The Story of the Originals

How I Went From A Team Player To Not Having A Team At All

Let me begin by saying whether you know me personally or just by this article I am NOT here to “trash talk” anyone or persuade someone one way or another my goal is simply to tell a story. A true story that is. Some information that may be important to know before proceeding is found below, I would advise you read it:

So this is where it all began. You see cycling is an interesting sport in the USA to say the least and that is because it is not as popular as in some other countries. Having said that my mom one day had found a flyer at her work for cycling at something called a velodrome which happened to be nearby and me having failed basically in all and every other sport that included a ball I decided to give it a try. Before you knew it I was in the sport winning left and right. I felt good to win and succeed at sport. That is how I found cycling to be my sport. Now let me tell you a little about how teams work in cycling. Having a team in cycling is not necessary but it is helpful to be on one at least to me it is and you will see why I say that later on. The teams work like this: you race by yourself meaning you may race with your teammates and you can indeed help each other out and usually do but in the end there is only 1 winner and so there is no “winning team.” So to sum it up teams exist in cycling but in the end you race for you and only you. So now the whistle sounds and the race is off… or in this case the story.

You know that point at which it is after take-off but you are still climbing to your cruising altitude? I like to call that the halfway point as you are climbing and if you make it to that point you must already be halfway done with the hard stuff. Right? At least that’s what I thought… boy oh boy was I wrong. Early in the story I mentioned that I was a good cyclist early on and however true that may be in the end I still had much improvements to make and still do to this day. As any athlete knows there is always room for improvement. To do this I got on a team or program one could call it. At the time there were two types of teams on this program the one being called “development team” and the other being the “high performance team.” I, like most started out on the development team but my goal was to make it up to the high performance team. I worked hard and eventually made my way up. I still remember the day I went to the high performance team. It was a sunny, hot, summer day and I was told to go to the high performance team for the day and train with them and my eyes just lit up. I was so happy that day. I was proud to wear that uniform. As time passed I got to know the team better and better. I bonded with many of them and for the first time ever I actually found out what a real team is and how they interact with each other. It was AWESOME to say the least. They became family to me. When we went to races we went together. We traveled a lot I mean we went to Canada, NYC, New Jersey and more. We even called ourselves “the originals” as we were the first young team that was trained hard and was built for performance of the elite. We were what one could call a beta test and I think we passed the test alright. We also had two coaches who I respected highly of but one of them really stuck out to me who I am going to call Mr. G for the time being. He to this day is someone who I look up to and always will. He was and is not one to come off as friendly at least not at first glance but once you get to know him more and more he becomes someone who you learn to respect and trust. The trips that we made as a team especially the longer ones like to Canada were special to me because I finally felt like I was part of something important. I found my home. I found my family. I found my team.

You see every race needs to end somewhere. And that is marked by the finish line. But before you get to the finish line in track cycling and crits(a road race on a closed circuit loop) you will get what is called a “bell lap” this means that this is the last lap of the race. So in short move your ass and get going if you wanna win. That is where the action, speed, intensity and final decisions are made. It is the point at which the entire race has been building up for, those last few seconds right before you cross the finish line. You see Mr. G was someone who helped me through a lot especially my pre-race anxiety and my “what went wrong/right analysis” after the race. So somehow he was able to help me calm down before a race and restore me after one. Most importantly he taught me how to breathe. Yes, Breathe. One day he told our team something saddening… he said that he was moving on in life and sadly was not going to be able to coach us anymore as he was moving on to other coaching opportunities in cycling. Now before you think that he is just abandoning us I want to say that is not the case. In fact a lot more stuff like his boss at the time — who’s name I will not mention — was not someone who was exactly kind. So it was in his best interest to leave. For me this was the “bell lap” comes. In other words the warning that the last lap has come and now it’s my time to decide what to do going forward.

So, what did I do on the “bell lap”? I stayed on the team to see how things played out. While I chose to stay on the team many of my teammates had left to find other teams. The team I once knew, the team I called family was falling apart and I was the one that secretly was hoping that I would just wake up from this horrific dream and that it would all be back to normal someday. That day… well sorry but it never came. In fact the nightmare got worse. For some you may think having people leave you isn’t that hard but what if those people were ones that you felt a connection with? Then would it be hard if they left? About a month or two later I was the last of the “original team” members left. One day I saw familiar faces and the next all new unfamiliar faces. Younger faces. For the next few months I just kept quiet and didn’t really interact with my “new team.” Eventually they kind of gave up trying to get me to open up and left me alone which is what I wanted at that point. In cycling you are split up by age and skill but you still can train with younger individuals unlike in some other sports. Now I am not saying that it is right for everything you do as an older kid cannot be lifting 90 lbs. and expect a younger kid to spot him… that just isn’t really safe or logical even. Soon I felt like an outcast. Like I didn’t belong. My maturity level was higher than the ones I am surrounded by at this point and it made me mad almost to think I once had an awesome team, coach and sport and now I felt like I am the parent of a team, with a non-existent coach and in a sport which I am embarrassed to be in. Just like pride, results that I wanted did not come for a while. Later on this was about in the beginning of this year(2018) a new coach came along. We will refer to him as “Mr. S”. Now the difference from this coach to the off/on coaches I had after ”Mr. G” had left is that this coach was committed and determined to make us great cyclist. So I did what most people would do and gave him the benefit of doubt. In the end I have to admit he knew what we was doing. But there was a big problem to all of this. Let me explain… have you ever seen one beyond the point of return? You see when an airplane speeds down a runway during a take-off there are two important speeds. The first one is at which point the airplane cannot abandon take-off even if something like the engine fails so they must proceed with the take-off as stoping is not possible due to the length of the runway left(it wouldn't be enough). This is known as “V1” or “the point of no return”. The second one is when the plane is at the speed where the nose should be raised. This is the actual take-off part. This is known as “Vr” or “Rotate”. Why is this important to know? Well, because I had reached the V1 when I made the choice to stay on my team after my first coach(“Mr. G.) left. The sad part about this is unlike in an aircraft where the copilot says out loud, “V1” and “Vr” was the warning I got from teammates to leave/lift off but I never listened to them. You see the team had already also passed “V1”. After the team broke up the ones left(me) were sent in a downward never ending spiral. I am not saying that the team was not good at the sport anymore nor was it that our new coach(“Mr. S”) was bad it was that if you build a great team and then it falls apart and you make a new team with new younger less experienced people and expect them to uphold the same legacy the last team had well then you got another thing coming. And that is exactly what happened.

A few weeks before the time of this article being published which is in the end of August in 2018 I was in Los Cabos, Mexico for vacation. This was my last “summer hurrah” before it the summer ended and my junior year of high school(11th grade) would begin. Over the trip I wanted to think about whether I should leave my team for good or decide to stay. So on vacation I did just that and I thought about it and thought about it some more but something else also happened while on vacation. Since I didn’t have my bike with me of course I couldn’t really train expect for the gym but I am not a fan of the gym especially when I am in a beautiful place like this where I should be outside as much as possible so that’s exactly what I did. I woke up at 7 AM the first morning and every morning after it and for the first time ever in my life I ran.

I liked running because it taught me that I didn’t need a team to be successful. I didn’t quit the team because it was failing. You see later on it hit me exactly why I quit the team. A team is not for me. Most think that you need a team and I thought that as well I mean you could clearly see how much I loved being on a team when we had “Mr. G.” as our coach. So why am I sending two different messages here? Well because there are two different paths here. And the right one is only the right to you. Both are correct. Both are wrong. Only you can decide which one is right and wrong. You see path 1 is to be on a team and to do things with others. Path 2 is to go alone but people for some reason seem to think being alone is bad which I still can’t figure out why as being alone can be amazing. You can have true freedom from everyone else. It’s not that you are not social but that you just prefer a different approach in life.

So you probably think that when I got back I quit cycling and ran, right? Not exactly. But I did quit my team. I am now with another coach for cycling which is now 1 on 1 based training(private coaching). You may ask do I regret leaving my team? And the answer to that is this… although it is still very early on in this new 1 on 1 coaching and I cannot say much at least not yet I can say that I do NOT regret leaving my team. You see they moved on with their lives and I didn't because I was hoping that they would all come back someday holding onto it with everything I had left in this sport. But sadly I finally realized that “V1” was passed.

So to answer the question some may have of “what is it like to quit a team?” Well, it hurts for one thing. But it is a sign of moving on. And lastly it's a sign that life doesn’t always go as expected and there are bends in the roads that we must overcome or else we will be right back where we started.

Just know when a team breaks the whole chain breaks leaving some in the dust to fight for their own and some moving on to better things. I was the one left in the dust this time. But I made it worse by not seeing the signs to tell me “V1” had arrived. And then “Vr” was my last chance which I missed… So I guess what I’m saying is stick with your team but if it becomes a “V1” scenario then I would make sure you are ready for a hell of a ride and ready to eject at any moment. Once you eject you will launch into a space which is the “Vr” point and into a new ride with new team and story to tell. Just like a family teams will break up and come together but sometimes they are reborn and reconnect with new people as well and that's ok. But it's important for you to know when that’s happening. And sometimes you just gotta go to path 2 and stick with yourself like me. :)

If anything just remember this…

A teammate is a friend.
A teammate is a challenges YOU.
A teammate is gets you through those challenges.
Most of all a teammate is someone that can be relied upon when you fall down and is able to bring you right back up.

You are yourself.
You can challenge YOURSELF.
You can get through those challenges.
You can always rely on yourself.

P.S. I just want to say thank you EVERYONE who was on my original team and even just in this life event and continue to be… you know who you are. YOU ARE THE REASON I made it this far and the reason I continue to strive. THANK YOU. Like for real you don’t know how much you taught me.

If you enjoyed this article please give it a few claps and share it with others. Thank you and remember to have a great day/night and to always stay awesome!

If you have any questions, comments or anything else about this article or another one of mine you can always DM me on my Twitter which is linked in my bio or you can email me at mmech2001@gmail.com.

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