Team TIAA-CREF - 2005

Team Journal Entry - May 25, 2005, by Bryan Smith

Matt Wittig

Lightning never strikes twice, and it certainly doesn't to people like Matt Wittig. Many of you may have read the updates on Matt's condition, posted on cyclingnews.com. I read them, despite the urge to pretend they don't exist. I saw a picture of him standing with his new bike last summer...had to work hard not to break down.

When I was introduced to Matt, he was a new guy at UW and on my team at the time, IScorp. It became clear to some of us - Nick, Brett, Garrett, Ed, Jordan...among others in Madison, that Matt wasn't just a green freshman. Matt was on a path like most of us. Start by winning Collegiate B races, then local Cat 3 races, followed by an "upgrade for superweek".

The past 11 months have defied all logic for Matt. Matt was working hard, and making a progression. He crashed last June in a local crit. His crash "shouldn't" have been bad. He went down in the middle of road, hit his head wearing a helmet. As it turned out, Matt fractured his skull and it did not look good. At the time I was off to Belgium for the summer and only got updated through emails. I would return in September, and to my amazement rolled up to a group ride to find Matt on a brand new bike IScorp got for him.

I was shocked. I mean how many people go from an induced coma to a group ride three months later? Not many. Straight away I asked myself, 'if it happened to you, would you race again?' I don't know what I would have done, but Matt...wow...Matt never flinched. If he was cleared by the doctors...he was racing again. No question about it. I remember being so shocked that I told Matt, "no one would ask why if you stopped..." I just wanted him to be motivated from inside, not the people around him.

Fast forward to March '05…I got a race report from Matt. I cherish that email; can't believe I didn't delete it after I read it. But for some reason...I knew. I knew what his words meant, and where he had been last June. Matt wrote:

I really would have liked to have done better, but my fitness is pretty much at zero, and at this point I'm just racing off the knowledge that I've picked up from you guys, and my own experience. I am happy though, because I am racing on nothing, and today I was able to get something out of that nothing. This makes me excited because I know that it's only a matter of time until my fitness comes back, and if I can do something with nothing now, it makes me think what I'll be able to do when I have something. I am bummed though, because I'm going to be in Chicago next weekend so I won't be able to race again until April. Even though I DNFed last week, and suffered like a dog all day, today I enjoyed every minute of it, and it made me remember how much I love racing my bike.

Now all I can do is wonder why and how it happened again to Matt. That will never be answered. It is important for me to realise the meaning of Matt's last sentence in that email. Matt just loved it. Matt wanted nothing more than to be back on his bike. I think he still is. It seems like Matt should have been at collegiate nationals. It seems like he should be finishing up his finals...perhaps winning the Willy St crit again. It will be some time before things seem to make sense again. I know that Matt's faith was important to him, so I can only finish with this:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21).