Let's talk about the summer
One of my very rare "looking forward" posts. What's in store this summer?
As the snow falls gently outside on this May Sunday, I'm excited for the adventures coming up in the next few months. The first adventure starts on Monday, when I will begin teaching the month long intensive class on Clinical Nutrition. I have a feeling my students are going to have a lot of cycling examples, and I hope I can learn a little more myself in the process. It's Monday - Friday, four hours a day. That's a lot of talking. I'll be balancing it with a healthy dose of racing, too.
I was planning trip to Canada next weekend to race in the Canada Cup in Quebec. Unfortunately, reward flights and other generous offers from friends didn't quite pan out, and the logistics seemed to be getting ever more complicated. I had to call it quits on that and look a little closer to home. I'll be racing the "Gowdy Grinder" instead. It's a local race near Laramie in Wyoming. At 20 miles long, it seems easy, but I've heard from many people to expect over two hours of brutal technical riding. It should be my first race on the new Turner Czar too, which I'm really excited about. My two year old Cannondale has done me proud, but it's certainly on its last legs.
Up next, after Wyoming, is the Iron Horse Classic in Durango. What better reason to spend a long weekend in Durango staying with the O'Block family! The race itself is a strange one. Durango is a cycling mecca just like Boulder; the field will be packed with locals out to impress. The course starts in downtown, winding through the city streets and onto the steep and dusty trails around the edge of town. From there it loops back around, and THROUGH a brewery. Actually right through the front door, down a ramp and out the back door. It creates an amazing atmosphere for the spectators. For the racers it's a tough race that ends up tactical. Above all that racing, I'm looking forward to catching up with some Durango friends, riding good trails, and eating tacos in the sunshine on main street.
That pretty much wraps up May. June brings some more US Cups in Colorado Springs and Missoula, Montana. I'm really excited to be on much better form than I was in March. I'm still gunning for a single UCI point. I think I can do it.
July is my first chance to go back to England in the summer. I have lots of things to do, and people to see. First up is some more Mountain Bike racing. I'll be doing the British Series race in Sherwood Pines, up near my brother in Nottinghamshire. Then the weekend after is British National Champs in Shropshire. I have absolutely no expectations from these races other than to let people know I exist. It would be rewarding to race well at either one, show people I'm doing well over here in the US, and get my name recognised when it comes to qualifying for some bigger races in the future.
After that I have a couple of weekends to live it large. Trevor and Sarah are getting married in Hampshire at the end of July, and my Cousin Hannah is getting married to Tom in Devon at the beginning of August. I'm really hoping I can catch up with a bunch of people at both those weddings. After that, it's back to Colorado and back to reality.So, that's the grand plan - let's see what happens on the other end!