I'm finally on my way to winter. I managed to avoid the winter for almost all of last year and now I'm headed right to the heart of it in Australia. Well, it's not winter like Colorado, no snow and temperatures in the 50s and 60s but still. I have 4 flights to get to Worlds, 2 are in the books and 2 more to go. I would almost say the first one out of Durango is the most important, it's easy to get stuck there when things go wrong. Now that I'm in LA, even the plane breaks they will fix it or we will just get a new one. There are flights every hour to Canberra and worst case it's only a 3 hour drive from Sydney on the wrong side of the road.
I was checking out, Outside mag on way here and there was an article on Single Speed World Championships which got me thinking about the upcoming race. How cool would it be if you were a freshman at Fort Lewis College, into mountainbiking, and just arrived at school today for your first college semester. In less then 2 weeks Durango will be hosting the SSWCs and using some of the trails that go right behind the dorms. You would be so pumped. I rode some of the new single track climb up to the ridge the other night and it was awesome. I am really bummed to be missing the race since I'll be at WC finals.
I also missed the first ever MTB World Championships in Durango but have attended the Collegiate National Championships there and the World Cup when it was held right in town. I also got to do the downtown prologue for the WC that went through Steam Works and MBS so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It is nice to be able to compete in your home town thought at a big event.
For now thought I just need to get through this 15 hour flight down under. I have all the essentials for such a flight at least; noise canceling headphones, lunesta, ear plugs, sunglasses, melatonin, tryptophan, compression socks, 2 books(1 Louis Lamour), gum, Ipod, computer and most important a great seat. The hardest thing about traveling first or business class when everything goes smooth is not eating too many warm chocolate chip cookies, not drinking too much wine and not staying up too late watching too many new movies.
I was worried all week about staying home for too long now I'm wishing I could have stayed one more day. I finished my last day of motorpacing until possibly November yesterday behind the scooter, the weather has been incredible and Winston was even starting to like me more then Meg. I'll be starting over from scratch when I get back home with Winston at least.
With Worlds 5.5 days away I'm looking forward to the race. I hope they kept all the jumps, berms and decision maker sections of the course from last year that made it so much fun. I'm also hoping it's dry like last year so it's super fast although wet wouldn't be too bad as long as it wasn't super cold.
I wonder what this guy is doing right now.....