MORE FUN IN 2014

Jan 2, 2014

After spending season after season taking bike racing way too seriously and seeing stress levels get higher and results going nowhere, I decided to take a new approach. I decided I needed to allow more room for other things in my life, to not worry so much about succeeding, and learn to have more fun.

At the end of MTB season, I decided to part ways with my coach of the last three seasons, Ben Ollett, and do what I wanted. He is a great coach, but I needed a break from having everything so structured. I also decided to race a lot less. I picked just a couple of regional series and a few national events to focus on. I also made it a point to joke with people mid-race. As much as racing is about suffering it should be about fun, so I was very determined to maintain the fun. Lastly, I made it a point to just not give as many fucks. Last year, I had a derailleur issue with my bike and eventually had to change bikes three times. I was so frustrated that I threw my bike at the end of the race. This year I broke a chain mid-race and took it as a cue to start drinking a beer and heckle.

So how did things pan out? This was by far the most fun season of bike racing I’ve had. I also had the most consistent results to date. I held up a lot of good battles, I laughed a lot on the race course, and I made it a point to do cool shit. I mean, I had the biggest crash I’ve ever had on a cross bike trying to boost as high as possible over a flyover and still managed to not get lapped by Ryan Trebon. The next day I raced on a single speed and still finished in the UCI pay out.

Basically, I made it a point to make bike racing rad, and it worked out to be my best season yet!

I am thankful for everyone who made 2013 an awesome year for bike racing. My teams Ibis (MTB) and MASH (everything else), Michael Martin, Tim Canard, all of my sponsors who have taken great care of me (ibis, mash, cinelli, oakley, giro, boreas, san marco, sports basement, cliff bar… the list goes on), team GHETO MOTO for keeping everything positive, my girlfriend for making it a point to step up her heckling game, Ben Ollett for giving me the framework to reach success, Lee McCormack for teaching me everything I know about getting rad on a MTB, and of course my family for doing their best to come out and support at the races.

2013 was great and I am excited to amp up the party even more for 2014!