Off-season travel and espresso, and some training
Because our off-season has been jammed with awesome trips and adventures, it really hasn’t felt like a long time since I pinned that last number at the Tour of Beijing. Shortly after returning from Beijing, it was a short week back in Girona playing with my new espresso machine, having some great lunches with friends on the coast and tying up some loose ends before our extended off-season trip. From Girona, we travelled to Japan for the Saitama Criterium, a crit close to the heart of Tokyo showcasing the top riders from the Tour de France. The hospitality in of the Japanese people was overwhelming. I even managed to squeeze in a quick training session with the Baritsta Training Lab in Tokyo to help me to try and continue to improve my skills on the brew machine.
From Tokyo, we did a month-long trip in Indonesia, based mostly in Bali with a few little trips to neighbouring islands. There was lots of of snorkelling, scooter trips, rice-patty walks and exploring the local culture. Bali also wasn’t just all fun and games: I started my pre-season training there, getting in a couple weeks of pretty solid riding with plenty of climbing. Since Bali is a volcanic island, the riding was mostly uphill and back down, cruising up a gradual climb before turning around at the deep crater and riding back down.
The weather in Bali and its proximity to Australia made the trip down under for our first camp quite an easy transition. So here we are, in Australia, getting our first team get-together underway and working out the kinks with the medical staff, getting those skin folds done, as well as all the other tests that are required for UCI we need to get done before the race season kicks off. To get an idea of what’s needed for the UCI medicals, we get echocardiograms to make sure everything is going well with the heart, stress echocardiograms to see how the heart is responding when exercising and blood tests to make sure all our values are within the healthy range before the intensity of racing gets underway.
As camp closes out, I am looking forward to getting home to Girona and getting back into a good routine of training (let’s hope the weather co-operates) and regular daily life. After more than month of living out of my backpack, nothing feels better than getting home. Amber will have some new flavour inspirations of in the kitchen and the Rockets is just waiting to pull some super shots of espresso.
