Brad White Cycling

Since nationals I’ve been busy catching up on things in the yard and spending time with the family. It’s been really nice. This weekend the family and I are heading down to Chicago for a race in Glencoe. Nice to do a race close to home where I don’t have to be away from the family. I think I’ve been home 1 weekend since January. It doesn’t look like I am racing next weekend so more than a week at home without leaving will be a treat. Since it’s been a busy 3 days since getting back from Nationals I haven’t had time to share this traveling story.

Jason McCartney and I seem to leave races together at ungodly hours in the morning and always seem to have something exciting happen. We both agree that traveling together is bad luck. This year at Nationals we had a cab scheduled to pick us up for the airport at 6am. It showed up 20 minutes late which didn’t leave us much time at the airport. Neither of us had cash so I gave the cab driver my credit card. He had to call it in but after 10 minutes of trying he couldn’t reach dispatch. He said there is an ATM inside can you use that? I grabbed my card and Jason and I walked in and proceeded toward security. We now had 35 minutes before take off. Once through security I called the cab company told them what happened and payed for our cab over the phone. Few we made it! So we thought. Right before boarding they call a White Cycling toward the podium over the PA. I look up and there is a cop at the podium with the flight attendant. Jason and I look at each other and half smile. When I get up there the cop wants to take me back outside to the cab and explain myself. If I leave now I’ll surely miss my flight so I explain I payed already and he now wants proof and is acting really pissed toward me. I try and act calm and call the taxi company. When I’m on the phone with them he gets a call saying I’m clear. Few we’re good to go. After Sprinting to my next plain in Atlanta I make it home on time. A little stressful but it’s what I expect when traveling with J Mac. 

This will be the last year that the US National Championships will be in Greenville, SC. They’ve been here since 2006 and I’ve had the chance to race all of them since 2007 when I raced with Discovery Marco Polo. This is where I met Dave Towle which didn’t hurt helping me get to where I am today. This race has also been a bit of a crux for me. Anyone who has done this race more than once knows it well. You have to show up with good legs. There is no faking your way through this course. Last year I came out of California pretty toasted and with a crash, two bike changes, and a flat in the first 40K the race didn’t go to well. I think I came out a bit better this year and have had some good racing in the legs. With California just a week ago there isn’t any training you can do. You almost have to rest do some openers the day before and hope for the best. The temperature most of the time plays a factor too. It looks like it’s going to be in the high 80’s which isn’t to bad for here. I have Jeff and Jason as teammates here so with only three of us we’ll have to gamble. Let’s hope we can get lucky.

That was a hot tough day on the bike. Thankful for the RV since we had a 2 hour transfer to race and a 2 hour transfer after the race. A nice 130 miles between the transfers makes for a long day. Ready for some rest. Tomorrows time trial will be taken easy so I can try again for the break on stage 6 up to Big Bear. Todays trying for the break made me hurt for the rest of the day. So did Jens and the RadioShack boys riding hard on the uphills and easy on the downhills all day. On the RV after the race I at 2 bowls of cereal, a half of a burrito, a bag of chips, a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt, and multiple chocolate chip cookies (thanks to Chris Jone’s wife Cassie). That should be enough to help me recover. The last thing I want to drink is more sports drink right now but with the amount of salt we lost today I think the electrolytes are pretty important. Lots of salty jerseys in the group today. Any other ideas for rehydrating. Maybe a Shock Top!?    

If you all missed the Tour of California viewing at the Curragh Irish Pub yesterday you missed out on a free beer. Jenny had invited all to join her on facebook and I piped up saying if I was in the break she would buy a round of beers. I hope those of you who were at the pub enjoyed a the beer. I really appreciate all the e-mails, tweets, and facebook notes. It was a good day in the break and everyone worked well together until we hit the Bonny Dune climb. The group split up there and we were all caught before the finish. The rest of the boys gave it a good go near the end which was good to see. Rory and Chris both crashed but got up and are okay. Chris had a spoke rip a chunk out of his leg just below his knee. He has stitches and started today. Hopefully he heels up well the next few day as he’s a big asset to the team. Rory is doing well and should be fine. Today wasn’t to stressful on the body which was good. Tomorrow looks tough so it’ll take everything we’ve got. I think a break should go to the finish as I think people are tired of helping Sagan get to the line and beat everyone. He’s pretty incredible but he can’t win all the stages. We’ll see!

The numbers are pinned and we’re ready to head to the start. The photo is taken with photo bucket so it looks like your looking in a mirror.