Day One - Monday, June 18th
Left my house at 2:30am and arrived at the team house in Georgia at 9:30pm. TSA took great care of my equipment, forgetting to latch my wheel box shut and figuring out how to scratch my bike up with 3 layers of foam in the bike box.
Day Two - Tuesday, June 19th
The whole team went and rode the road race course. The course had a lot of rollers with a climb to the finish and a hard feedzone hill after the start/finish. My legs felt a little sluggish from the traveling of the day before so I rode as easy as possible while retaining a visible forward trajectory.
The team before the ride Tuesday.
Day Three - Wednesday, June 20th
This was the day of Sean's 13-14 road race. Before Sean's race the team pre rode the TT course. I did a few leg openers and by the end of the ride my legs felt pretty opened. Sean rode a strong race despite going down in a crash and having to chase back to the lead group.
Diego and Dean made dinner. It was pretty good.
Day Four (The 15-16's first race) - Thursday, June 21st
On Thursday we had the time trial. I had a time of 29:03 for the 20k course. After the TT the team went for a swim in the lake and then drove over to awards. Sean had placed 2nd in the 13-14's and Jack took 5th in the 15-16's.
My right TT bar slipped so I was forced to finish in the dropouts.
Day Five - Friday, June 22nd
Friday was the day of the Criterium. This was not a good day for the team since our sprinter was crashed out with a few laps to go. I was not able to do my full job for the day so Jack and Matt had to make up for it leaving them tired for the finish.
With around two to go a crash happened in front of me and I had to skid around it. I ran into some debris with my front wheel but stayed upright. I was off the back and finished off the back. After the criterium I was very motivated for the road race and ready to deal some damage for the team.
Day 6 - Saturday, June 23rd
Saturday was the last race of Nationals, the road race. A few minutes into the race Matt and Michael (Garmin) went off the front. Because Matt was off the front I tried to sit in the pack and conserve my energy for when it counted. On the second lap I found Nick and communicated with him letting him know I was moving to the front since attacks were starting to fly. Immediately after I found Nick the pack hit a downhill and an attack went. I moved into the pack to wait until we caught the attack to move up, but then a crash happened in front of me. I braked and tried to maneuver my way around the wreckage when a bike pile drove into me sending me over the first kid that crashed. I put my hands out to catch myself. Thankfully I only sprained my wrist and I did not even get road rash. However, my front 404 was broken and that has definitely left a mark.
Thank you to my Parents for making my racing possible. Thank to the Sponsors and Founders who made our Nationals trip possible. Thank you to Larry for helping the team do the best we can.
Thank you to my Parents for making my racing possible. Thank to the Sponsors and Founders who made our Nationals trip possible. Thank you to Larry for helping the team do the best we can.
Thank you for reading,
Jonathan Christensen
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