---------------------------------------------------
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment