Getting Ready for Race Season
Pretty excited to finally get the race season rolling. After a winter fully dedicated to training, long hours on the bike, and a lot of behind‑the‑scenes work, it feels good to be getting close to pinning a number on again. There’s something about that shift from base season to race season that always brings a mix of nerves, motivation, and curiosity—just wanting to see where the legs are at after months of steady work.
My first race of the year will be Redlands, a five‑day stage race in Southern California. It kicks off with a time trial, then rolls straight into four days of circuit racing, plus a crit to wrap things up. It’s going to be a fun and quite hot week in Southern California. I raced it last year, so I have a better sense of what’s coming, and I’m excited to improve on those results and see how much I’ve grown. There’s something satisfying about returning to a race with more experience and a clearer idea of how to approach each stage.
After Redlands, I’ll be heading up to the Bay Area to race Levi’s Gran Fondo, which should be a fun mix of intensity and atmosphere before I jump across the Atlantic. From there, it’s straight into Europe for the World Cups in Belgium and Italy—big races, big fields, and the kind of environment that pushes you to another level. It’s a busy stretch, but that’s exactly what I’ve been preparing for.
On top of all that, my new bike just arrived, and I’ll be building it up this week. I’m pretty excited about it—even if I was hoping to have a bit more time on the setup before the first race. But that’s how it goes sometimes in cycling. You adapt, you make it work, and you trust the training and the process more than the equipment timeline.
Training itself has been going really well. My base and endurance feel stronger than they’ve ever been, and I can tell the winter work paid off. There’s still some sharpening to do—shorter, punchier efforts, race‑specific intensity, all the stuff that brings the top end online—but overall I’m in a good place. Confident, motivated, and ready to see what this season brings.
I was also able to bike over to Sanremo to watch Milano Sanremo, which was an incredible experience to watch the best cyclist in the world win the monument.
