I'll admit it

A dream goal of mine from a few years ago was to start a world cup mountain bike race. I would have required of myself, that I go fast enough not to be embarrassed. Apparently the UCI also felt the same way and introduced a points requirement for riders to be eligible to start a world cup race.

It happens that this year world cup finals are in New York. What a rare treat. The timing may not work well for me in terms of fitness, but I'm going to give it a go. There I said it. For real. Now I will be held accountable if I don't try. I mean really try. I already really tried hard enough that I gave myself tendinitis. I'm going to fix that and then try harder. The hardest ever. I may still fail. This is a pretty big risk and if I do fail I will be devastated.

A friend of mine slapped me and said that I was being a sissy for not trying because I won't likely be in a better place (in my life) to try something like this. She was right. I have a flexible schedule and a boss who values productivity over presence. Take that corporate America. But since I now need 20 UCI points in order to start this race I need a game plan.

It looks like this:

1. May 16, Baie Saint-Paul Quebec UCI XCO1
2. May 22, Tremblont Montreal UCI XCO1
3. May 30, Ontario UCI XCO1
   
4. June 5, Alabama UCI XCO2
5. July 4, Marathon Nats Breckenridge, CO UCI XCM CN
6. July 10, Colorado Springs, CO UCI XCO2
7. July 18, XC Nats Grandy, CO UCIXCO CN
   
8. August 15, Bromont UCI XCO1
9. August 29, World Cup Final Windham, NY HOLY CRAP

The XCO2 races go 10 deep with points, the 1s go 15 deep and the CN go 25 deep.

I'll probably be competing at presenting my research during race number 7, which is fine since the 20 minute presentation contest will actually pay a lot better for a lot less work.

I will be taking advantage of the fact that as a University student I have access to many scientific journals. I'm compiling a pretty nice set of journal articles which contain information to help me get faster. As long as I can avoid being hit by a car this Spring I should be on track.