Recap

I guess it’s official - I am not very good at blogging....just noticed it’s been over 2 months since I had something to write here.  I just get so distracted with, well, life!  At least I’m on Twitter and Facebook - check me out there if you’re wondering what I’m up to and actually want to know on a more regular basis....

Let me try this - I’ll use this one as a "hello" to the world/recap and THEN try this regular update thing through the rest of the season at least (we'll see about this).  The last 2 months have flown by and I am now back in Europe after a bunch of domestic racing.  Here’s a quick summary of all since the last World Cup in chronological order:

Straight from the World Cup in Offenburg, Germany to Frankfurt for a photo shoot for the cyclepassion calendar and “making of” DVD - being a professional athlete is pretty amazing....I already have my dream job - I race bikes.  The great thing is this is the sort of job that offers the opportunity to do other people’s dream jobs: product development, equipment testing, commercials, roles in movies...modeling.  Not very many people have the opportunity to do high fashion shoots or to be a model for the day, so this was very different/awesome/fun.  When I have a chance to step into someone else’s shoes for a day, I take it!

Dream Jobs:

Then a bunch of races: most within a two hour drive of my house which is always lovely....I got to race AND hang out with my dogs who are very regularly traumatized by our departures and long stints away.  Jeremy and I spent much of June on podiums (TEVA Mtn Games in Vail, Wisconsin ProXCT, ProXCT Finals) and hanging out in Winter Park at our little condo.  The dogs love this because they get to go to the river, we love it because we get to ride our favorite singletrack.  

River Lovin'

In the last few weeks we both defended our two National Titles - the Marathon Title and the XC Title.  And in true strange form, we each got the same places AGAIN: the win for Marathon Nationals and 2nd at the XC Nationals...both to two deserving competitors.  While I look forward to being the National Champion again someday, the one plus of getting second is that Jeremy and I no longer have to be THAT couple...you know, the one’s that have the matching jersey or ski jackets?

Other than racing, enjoying the mountains, and a bit of high fashion the only other big news is that our team is no longer the Subaru/Gary Fisher Team.  If you missed the news, we are now Subaru/Trek. The simplest way I can explain it is like this: Trek has owned the Gary Fisher brand for yeaarrrrrrs.  In the last two years we have all been riding twenty nine inch-wheeled bikes (“29ers”) real, real fast.  So, of course, everyone wants a 29er now!  The best way to get people 29ers, whether they be in Europe, the US, or anywhere in the world is to sell them as TREKs (that’s the very short version of the why).  Coolest part of the news: we are still sponsored by Subaru, my teammates and staff are the same awesome people who make it all happen, and our new bikes are better then ever AND part of the “Gary Fisher Collection” which I think sounds very exclusive and sexy - like Louis Vuitton!  Plus, it’s always fun to get new costumes to race in :)  Things are great - being TREK is going to give us racers more opportunities to go really fast and do our jobs really well... 

And I believe that brings us full circle to today.  National Championships were last weekend at Sol Vista, just outside of Winter Park, CO.  The conditions were super hot, dusty and rocky.  We left Colorado on Wednesday morning and arrived yesterday to Champery, Switzerland for the 4th World Cup.  It’s absolutely gorgeous here - to give you an idea on location, we’re about 2 mountain valleys away from the well-known Chamonix Mont Blanc.  I just got done checking out the course and it is the polar opposite of Colorado riding - super muddy (it rained all day), super rooty with steep, muddy chutes. The kind of course that most people would walk and find hard to believe people can ride their bikes on.  But we’re going to do it - racing this Sunday.  I’d be a fan of the sun coming out, but we’ll see.  Watch the racing live on http://freecaster.tv/ at 11:15am (5:15am Eastern) and 2:30pm (8:30am Eastern).  

Coming up: World Cup #5 in Val di Sol, Italy next Saturday, travel back home to Colorado, then World Cup #6 in New York the last weekend of August and World Championships in Mt. Ste Anne, Quebec.  Maybe I'll post something - hopefully sooner than later.  Thanks for reading....