Tuesday in Madrid for the ITU Championship Series with Head Coach Ian Murray and Team USA

L to R: Alicia, Jarrod, Jenna, Amanda waiting for bike boxes in Madrid for ITU Triathlon.

In 2008 I was fortunate to come to Madrid as an assistant coach to the US Triathlon team. The USA invented triathlon, we owed the Ironman distance for years and we were strong in the beginning when triathlon got its Olympic status in Sydney in 2000.

In 2008 I stepped off the plane in Madrid and into some urgency; the US was about to slip low enough in the rankings were we’d only get to send two male athletes to the games rather than the three that we’d always come to know, love and expect. The Madrid ITU race in that year was urgent.

This time, in 2010, I’m back as head coach for the team and the event seems no less critical; this is the first race where Olympic points will be awarded towards London and so the process begins anew.

Flying from Los Angeles to Europe is a bit of bummer. There are worse routes to be sure.  But Los Angeles to Dulles is 5+ hour haul and then Dulles to Madrid is another flight equally as long. The day started at 3am with my wife, Alexandra driving me to LAX for a 6 am flight. I checked a bag of clothes and my Ritchey BreakAway – a full sized road bike that, essentially breaks in two and fits into a suit case that doesn’t draw the ludicrous charges for a normal bike. I walked in at 4am, it’s weird being in the airport before TSA opens the security inspection.  I got to watch their set up and it’s not too unlike opening any retail store.

I flew alone to DC and then connected with four of the eleven US athlete’s Jenna Shoemaker her brother Jarrod Shoemaker and his wife, Alicia Kaye and Amanda Felder. We slept when we could and landed in Spain at 7:15am.