A Date with the Best

    



Tábor 2015, a goal I have been working towards before the host city was even announced. My entire cyclocross experience to this point had been building up to being named to this team.


What an honor it was to receive that email. Everything I had worked for, stressed over, and learned had become worth it in a blink of an eye.

Training that extra month was exciting, after cross nationals in Austin, TX the cyclocross community began to go into hibernation. Thanking people for help and talking about their season overall. Yet this inspired me, that I was one of the few that still could spend another month chasing my dream in a discipline I love so much. My local Bend, OR community was more than amazing that month. There were two juniors going to Tábor, myself and Lance Haidet. I think that speaks in itself for the type of cycling community there is in Bend; and the junior development programs we have in place here.

When it was finally time to go, when I packed my bags and left the Redmond airport, it was not nerves I felt. More of excitement, I spent a lot of time talking with Geoff Proctor about the difference between anxious and excited. This was definitely excitement. As majority of travel in the winter goes there was a problem I ran into. As I boarded my flight from Portland to Amsterdam the gate agent stopped me. She “Im sorry but I cannot let you board this flight, your passport expires within three months.” I had never heard of that rule and neither had my parents. I was crushed. All the excitement, the work, and the accomplishment I felt was “expired”. At this point most logical people would swallow their pride and head home. But when asked by the agent if I wanted to be put on a flight to Redmond I declined. I called my dad and we came up with a plan, that at the time seemed incredibly unlikely.

The plan was, to go to Seattle, where there was a US passport agency. Get a passport in hopefully a few hours then leave to Prague the same day. This is the plan we went with and my selfless dad left Bend and got on the next plane to Portland to meet me. We drove late at night to Seattle, and prepared for what would be the most nervous day I have experienced. Get it all right and the trip is salvaged, any problems and I am stuck home. When morning came we bolted to be first in line. I could see the stress on my dads face and I was sure I was as well showing signs. After many hours of stress and work we packed up and boarded a one pm flight. From Seattle to Amsterdam, with new passport in hand!

The rest of the trip went smoothly. My arrival in Prague, pre ride of the course, and hanging out with all the other USA juniors. The entire atmosphere was different this trip was different. Camaraderie was higher and competition within the USA hotel was lower. And when it came race day the excitement was greater than anything I had seen prior. We did our warm up, headed to the line, got called to staging, and went off. The race was special, not just because the Czech crowds were so big and so loud you could barely think. But during this race three years of preparation kept popping into my head.

Unfortunately the result was not at all what I had hoped for, and did not reflect my fitness. 39th was the best I could muster, but given all the circumstances I was just happy to be there. Worlds was unlike any racing experience I have ever had, I hope to be back next year in Zolder, BE. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people at Cyclocrossworld development team, USA cycling Cyclocross, and most of all my parents. I cannot wait to begin with this NCCF/Specialized team soon.