So, it's been a long week! On Thursday, May 2 I began my trek to Ogden for the 2013 Collegiate Nationals crit and road race. Looking back, it was an incredible weekend and an amazing year in the ECCC that exceeded my expectations in almost every area. For that, I can't thank my team enough for all of the support and encouragement!
To add a little background, I am a third-year Ph.D. student at Lehigh. When I arrived on campus in 2010, I had owned my cheap, 25-pound road bike (affectionately known as the "yellow hornet" or "old yeller") for a couple of years and competed in exactly ONE cat. 5 road race. In that race, I struggled for the first 30 seconds to clip into my pedals, spent the next 2 minutes chasing onto the pack, got caught behind the only rider in the race slower than myself, and was dropped within the first mile. The next 40 miles were a lonely, windy sufferfest. Not exactly a success story.
When I got to Lehigh, I was also fresh off of a yearlong stint in Tanzania, where I had been teaching for a year. Maybe it was the nicely paved roads, or the idea of meeting some cool new people, but I immediately decided to join the cycling team. From day one, LU Cycling has been an awesome group - quickly showing me the ropes and the routes, teaching me the basics of racing my bike, and welcoming an "old guy" to the team.
I started my first year in the C category, had some early success, and later moved up to the B's where I learned that this wasn't going to be the cakewalk I had hoped for. However, by the end of my second year, I was starting to get the hang of things and topped off my last race in B's by getting third in the conference championship crit last season. After a season and a half in the B's I knew it was time to bite the bullet and move up to Cat A. For that move, I have to give a special shout out to Marten, who was always one step ahead (in terms of experience, fitness, and especially mechanical knowledge) and always there to provide guidance and advice. He also single-handedly built up my entire bike this season in exchange for beers and pizza. What a teammate!
So I came into this season, my third, with low expectations for the A's. In my academic program third year is absolutely the most demanding, so I missed some valuable training time. Marten was coming off of an outstanding cyclocross season, so I thought I might be able to support him in some races and maybe, just MAYBE, sneak into nationals. Instead, Marten decided to take some time to recover from a long cross season and to focus on the Battenkill race, so I was suddenly free to seek some of my own results. I was rewarded with a couple of early top 10's and eventually some top 5's.
So, long story short, here I am at collegiate nationals proudly representing the brown and white. They call cycling a team sport for a reason; I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of the incredible members of my team, from intro's to A's, men and women, freshmen to faculty, and of course, all of our awesome sponsors. THANK YOU ALL and go Mountain Hawks!
-Brandon K.
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