There's good and evil in each individual journey.

Determined

Finally, a chance. A glimmer. A sparkle. An open door. An opportunity.

Registering for the biggest race of my life gave me butterflies, and questions. What will happen? What if? How? The Cincy3 weekend was the biggest, most daunting weekend of my life. The first UCI 17-18 race that I would ever do, and I was determined to make the most of it.

My dad and I flew out to Cincinnati on Thursday of that week, my dad raced on Friday, and we hung with the Boo crew for Friday. We discovered the little hipster part of the city that night, and may I mention the tacos we had? Mmm, I want to go back just for those! Saturday morning came and so did the jitters.

The course was at an abandoned golf course outside the city, and was the setting for an epic mudder race. It had rained hard on Thursday night, and we even got a tornado warning (it said to take cover, but we just got back under the covers instead), which made for a pretty wet race, but Friday wasn't a very wet race... Mother nature be cray. I opted to go with a less aggressive tread because of the shear amount of tacky straights. The race started right before sunset, and as the descending sun hit the start grid, it all started. A crash to the left, elbows flying, and mud flying. A lot the race is a blur, but I know that coming on to the start/finish straight, 6th place felt pretty damn good.

Leading the race

The confidence was breathed into me, and I felt great riding a bike that I connect with, surrounded by the people I care about and doing the thing I love.

Sunday was a different venue and wasn't muddy, and was built for group racing. My now realistic goal was to finish top 5 to get dem' UCI points. The race started, and I once again had a wonderful start, which has happened a ton this year, so I wont complain! We started pushing for position, and I found myself in the lead group of 7. The laps ticked by, and then blew apart when I was stuck at the back. I bridged up to the people that went up the road, and I was feeling so good about that, but the smallest, stupidest mistake put me on the ground and my front wheel locked up. The abruptness of the mistake took everything out of my legs and I came in for 7th place, not what I was looking for.

Warm-up

All in all it was a great weekend and a learning experience going into Louisville.

Before it went south

Louisville, I decided, was going to be even better. We got in on Thursday, and got to our host housing with Morris and Jan, who were better than anything I could have imagined and so awesome. So if either of you are reading this, thank you so much for your hospitality! And way to go dad on an awesome weekend of racing, you pretty much killed it out there, I'm proud to call you my dad.

At least I was smiling! 

It turned out that Louisville apparently wasn't going to be as good as I thought though. The feeling of a vacuum sucking up hair is probably very equitable to my weekend. I'm not going to elaborate on the races simply because they aren't worth mentioning. I ended up 10th on Saturday, and thought that maybe Sunday would be even better, but it only got crushingly worse. 15th was the most disappointing thing I could have imagined because after Cincy I thought that the power would only get better, but hey, shit happens, thats racing. Not every weekend can be the best, not even the most important one can be your best.

Laying it over!

I know most likely because the weekend I had in Louisville that I probably won't achieve my season goal of going to EuroCrossCamp, but as always I'll keep my fingers crossed. But the one thing the weekend taught me was about accepting that things don't always go the way that you want, and learning to refocus and shift goals. Fortunes often shift in an instant, but coping with a bad fortune means succeeding in the long term. I'll keep trucking and work towards a new goal, with 3 UCI Junior races still coming up, I plan on making a mark and making up for the terrible weekend in Louisville.

I like sand

The support I had for both weekends was top notch, unlike my racing. Thank you so much to Nick and Jacob of Boo Bicycles for having my bikes ready, pitting, and teaching me some racing lessons. TrainingPeaks, Challenge Tires, and Braaap Nutrition prepared me as much as I could be and provided the team with top notch support so thanks to them. My family also takes credit for my successes in Cincy, and I couldn't do it without my mom, and sister's support, and my dad's attitude towards racing, it kept me going in Louisville. I appreciate all the support I've had this season, and even though a hard hit was taken this weekend, I plan on swinging back in Los Angeles and Bend.



Each trip holds something new, and confidence will come back, and racing will continue.

Good in Cincy, Evil in Louisville.