School’s out for summer!!!!!!!!
Well the last week has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. After getting back home from the California trip, I had to jump straight back into my classes and catch up on the time I was away. I did squeeze in some studying, and on Thursday night wrote my finals back-to-back. It is a pretty big relief to have finished off those classes, and I’m confident in my exams too.
So. After the six hours of exam writing I hammered home and packed up as quick as I could. This was because Friday morning my teammate Ryan Anderson was heading over bright and early so we could make the seven-hour drive to Walla Walla Washington; home of the famous Walla Walla onion.
We made the drive down just in time to jump out of the car, pin on our numbers, and start the first stage of the Tour of Walla Walla. The race has 4 stages over a 3-day weekend. Despite being late April it was bitterly cold and windy the whole weekend; we even saw a few snowflakes.
While we were both pretty stiff from the drive, we managed to race well, and I ended up 3rd overall by the end of four stages. This was largely in part to finishing 2nd on stage 3, the longest road race I’ve done so far this year.
It turned out to be a really fun weekend. We were lucky enough to be put up in a home stay by a very nice couple with a beautiful house. This made things really comfortable as they had a fire blazing every evening when we’d come home freezing after the races.
It’s nice to do races like this one. There is great quality competition, but no major pressure. While I do race as hard as I can, I often train through these races and use them as preparation for bigger goals later in the season.
Well, next up I’m off to New Mexico next week for the Tour of the Gila, a 5-day stage race on the US national calendar. The race has a real international field registered, so it should be tough to say the absolute least. |