New season, new year, new team, new motivation!

Apparently it's been over a year since my last post. I plan on changing that trend from here on out. My goal is to keep this site up to date in order to keep my friends and family in the loop. So here is the clif notes from the past year for both my readers out there (thanks for reading mom and dad).

2008n started out great. I spent a lot of time at Parkpoint Health Club in Santa Rosa lifting weights, swimming, running, and all sorts of activities off the bike. I also had the opportunity to cross country ski at Royal Gorge up in Tahoe. Between all the off the bike activities I was doing, I was in pretty good shape.

There were quite a few races along the way, but for time sake I'll just focus on the ones I did well at.

First was the Chileno Valley grasshopper. For those of you that do not know what this series is all about, it's the official unofficial race series in Sonoma county, which often see the local pros, this year it was Levi , Scott, and Kris. Shockingly enough, I hung with them over the Marshall wall and Willson hill (or they let me ride with them, whatever...). Then going up burnside they dropped me like a rock! Much to my luck, Scott crashed after narrowly escaping a car when he was making a left turn. He was able to get back on the bike right as I passed by and we rode to the finish line together. I don't know exactly how it happened but we sprinted to the finish and ended up second place. This was the first time I had ever been able to hang with pros. So it was a very thrilling day for me and one that my friends bring up every time I have a bad day (thanks guys!).

After that, there was a series of top 10 finishes at real races. A few wins, a couple runner-ups, and a spattering of top 6 finishes got me my 1 upgrade by June. So I registered for my first NRC race, Tour de Nez. Quite frankly, I got spanked. No excuses. I got served! But it was a good reality check, I have a lot to learn and a lot of fitness to gain and that is pretty motivational to me.

Over the course of the season, I had been joking a little bit about going pro in 2009. I was joking simply because I was a little embarrassed to talk about it and really didn't know if it could even happen. Fortunately, I visited Norcal Bikesport one fateful afternoon where some team mates Shane and Glenn were chit-chatting. We talked about the whole "pro" thing and they seemed to have confidence that I could make it happen if I tried. So I started talking to one of my other good friends, Andrew. He hooked me up with Glen Mitchell, the director of Bissell Pro Cycling. Glen and I talked about it off and on for a few months and just two weeks ago, he decided to give me a shot.

So now, I have a lot of work to do to prepare for next season. Core strength, cycling specific lifting, running, swimming, and a teaspoon of cycling is in the plans for a while. Training camp, which will be held in Santa Rosa, starts at the end of January and I have some pretty big shoes to fill on this team. So wish me luck!