter training camp in Santa Cruz.

Happy birthday from the kingdom to the best brother in the world!

(ed. note- The realm refers to the collection of stuffed animals that live in Emily's bedroom. They are ruled by Prince Big Fluffy the Second [on the right]. He eats dinner with us)

I've already posted your birthday collage from the realm, but...

Today's your birthday, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to share this legendary photo with the rest of the world. It's pretty hard to believe that this little dork grew up into the fairly normal person you are today! Have a great day, and kick some serious butt at nationals!

Day 14

We awoke to another gorgeous day in Madison, Wisconsin. It may seem corny how many times I've mentioned the beauty of this place, but aside from being the location of nationals, Madison is just a downright nice town to hang out in.

On the topic of hanging out, one of the objectives of bro camp (besides winning bike races, of course) is to learn how to interact with women. To teenage men, the female sex can seem like a completely different species at times, so we try to dedicate time to interacting in a normal, and hopefully natural, manner with them. Bryan, as a graduate of Bro Camp 2012, is already well versed in this domain. He gave us a perfect  demonstration today when he jumped out of the van to chase down a runner he was interested in. Lo-and-behold, he got her number, and Sunday night won't just be about the criterium for him.

The rest of us are still trying to get on Bryan's level, but with a Fourth of July fireworks show (on July 3) at the lake tomorrow, we should have plenty of time to practice. I'm also working on getting some of the other teammates to blog, so expect to see a guest post or two here in the next few days.