Well I know most people tend to do their year in review towards the end of the year, I had no intentions of doing one but felt pretty bored and instead of spending time cleaning I figure I will type some.
Well for my first year racing it was certainly an experience to remember from riding with teammates when it was 17F and 35 mph winds, to training camp, first race, first victory, first upgrade, first crash, and the loads of friends I made during the year.
Much like most people in this area the year started out with tons of snow on the ground, barely any roads to get good training on. It was a long winter that seemed to never end. With starting my first year of racing I planned to stay pretty mellow and only do about 10 - 12 races, enough to get my feet wet, some experience and upgrade to Cat 4, but its amazing how quickly things can quickly change after one weekend.
After joining Evo in December I was told about training camp, it certainly sounded like a blast and made it a point to attend, but with all of the snow fall who knew how it was going to be in wild West Virginia. Well in late February after all of the trade zone training series races were canceled we headed out there for four days.
This was an experience in and of itself. Having never been on a team before this was awesome for me to do. Great roads to ride on, awesome climbing, awesome teammates and great food at the end of the day. After having a blast out there I changed my perspective that I would only do a few races this season, it went to full on. From that point on until May or June I raced just about every weekend, sometimes two in a day, three a weekend, or twice in a weekend.
The miles were adding up, along with the stress of it. I had to figure out how to let my body recover while still being able to get in some good training and racing. It was a delicate balance, but in the end I think the best thing was taking almost the entire month of July. It provided me a chance to just chill and ride on my own without being pressured.
In mid spring I met Chuck Hutch, I wrote about him earlier and I can't thank him enough for all of the knowledge he has shared and insight. In the last few months I have been doing a lot of riding with him, some of his teammates and some of my new teammates as I will be joining a different team that will be more in line with my goals and I hope to help out where I can.
The best advice I can give to person who is interested in starting racing, or is about to start their first season is to keep things into perspective. Balance your life with riding, keep it enjoyable, join a team, and most importantly keep the rubber side down.
Thank you to every one who I have met a long the way, the jokes, stories, scars, blood, and sweat were totally wort it.
Here's to 2011.
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