Its been a long time since I wrote a blog! This year has been busy with more travel than ever, wedding planning, and normal life stuff taking up all the time that I would have ordinarily used to write up some race reports! Since I have a little bit of time right now, I thought I’d share a quick update on the season and some photos from some of the cool places that I have raced and trained!
My season started out rough with a crash in slippery conditions in Abu Dhabi and a series of bad races in New Plymouth and Bermuda. Despite the poor races, New Plymouth continues to be my favorite location on the circuit and I really loved the natural beauty of Bermuda. I can’t wait to return next year and work to better my results in those locations in 2019!
New Plymouth is always amazing
The blue of the water in Bermuda is incredible!
Yokohama was a quick turnaround after Bermuda. Yokohama is my second favorite place to race and I was happy to put together a strong result (6th) there. We spent the week preceding the race in Yokohama training about an hour away in Chiba, and I enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the city and getting to enjoy a different part of Japan. There were beautiful bamboo forests everywhere!
Green track in Chiba!
After Yokohama, I got to spend a few days in Denver with my parents and then a few weeks at home in San Diego before my six week Europe trip. The trip started poorly with an awful week in Leeds, starting with a smashed bike frame courtesy of Lufthansa and then a horrendous race, but was able to bounce back to win the Antwerp World Cup in Belgium the following week. I was able to spend a few days training in Brussels with my Belgian training partner and friend, Claire Michel, and I really loved the riding around Brussels! I hope that I can return someday to explore the city a bit more and enjoy the training there!
Another WC win in Antwerp! (Tommy Zaferes)
After Antwerp, I traveled straight to St. Moritz, Switzerland, for a three week block of training at altitude (6000ft/1800m). Its a journey to get to St. Moritz (three hours drive from your choice of Zurich or Milan airports), but I would highly recommend the trip if the opportunity arises. St. Moritz has the best trails I’ve ever run on, beautiful roads through the mountain passes and down the Engadin Valley, and just amazing scenery. I can’t rave enough about St. Moritz and I hope to be back in the future!
The Engadin near St. Moritz (ice bath temps)
Running near Silvaplana, Switzerland (Paulo Sousa)
View of St. Moritz from Piz Nair
I had another rough race in Hamburg, but was able to spend a week at home recovering and training before Edmonton. I was able to put together a solid eighth place finish, which I was satisfied with on the day, but I feel there is lots of room for progress.
On the bike in Edmonton (Keiko Takahashi)
I traveled straight from Edmonton to Colorado, where I was able to spend a few days with my parents before heading up to the Vail area (7500ft/2300m elevation) to compete in my first Major League Triathlon (MLT) race. MLT is a series of mixed team relays, an event new to Olympics in 2020, where each team member completes a super sprint triathlon. The distances roughly equal a 300m swim, 6k bike, and 1600m run. The Vail MLT also featured an individual super sprint event. I finished second in the individual super sprint and my team won the relay! It was fun doing a different event and getting more experience at the mixed team relay format.
San Diego Stingrays win with Ryan Sissons, Taylor Spivey, and Robby Webster
Thanks to my family, Ian, Paulo + The Triathlon Squad, my friends, USA Triathlon, fortynine Group, ROKA Sports, Team Psycho, the New York Athletic Club , 361, Polar, and Princeton Carbonworks for your continued support.
My next race is WTS Montreal on August 25th. Following Montreal, I plan to race the Grand Final in Gold Coast, AUS, MLT Tempe, a trio of Super League events in (old) Jersey, Malta, and Mallorca, and the Sarasota World Cup. My full schedule with dates is available elsewhere on my website 🙂 I’ll try to post a few more blogs before the end of the season when my schedule allows!