Hello! Just over a week to go before I leave to Belgium and Italy for 3 weeks to compete with Team USA at the World Cup events. Of course, I’m hoping for some great results. I think, pretty confident, I can get medals in each race. We do have some new competitors in Italy which I’ve never heard of and one new competitor in Belgium who I’ve never heard of. Who knows what kind of function they have or if they will even be classified into our category. They have to go through classification before the event to see if they are a legit H1. Many people want to be in the category where they can be the best even if they have a little too much function for that category. It’s disappointing that cheating is common in classification. Not to say it happens all the time but it does happen often. The Italian in the H1 category would get about last place the entire first year he competed and then the second year he compared he was winning everything. He does have a lot of function with more triceps than a typical H1. His hands also work decently, one much better than the other. He has full dexterity in it which is a bit embarrassing that he’s in our category. It is what it is though, we can only do so much. My training is going well and I’ve been nervous because I wasn’t able to get outside as much as I typically do and ride but I’ve been grateful to go to Tucson a few times and also get some outdoor rides in the past two or three weeks here with the snowbirds whom are hand cyclists. They are a great group and fun to ride with. They are all higher function than I am yet much older. It’s a great challenge and these guys are very strong and great examples to me.I will be putting all my coursework online for my students as I do not want to do much of any correcting while I am over in Europe. I’m going to do my best to avoid bringing out the laptop most days. I hit my elbow pretty hard on the ground just over a week ago when we were riding. There was some swelling from a bruise and It did open up a bit with gash but it was healing up really well and the swelling was going away. Well, transfering on to my hand bike two days ago I scraped the gash or wound across the backrest Velcro, the hooks, and it was bleeding a lot and even though I cleaned it up the next day my whole forearm was swollen. I went to Urgent Care and got some antibiotics and those are helping. Luckily, the antibiotics are not really known for causing a lot of fatigue as they’re just for cellulitis like Keflex or doxycycline. Hopefully the swelling reduces over the next 3 days, fingers crossed, and the arm does not get warm showing infection. I should be off the antibiotics for 4 or 5 days before going to Europe. They didn’t bother me on today’s ride which was very nice.I will check back in after I return from Europe in May and let you know how I performed! Ultimately, I want to see progress personally. If I can do that getting a medal should not be a difficult thing.