"The Guate"

For the majority of you that read this, you may already know that in 3 days I'll be in a plane on my way to compete in my first international race. Starting October 23rd I will be competing in the 52nd edition of the Vuelta a Guatemala. I will be racing with the U23 National team who set the expectations pretty high considering their performance during last years appearance at the race. My goals for this race is simple. Experience. Of course I want to do well, but getting the experience of the race in general is more important.

When I got the phone call and was told that I was going to go race my bike in Guatemala, I was a little shocked. I honestly knew nothing about Guatemala, other than the fact that it is located in Central America and that the majority of the people speak Spanish. Lucky for me I happen to have taken 3 years of Spanish in high school. I'll be honest and tell you I don't know every single word in the Spanish language, but I can usually pick up words/ phrases. With that being said I'm going to try and finish this entire blog post in Spanish. Voy a montar mi bicicleta este viernes y.......forget it. I've already forgotten too much.  I could potentially try to go through with it and look ridiculous while possibly losing some of my viewers or just go on with the post normally in English.  I'll go with plan B.

If you told me at the beginning of the year that I would be racing in the Vuelta a Guatemala for the US U23 National team, I would not believe you. After literally only two years in this sport lifestyle, I am essentially going to be racing with some of the best riders in the nation for my age group. I consider the selection alone to be an accomplishment. I have so much to learn these next couple of weeks and that is exactly what I plan on doing. Learning. Learning for the future. Learning for what lies ahead of me. Learning for my career.  It only gets better from here.

And of course, I am obligated to bring a camera so in my post after the race when I get home, I will give you all some of the visual during the 10 day stage race.

Something else I would like to mention before I go about my day, is the fact that finding a team for 2012 is over.  I can't release which team, but I assure you all that next year will be nothing like this year. Even though it may mean relocating, I can already tell 2012 is going to be a great year full good times with good people.  That's it for this post. Thanks for reading and look for another post sometime in the first week of November.