Brad Williams- Professional Triathlete ARCHIVES: Day 1- TDK

15 Apr 2011- TDK Day 1-

Well today ended up being an interesting day to say the least. I completed objective number 1 of keeping it on two wheels and not going down. So this is my first official road race and I felt pretty good to say the least. The neutral zone was about 30 miles long, we were cruising around 20-23mph. I played gutter patrol and kept people from coming up the side during the neutral side. After the neutral zone we had 3K till the first climb. It was 3.6K long with average of 8% incline. I made it up to the top of the KOM about 2m40secs down from the leader and then bridged up to some of our "A" team riders. We are split into two teams Storck and Rapha, as only each team can have 8 riders. So the "B" team role has been too support the A team riders. I came down the descent and our climber had went down, so I stopped and gave him my rear wheel as he had flatter/jacked up his rear tire/wheel. This is one of the hardest things I have done, but with cycling and this being a team sport I helped out the team. So un like being the typical selfish triathlete I am and everything about me, I had an eye opening experience today and the benefits of helping other teammates. The one thing about TDK is that our support vehicle can only go as fast as the last rider, so I had to wait 15 minutes for them to arrive. I sat there and had to watch 6 people go down, and they didn't go down easy, they crashed HARD. One of our team members broke his arm and is having surgery on it. Another guy slid 15 feet on his face, it was like a train wreck you don't want to watch but you just can't look away.

So after the wait I got back on the bike and another one of our teammates double flatted and we rode for awhile together. I am training for China still and with that being my A race I wanted to just finish out the stage and get the miles in, plus it was a beautiful day!

We are back at the motel now just relaxing and BSing about life, racing, girls and then of course all the crashes. We just got the results, and WOW our guys took it to the other teams today. Our Team(The A Team) has a 5min55sec lead over the other teams, they take the top 3 guys times from each stage. Our first 3 finished 3rd,4th,11th. We also had 2 guys in the top 3 of the KOM, so all in all a great day! Well other than I am in 116th

Tomorrow is 129K and it is quite flat, so hopefully we can manage the peloton and keep the teams 6 minute lead.

Below are some pics from today and of the stage tomorrow.........And a video from the KOM...I am at 3min20secs in the video:
http://tvpot.daum.net/v/31943776?lu=flvPlayer_out

We are doing a daily series of "Where is Elmer??", so today Elmer "The Flying Ostrich" was hiding behind the foam roller on his bike. Stay tuned for more "Where is Elmer??"