A Year in a Nutshell

After World Championships I was feeling good. I got home, tired from the trip. What an exciting experience it was!

The day after I got home I proceeded to unpack, build my bike (not fully seeing it was clean and I did not want to dirty it again this year) and get my school things in order for Grade 12. Exciting (in the most flat, draining voice possible)…

Jet lag didn’t last long. Getting to school the first day was easy, I was practically sleeping into noon when I woke up for the bus, but by 5^th period on my first day, I was feeling a little tired. Let’s make matters more interesting: I missed about a week and a half, that’s a substantial workload. As well as that I had my first class of night school that night. That meant that night school running from 6pm-9pm was running me (on Austrian time) from 12pm-3am … class was swell.

Getting off the bike was very important for me. This entire season had been built on ‘what if’ scenarios. What if I make it to the Mont St. Anne world cup? What if I make it to Worlds? This put my coach and I under a little stress. It was a ladder we had to climb.

From the beginning of the year, Paris to Ancaster, right up to Worlds it was stepping stones. From starting the O-cups, making the Canada Cup project, to making the Nationals project, I was well on my way. The next was a big finish at nationals, but there were hurdles to hop. The week before nationals at the Albion Ontario Cup I hit a tree. Overcoming injury for nationals required patience and discipline. After making the North American World Cup start list, not the project, there were plans to make! Finding places to stay and such. Huge thank you to Opus, Trek Canada and the Waglers for touring me around and giving me a place to stay! After an exciting world cup experience with a 6^th place finish at St. Anne it became a waiting game. Wait for the announcement about Worlds.

Training proceeded as ‘normal’ and racing did not stop. I went to the Ontario Summer Games for the last time in my career and came out with 4 golds; winning the Time Trial, XC race, Relay race and Overall Team. It was a superb exit! I am excited to see how Quinton Disera does in the up coming OSG’s.

Then the announcement about worlds came out. All the support that everyone displayed was incredibly helpful and overwhelming at times. It was and is truly appreciated. The planning and such that happened is listed in other posts. I just wanted to thank everyone again.

And now we’re back, to the present, almost two weeks after worlds…

Cyclo-CROSS! Woot! Season starts up soon! Not excited about the cold weather but I think I’ll learn to live with it! I am Canadian, eh?