2 Days Left

So I finally met my roommate at about 11 last night. Name is Ben. He's a thrower from Australia and pretty dank. He started teaching me all of these Aussie expressions, like "to have a bonk." (Remember that Powerbar commercial from the Sydney Games...Don't bonk). Anyways, he's made his B cut and hopes to get his A cut on Friday. Then he'll be "sworded," as he put it. Aka he'll have punched his ticket to Beijing. In another life, I want to come back as a thrower. You get to eat a lot and sleep in. Ben didn't get up until about 11 this morning. Another observation: stuff is cheap here if you carry foreign currency. He's bought sunglasses and a new blackberry.

Training was fine today. Ran past Cassie today (not like I overtook her; we were running opposite directions) and she said "hi." Yeah, it was epic.

Photo of the Day: This pic from the Rhodes BG World Cup won second prize for action photo at the World Press Photo Awards over the weekend. ITU turns out nice pics on a pretty regular basis.

Back at Chula OTC Sans Chu Crew

I returned to the Chula Vista OTC today for what may be my last week. I plan to drive up to Wildflower this weekend, race the LC, and then continue home to Davis where I can swim with my old age-group swim team, the Davis Aquadarts, and enjoy three group rides per week. I am approved to be here at the OTC through mid July when I plan to head to the COS OTC for a camp. But there isn’t room to bring someone else in to train with me and I don’t want to make my professor back in Berkeley mad at me for staying down here too long. It’s so nice down here that it will be real tough to leave before they kick me out, but I think I will try it Friday AM.

Its strange being back without the Chu Crew here. The place isn’t the same without Alicia Kaye, Jarrod Shoemaker, Ethan Brown and Mike Orton. Even my suitemate, the intern Janet Ho left today for her home in Iowa (she’ll be back, but probably not before I leave). I have a new roommate, but I haven’t met him yet (and I’ve been here all day). It’s so weird because I leave and come back and he’s gone, but I can tell he has been here. I think he’s a thrower. Its 10:45 right now. Where is he? Anyways, Mikey O had been my roommate and we joked about how strange Ethan was with his roommate who was a complete stranger. Now I kind of understand how the whole thing is a little uncomfortable. I also went on a 3 hour ride by myself; it sure would have been nice to have the Chu Crew there.

I started looking through old photos of the Chu Crew. I share some of them with you below.

PS: I watched A-Idol with Cassie tonight...


The Chu Crew on a ride southeast of San Diego and the OTC.

The Crew in the Caf--where the good food is.

Ethan playing pool.

Ethan making use of his fuel belt.

Mike O and Ethan cuddling.

Steve and Cal Tri in the Daily Californian Today

Bears Refuse To Quit Until They Snag National Crown
Led by Olympic Hopeful Sexton, Cal Breaks Its Second-Place Curse and Takes Home Top Honor

By Caroline Ogawa
Contributing Writer

After a 1.5-kilometer swim and 40k bike, Steve Sexton embarked on the last leg of the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship race-a 10k run.

Only three more hills, then a two-kilometer sprint to his first men's individual national title.

But now he had to rely on his teammates-the 34 other members of the Cal triathlon club team that began the race knowing they wanted more than another second-place finish ...

READ MORE

Sexton Named Cal Sport Clubs Athlete of the Year

At a season wrap-up event for the 30 teams of the Cal Sport Clubs program, Steve was awarded "Athlete of the Year" last Friday.

"He wins every race he enters," said Sport Clubs Director Trineice Durst. She said Steve helped lead Cal Tri to a dominant team victory, the first national title earned by a sport club during her tenure.

Steve said he was humbled by the award and grateful to his team.

"It's so important to have good friends to help motivate you and calm you before big races," he said. "We have the most supportive coaches and enthusiastic athletes of any team. That makes a big difference."

Reflections on Oly Selections

After Matty Reed claimed the second US Oly berth last weekend, it constituted something of an upset, even though the Kiwi transplant had the number one ranking by USAT in 2007. The establishment favorites for the Beijing team were Hunter Kemper and Andy Potts, who are recognized as most consistently turning in top American finishes. Now one of them isn’t going (except possibly as an alternate). They are tied for first in the race for the final Oly team spot based on performances at the Beijing WC in 2007 and Trials last weekend, with no one else really in contention behind them. That means whoever is first across the line in Des Moines in June is going. Critically, whoever is second is not.

This must have USAT a little bit nervous. One of the two men considered to be the USA’s top medal contenders for triathlon will be watching from the sidelines. Reed’s victory in Tuscaloosa prompted some speculation as to how the race would have changed if the swim had been a non-wetsuit swim in order to better match the conditions in Beijing, where the water will be above the temperature threshold for wetsuits. Potts, is regarded as one of the best swimmers in the sport of triathlon. It was thought that without the equalizing effect of wetsuits, he may have had a greater lead coming out of the water. Or perhaps the group of three—Kemper, Reed and Brian Fleishman—that worked together to bridge to Potts would not have come out together and been able to work to close the gap if wetsuits hadn’t been allowed. If the group of three had been a group of two, the race could have unfolded very differently. Or if Potts could have waited for one other fast swimmer to come onto the bike without waiting for all the top contenders to emerge, then maybe his group of two could have held of the chase group of two that surely would have included Reed. That was the speculation in Alabama.

Well, wait a minute… On consecutive weekends, Reed has now beaten Potts. At St. Anthony’s yesterday, Reed showed it wasn’t a fluke in Alabama. In a hard fought race, Reed narrowly out-biked and out-ran Potts for the win. Notably, he posted a swim time just three seconds slower than Potts.

Because the US has to earn each Oly spot and because the third spot earned by the US and won by Reed last week is based on rankings, the US is in jeopardy of losing that third spot. Reed, not by virtue of having secured the third spot but by virtue of being a top-ranked American on the Oly rankings, must race World Cups to maintain a sufficiently high ranking. Hence, he is headed for his third race in as many weeks at the Richards Bay WC next weekend.

In other news, TriSexton.com editor Kevin Collington had a solid race at St. Anthony's to take 5th amid a competitive field. Nice work Kevin! Now spell check this!

Results from St. Anthony's

Wait, I Recognize that 'Face in the Crowd'

Its Ethan Brown, U23 National Champion

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2008/04/28/

Sexton Praises Zoot

Steve Sexton on Saturday credited Zoot Sports with helping him achieve success in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In new flash media feature on Zoot's website, http://www.zootsports.com/, Sexton offers praise for a sponsorship arrangement between Zoot, the leading multisport apparel, shoe and wetsuit maker, and the Cal Triathlon team. The partnership outfitted Cal athletes in custom Zoot race kits sublimated by Squadra, Zoot Ultra shoes and Zenith wetsuits.

"It takes a lot of support and great equipment to win a national title," Sexton said. "Zoot provided us with both. I couldn't be happier to share this victory with our friends at Zoot."

TriSexton.com Announces New Web Editor!

BREAKING--On the verge of graduating from the University of Florida, Kevin Collington has signed on as editor of TriSexton.com. Collington will be responsible for editorial content of the site.

"I couldn't be more excited to have Kevin on board," said Steve Sexton, owner of TriSexton.com. "He joins our staff at a critical time. He will be instrumental in developing content, increasing visibility, and running spell check."

"This is a great opportunity for me," Collington says. "I don't have a job and this could be a huge resume builder. I've been impressed with Steve's potential in this sport, and I am glad to be able to help him succeed."

TriSexton.com is also in contract negotiations with Mike Orton and Ethan Brown, according to sources involved in the discussions. The same sources say Orton and Brown may soon be added as staff contributors.

DEVELOPING...

Will the Real Jarrod Shoemaker Please Stand Up?

Breakfast of Champions

I'll be selling autographed Wheaties boxes for $50 each. Email me to get yours. For another $50, have breakfast with someone who trained with Jarrod for the past two months!

The Chu Crew Says Goodbye

For the past 6 weeks or so, I've been training with Jarrod Shoemaker, the first guy to make the 2008 Olympic team, and Mike Orton and Ethan Brown. We've been training at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center near San Diego. We've done some real hard training and had a lot of fun. I am going to stay at Chula for a while. Ethan and Jarrod return home near Boston and Mikey O. will leave in just over a week for Germany. He's spending the whole summer there, racing with a German pro team. It's sad to see the camp end, but we are poised to have great seasons and see a good friend on the Olympic podium.

Here is a pic of the OTC:

Controversy on Slowtwitch

I'm generally much too busy to read triathlon forums (contrary to what some of these people think), but a friend at Davis Wheelworks mentioned I was being trashed on Slowtwitch. Here's what's being said:

Steve Sexton is still in college? How old is he?

To answer my own question:

http://www.dailycal.org/...25362/london_calling

"His name is Steve Sexton, a second-year graduate student who originally enrolled at Cal as a swimmer in 2000."

There needs to be age limits on collegiate athletes! Wow. That means he's been in college for 8 years. Not to mention the fact that he's sponsored, etc. I would love to not have to work to support myself in school and still have top of the line gear, including a $200 a month coach.

Maybe I'm just jealous, but shouldn't the playing field be a little more even for collegiate athletes? I think that the full-time students on my team should be able to compete against other students, not semi-pros.

I actually agree that there should be some restrictions on how many times you can compete in collegiate nationals. That's why I imposed NCAA restrictions on myself. I completed four years of collegiate nationals competition in five years--red-shirting in 2006 due to injury. Those are the same elligibility criteria NCAA athletes must meet. There is not an upper bound on age, according to NCAA.

But I completely disagree with any characterization of what I am doing as easy. A PhD in economics is not easy. I have no free time. I train and I study. Thursday night before the Saturday race, I was awake until 12:30AM doing work for my professor.

Second, national team athletes participate in collegiate national events of other sports, and particularly for NCAA sports. Most of these athletes have very well-compensated coaches with their collegiate programs and access to great training and recovery facilities. Having a coach and a time trial bike should not preclude someone from collegiate competition.

Cal Triathlon Wins Col Nats - Finally!

For four years, Cal Triathlon has been the second-best team in the country. This past weekend, we finally pulled out the win. Our men were first, our women second, and our combined team was first. Go Bears!