In early June, our team flew to New York City to to support one of our biggest team sponsors, Basin Holdings. This year they put on a Ride to Conquer Cancer charity ride! It was an absolute blast! The ride was two days and around 130 miles. After that, our team and Basin kept riding for another three days. We rode from NY, to Rhode Island. All in all we had an absolute blast and I hope to return next year!
We finally started jumping at the end of June, which is later than normal. Everyone was really excited and anxious to ski jump again. My first couple sessions were really good. Actually the best sessions I have had in almost a year. I was happy to start the summer jumping off strong and was hoping to carry the momentum to Steamboat Springs for the 4th of July competition.
The Steamboat camp went well. I felt really strong on the cross country side. However my jumping struggled a little more in Steamboat. I didn't have great jumps but was able to ski up to 4th in the competition. I also was able to see my parents. They drove from Aspen to watch the event. I hadn't seen them in a long time.
After Steamboat we returned home for a couple big volume training weeks and some bike races before U.S. Nationals at the end of July. I felt absolutely amazing in these weeks. My endurance was at an all time high and I was lucky enough to pull my jumping back together the week before Nationals. For the first time in two years, my jumping was finally back! During this time I did a little bike racing as well. Taylor, Jasper, Adam, and I went to Captiol Reef National Park(3.5 hours south of Park City) for a three day stage race. I hadn't sat on a bike in almost two weeks so I was a little nervous. However we all did really well. Taylor ended up winning Cat 1-3, and Adam won the Cat 4-5. Jasper and I were 5 and 6 in the Cat 4-5. It was a great race for team Colesport Racing.
We had only one week after the bike race to prepare for nationals. Fortunately, my jumping turned around just in time for the competitions. Nationals went well and I was happy with my performance. I ended up 4th in the nordic combined national championship behind Bryan, Adam, and Taylor. This was the best national result I have had to date.
With nationals behind us, our team now has our sights set on the Summer Grand Prix(SGP) events in Germany and Austria. I have never competed in a SGP so I am really excited. On top of that my level of jumping has improved tremendously and I am looking forward to seeing how I do in Europe. I am in Park City this week and then head back to Aspen with the team for a fundraiser on Tuesday. We will only be there a couple nights and then return to Park City for three nights, before heading to Europe.
I will keep you updated more often, now that we are going to start traveling and competing.
Cheers!