Departure

It has been a while since I have last posted any sort of blog post, but a blog seemed like a good place to begin to share my recent experiences and update all of you with what I am doing. As many of you who have followed me on social media know, I have never been great at using the internet to share about myself on a consistent basis. Recently, I have left a bigger gap than normal between posts for the reasons of giving myself some space to grow in my own personal life as well as being a bit lazy, so I hope this piece will help to fill in a few of the holes that my absence has left unfilled.

For those of you who have not already heard, last fall I signed a two-year contract with the professional cycling team, Human Powered Health. I was and still am so grateful to have received a slot on the program. The team is currently going through some development as they strive to meet the demands of racing at a higher level. All of the athletes on the program are putting in the work to contribute to this. For me, this meant taking a few steps to make myself more capable of competing with some of the best in the world. 

The first, and probably most important action that needed to be taken was moving to a place where racing was more easily accessible. Unfortunately, cycling in the United States is becoming harder and harder to do professionally. I do not think this is the fault of any one thing, but instead, the result of changing trends and well… the virus that’s been going around for a few years now. Because a lot of the team, as well as a lot of cyclists from North America, already were living here, it was an easy decision to pick Girona, Spain as my new home base.

The process of getting ready to come here started soon after signing. I began preparing for a residency visa back in November 2021. After a few flights, a bit of stress, and a lot of stumbling through documentation in Los Angeles, I ended up receiving the visa just a few weeks before flying across the ocean. 

I have to mention that this move was really exciting for me for a reason that many may not realize. This is my first real period of time of self-sufficiency. I have been on long trips before. Also, through the pandemic, I began to spend a lot of time with my friends Brannan and Zoë at their place. This was initially in Grand Junction and then in Fort Collins. However, I was never able to really say I have lived outside of my parents' house for very long. I do not wish to say that I was really excited to leave my parents. They have been a huge support to me both in cycling and in life. If it were not for all the hard work that they put in, I would not have been able to race my bike through school and travel as much as I needed to in order to compete.  I have been really excited for the opportunity to get to experience the new season of living that comes with independence. 

The other action I will be taking in this new venture is the changing of how my season will operate for the next few years. With the decision to be a part of this team, I made the commitment to put 100% of my time into being ready to compete at my best for them. This, unfortunately, means taking a break from cyclo-cross for a little while. If you know me, you will know how incredibly difficult it was to put this passion of mine to the side. The discipline is something I have really enjoyed. The dynamic racing style, the conditions cx demands its competitors to adjust to, and the athletic style of competition all make the sport incredibly attractive to me. On top of this, many of the people I have raced with on the cycle-cross bike are some of my closest friends. 

However, I would not have made the decision to go down this new road had there only been negatives to a departure from the discipline. Since I was very little, I have spent most of the time I have had available committed to training for cycling. While being a part of both disciplines, there was little room for much time to reset between seasons. Normally it has been about two or three weeks. With this dedication to a singular discipline, I now have time to explore more of my interests in life during the time that racing is not occurring. This means getting to spend time digging into finding new ways to pursue aviation; more time to spend on smaller hobbies like music; and more time to build the relationships that are really important to me with my family and close friends. 

I have also spent the last few cyclo-cross seasons getting a taste of what the sport demands of its athletes besides actually riding a bike. Because of the nature of the sport, athletes often spend a lot of time building their own programs to support themselves throughout the season. The more I have tried to do this, the more fun was taken out of the sport for me. I have a lot of respect for the guys that make it work for them, but I was also very grateful to have the support of Aevolo in the last season to help me through all of it. So much of this demand seems to be asking athletes to share their stories as they experience it. This meant always making sure I had a camera ready to document what I was doing and feeling guilty when I was not doing this. I do not want to spend too much time dwelling on the woes of social media, partially because this is being posted on social media and I would be making quite a hypocrite out of myself if I did that, but if you’ve gotten this far into the blog than you may be interested in hearing what I’ve learned about how I interact with social media. I see a lot of value in the ability that it has to share ones experience with the world and gives people the opportunity to explore a world that they cannot always be a part of. That piece is very good and I think it is enough of a reason to keep interacting with it from time to time. However, while escaping to another world can be a great way of learning for short periods, I have found it as an escape from the realities of life that I found unpleasant. It’s way easier and more pleasant to look at a picture or video of someone riding a beautiful descent in the mountains of California than to actually work for the funds for a ticket to get to do so myself or even get started in packing the bag to get out the door for that matter. There is so much less to do and so fewer variables to deal with by scrolling to the next picture or video than there would be when stepping outside. in the last year, I have taken a lot of steps to try and change my life to reap the rewards of taking small steps towards being able to step through that threshold from the fantasy world of social media and into the reality around me.

Just a few days ago I flew over to Europe to begin getting settled. I have been here for just a little over a week. I am loving getting to explore the beautiful city and surrounding landscapes here in Girona. I've gotten the chance to make a few new friends as well as connect with a surprising amount of people I have known for years. I am really excited to be able to continue to fellowship as well while I am here. Athletes in Action, a ministry aimed at connecting Christian athletes, has begun to build a bit of a group here and I am really excited to see what sort of things God will be able to do in and through that.

In about a week's time, I will begin my racing campaign in Belgium. The schedule is below. This next block has me feeling both excited and nervous. It is really hard to know what to expect of myself without much racing, so the goal is just to make this round of racing a learning and growing experience as I find my role in helping the team.

• Nokere Koerse - March 16th
• Bredene-Koksijde Classic - March 18th
• Grand Prix Cirquielion - March 20th

Thank you for reading all of this. It was a bit longer than I intended but I guess I had a lot to cover. I look forward to hearing from any of you that read this and would like to learn more about what I am doing.