Tour of Qatar Diary – The Team Time Trial
By Justin Williams, Trek-LIVESTRONG U23 Team

2/7/10 - The day before the first stage of the Tour of Qatar, things started to get a little tense on the team. After a few TTT (Team Time Trial) efforts it was clear that we needed a little more practice. I hadn't been feeling good, so I'd pulled off a little early and watched the guys kill it.

We have so many talented guys, we all knew with a bit of luck and good legs the Trek-LIVESTRONG U23 Team could surprise a few teams. Axel (Merckx) could tell I wasn't myself, so he pulled me aside to talk and I assured him I was a little jet lagged and super nervous. He made it clear that we were lucky to be here and it should always be fun at the end of the day. I started to feel a lot more at ease after that and everything on the team seemed like it started to fall into place for the TTT.

Today's Team Time Trial was pretty cool. I woke up at 4:45 am, because I was so excited and waited for it to be time for breakfast. When I finally got down and told Axel how long I had been up he told me he always raced better with less sleep the night before and that kind of made me feel better.

After breakfast we headed out for a ride as a team. We did a few laps around the TTT course before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the first race together as a team. A hour before the race we met at the tents where all the bikes were. As we got ready and started our warm up, everyone seemed pretty nervous except for Taylor,  but I had a feeling he was.  I also spoke with Julian (Kyer) and he told me he wasn't feeling so hot because he was letting nerves get to him. I tried to tell him if I wasn't nervous there's no way he should be.

Three minutes before the start I had a talk with Alex (Dowsett) the 2009 British Time Trial Champion and he was a little worried, so I told him there was no pressure remembering what Axel told me and that we were here to do are best and maybe turn some heads.  He just smiled and we headed to the line. One minute until the start Ben King (Aus) could tell I was a little tense and he reminded me I was on TV and I laughed.

As we got ready we had a perfect start, but kind of lost touch through a roundabout. About half way through I was leading through with Taylor on my wheel. I don't know if I went through a bit fast or Taylor hit too hard coming out, but we were no longer the smooth train we started and as a result three guys were dropped including me, but I rode hard all the way home. Today was a good day!