GOFIGHTWIN
The race season starts today. My sixth road season, fourth as a professional. Where has all of the time gone? I remember being brand new in the peloton, brimming with overconfidence and naïveté. Now I can pin a number in my sleep, speak fondly of races that no longer exist, and roll my eyes with jaded fatigue at the idiosyncrasies of this cycling world. And yet each season begins the same: wild hope cautiously guarded. You spend the fall and winter training alone, long hours on short, cold days. There is no easy way to compare yourself to your peers in the winter (well, Strava, but no). You self-motivate, work hard and then harder, and wait for the big reveal come the first race. Maybe I'll have made some gains, you say to everybody glibly, while secretly hoping to blow everybody and yourself away at the first event. It doesn't ...continue reading.