I have some really exciting races coming up within the next month or so, my first big one will be the prestigious Dana Point GP which is part of the PRT (Pro Race Tour) this is the highest level of racing here in the States, meaning there will be a lot of pro teams in good form for the upcoming Tour Of California. I did this race last year and felt great but was caught behind a crash on the last lap, so I’d love to really get a solid result this year for sure.
Training has been going well, I’m still getting in a lot of miles but now I’m starting to focus on shorter faster intervals, things like 1 minute efforts, 30 second and 10 second sprints. These short but fast efforts are great practice for the high level of criterium racing here in the USA. I’m feeling fast and my power files definitely correlate to that.
Another tough but fun race is this weekends Wente Classic Road Race, 73 miles of challenging, windy, rolling terrain. Some strong riders are going and it should be a great race for our team, we are taking 4 riders including myself.
I’m really loving riding and racing my bike at the moment, just the fact that you can ride for an hour here and be completely surrounded by forests and hills that stretch beyond what the human eye can see, the peacefulness and the amazing friends you make along the way.
I also recently got invited to guest ride for Team Mikes Bikes at the Redlands Stage Race, 5 days of brutal racing against the top teams in the nation. I got a very late call up, less than 48 hours before the start of the race, I’d just finished a hard two weeks of training so going in I was a little nervous and tired, I unfortunately cramped up hard on day two and was unable to catch back on after trying for two laps. I learned a lot but there really wasn’t much I could do. It’s definitely a race I’d like to do next year, that way I can train accordingly and prepare.
A big goal of mine is to make it continental and travel to some of the biggest races in the nation and just to compete at that next step up would be amazing, I think with the right results and progress this could hopefully be a goal I’ll achieve soon.