Selected!

Last month I specified that I would be going to huntsville, Alabama to compete in a World Cup qualifying time trial event. A week before the event I produced all time best power for 5, 10, 20, and 30 minute intervals of a 30 minute time trial to match the distance of the event I was going to be doing in Huntsville. Huntsville event should have taken around 30 to 32 minutes for 9 miles. The numbers I posted the week before blew my mind! I was so excited that I finally averaged over a hundred watts for all of these time segments. For my function as an H1 that was a huge accomplishment. Okay, so I’m going into Huntsville very excited on what may be. This was the event to determine who is selected to the Team USA roster for World Cup one in Belgium and World Cup 2 in Italy during May. There are two races at each world cup. Our best two results from these four races will count towards selection to the 2025 World Championships in Belgium this coming August. Two days before I was supposed to leave to Belgium our director got really sick and I notified us that she was not going to be able to go. I need some help with transportation, packing and unpacking my bike, and getting to the race. We tried to recruit another person or two but no luck. There wasn’t a lot of people at this event either. The staff at the event was not allowed to help out athletes as well because of favoritism. I thought the favoritism was a little odd. One person said they struggled with it because they enjoyed to help others when in need. If my hands worked a little better I could put my bike together and get it in and out of the case without a problem. It’s okay though. The night before I was going to leave I got the news that the person that may have been able to help me out wasn’t arriving until Thursday. And they were arriving more than 24 hours after I was arriving. So, I gave my stepdad a call 9 hours before having to be to the airport and he was in. He’s always up for an adventure. He is retired and a good person.

After making it to Huntsville we faced another problem. After putting my bike together, the derailleur was not shifting. The battery and control box were working but the message from the control box down the wire to the derailleur was not getting there. After a couple hours of messing with this I decided to put it aside and call a bike shop the next morning. After calling a few bike shops I found the only shop that had one di2 wire that fit perfectly to what I needed. Talk about a relief! Then having my stepdad there to drive me to the bike to the shop, get the wire replaced, and then back to the hotel where I got to use one of my other teammates rollers to get an hour ride in for the day as it was getting late. A functional bike is a very good thing! I got a ride in the next day for about an hour around the course and was feeling really good! I found that I was pedaling up the very slight grades easily. I’m still getting used to my new bike a few months later but everything’s coming together slowly but surely. When you have limited function of your upper extremities you want to be able to maximize your function to be able to produce the most power you can yet still be aerodynamic and efficient.

The morning of the race my stepdad went down to the lobby and got me a cup of coffee. Caffeine is definitely my go-to before a hard training ride or race. I had breakfast and then we headed off to the race. As I was warming up, I just felt maybe too relaxed. We had a quick downpour before the event, and it was a little chilly. I was feeling maybe too relaxed though as I mentioned. I was nervous, but I wasn’t feeling the zing that caffeine usually gives me. The research shows that caffeine can increase performance in endurance events by up to 15% or more. That is huge. As I left the starting ramp I was struggling to produce the 90 plus watts that I’m very capable of pushing. I felt this way for most of the ride. At the end, my power was 80 Watts for the event. I should have been able to average 95 + watts for that event in the right circumstances. I had got ninth overall among all paracyclists per the standard for each category. Honestly, some may not agree, but I was very capable of getting second with respect to my time standard if I would have been able to produce the watts that I typically do. I was very unsure of even being a discretionary selection for the World Cups. Although, I wasn’t that disappointed because I still went 102%, just above standard, feeling flat.

Monday night the day after getting home I called my step dad and asked him if he got me decaf coffee before the event and he said yes. Now everything made sense! He said they didn’t have any regular coffee so that’s what he got me. He didn’t understand the performance benefits of the caffeine in the coffee. I did have a little bit of a caffeinated gel I had but it’s not the same. So now, I would wait a few days to hear from Team USA if I was selected or not. I went ahead and reserved rooms in Europe just in case I was not selected to race with Team USA. But, I did get the call which blew me away that I was chosen as a discretionary selection to both world cup one and world cup two. Excellent! This was awesome news:-) I was just about to start teaching the lecture in nutrition at the University when I got the message so I started the class off with the good news! My best friend from back home is going to travel over to Europe as well and see me race. It’ll be great having him over there to help me out with a few things and also help my good friend and teammate out as well. Pretty surprised with the way things ended up. I’m really looking forward to doing the best I can in all four events over there next month. I’m looking forward to competing at the world championships as long as all goes well! I specified in my team plan to the national team that I want to go to the World Championships every year up to the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics. I just want to take it one month to a year at a time to help me with progression.

The blog next month will be on World Cup one and World Cup two. Fingers crossed, I will ride as fast as I can with the goal of qualifying for the world championships.