When I was in high school my parents—for reasons that still
remain a mystery—bought a vintage Mercedes Benz. Appropriately named “The
Panzer Mobile” this car came with all the amenities one would expect from a
dilapidated tugboat—namely, it weighed an excessive amount, rarely started in a
timely manner, and had an atrocious turning radius. As an added bonus, the
interior of the car came with leather seats and a steering wheel that somehow
had the magical power to absorb and retain every particle of energy emitted
from the sun. On those hot July days sitting in the drivers seat was akin to
touching the Bluth Cornballer—the only exception being you couldn’t let go or
move without driving into a ditch. Perhaps the best feature of all, however,
was the cars inexplicably terrible ability to accelerate and hold momentum. We
often joked that by the time you got the vehicle up to the designated speed
limit, you would have forgotten where you were going.
Over the last few years, there have been many days of training
that paralleled the mind numbing miles spent driving around that old car. Often
I’ve wondered where I’m going in this sport and how long (if ever) it will take
me to get there. They say “not all who wander are lost” but let’s be honest,
most are, and cycling has a weird way of making those who take it seriously
feel a bit like vagabonds. Still, there’s something to be said for making your
own path and giving your all to something—even
when the chance of failure is ever present. Personally, speaking that has been
a major driving force in keeping my in this sport. That being said, without
validation of your efforts, maintaining motivation can often be hard. As many
can tell you, cycling doesn’t provide such validation very freely.
This past weekend I won a pretty big race—for me at
least—and it was a bit of a surreal experience. After years of looking at the
results sheets from these races, it’s a bit odd seeing my name at the top of
the list. Despite having the confidence of knowing I’m a good bike racer, a part
of me still feels like these sorts of things only happen to other people.
Having been humbled by this sport more times than I can count, I’m fairly
certain this one result won’t blow up my ego (if it does, please let me know)
but it does give quite a bit of confidence moving forward. Like I said, we all
need a bit of validation.
New clothing day in the week leading up to San Dimas. Grazie mille, Pearl Izumi. These kits are awesome…seriously, amazing.
Hotel life with Mac Cassin. Bike racing requires a lot of sitting around. Clearly, we are rocking it.
First time pinning up for 2015. Crazy to think I won the first stage only a few hours later.
Yea…this happened.
