Twelve Days in Paradise
Our first trip as a team took us down to Puerto Rico for two weekends of racing. It was the first time to the island for all three of us, and we were all excited to be able to make the trip. Two weekends of racing, and some great completion made, plus some fantastic weather made the trip the perfect spot to start our year.
Race number one!
Our first week was spent in Salinas, on the Southeastern part of Puerto Rico. We had a great rental just outside of Salinas, and some pretty stellar views.
Racing took place at the Albergue Olímpico, a really neat athletics facility for al types of sports. Short Track on Friday, followed by XCO on Sunday. Both races were HOT; ice socks, dump bottles, and hydration were all big factors in the racing. Haley and Andrew both did well, having strong, top-ten results in both.
The completion was great, drawing athletes from the US, Canada, and South America. The local racers had an amazing following, the crowd went wild any time a Puerto Rican athlete through.
Following the racing, we had a few days to relax, and get some training in. We were lucky enough to also have fellow Ibis athlete, Kelsey Urban staying with us. Kelsey was great to have around, share meals with, and join Andrew and Haley for course pre-rides and training.
Our second week took us across the island to Rincon, a renown surf destination, in the Northwest corner. Haley, Andrew, and Kelsey chose to make most of the transfer by bike while I drove the rest of our bags to our new house. The ended up riding 116km in total, a big day in the sun.
The gang knocked out some more training during the week, and a few days checking out the race course before the big event on Sunday. Haley and Andrew scored or first-ever podiums, with Haley taking 5th and Lespy in 4th. Both looked great despite the heat and are on-track for a great season.
All of our equipment was great; frames, suspension, wheels, and tires all worked flawlessly and will only get better as we dial everything in and our race spec arrives.
We spent our final night of the trip in San Juan before flying out the following day. Couldn’t have asked for a better send off; one last swim in the ocean followed by walking around Old San Juan, and some pizza to celebrate!
I’ll leave you with just a couple more images in case you hadn’t booked that flight to Puerto Rico yet…
See you next year PR!
-Drew
