Nationals - the Time Trial

Last week was the long-awaited Junior Cycling Nationals.  We flew out Monday to meet the team in Manhattan Beach, CA where James and Keith did an easy ride with the team to keep everyone's legs in shape in anticipation of the races on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  On Tuesday  we headed to Anaheim for packet pick-up and a preview of the time trial course.  It was a tough one.

It was in Santiago Canyon (a rather  remote area I must say) - one of the canyons that was mostly consumed by fire last summer.  (For anyone interested in random trivia, the official parking was in the parking lot of Saddleback Church on Purpose Way, pastored (and maybe founded) by Rick Warren of Purpose Driven fame.)  There was an 800 foot elevation climb in a very hot and dry environment - it was brutal just watching.  James went off at 3:02 and finished the 6.7 miles in 27:55 minutes, which was 26 out of a field of 44.  He was initially disappointed, but his coaches were very pleased.  After he found out less than a dozen 10 year olds even tried it and he beat most of those, he felt better.  Our team came away with the 10-12 year-old male and the 13-14 year-old national champs.  We also had the third place in the 10-12 year-old female group.  Not bad for only 5 riders that day. 

All in all, it wasn't a bad day considering that when we started it, his goal was just to finish the time trial.  Stay tuned for the criterium and road race updates.  

Here is  the link to the time trial results.  My mom has done all kind of analytics to figure out exactly how many 10 year-olds there are and whether they are from the west coast (and accustomed to that terrain and climate :)   http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2008&id=1391&info_id=14215