Pan American Championships
After getting the season underway at The Cactus Cup in Arizona, Cole and I headed to Puerto Rico for a C1 UCI race followed by Pan American Championships. Puerto Rico is an incredible island, full of culture and welcoming people. It is truly an honor to get to race there! We stayed with our Puerto Rican friends and top racers from the island who graciously put us up for our two week stay there.
The first weekend’s race was on the exact course we were going to race Pan American Championships on, so it was a perfect warm up event. It was both exciting and surreal to see so many countries come to compete. Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and many more from South America. After a year without any racing let along international events, it was special to feel the buzz and excitement of being back at a big race.
The C1 UCI race went well. As we all battled the 85 degree heat and almost 100% humidity, I was able to stay off the front, battling with Daniella Campuzano, Mexico’s top elite woman. It almost came down to the line but she was able to make a small gap on me on the last climb and I finished in 2nd, 10 seconds off the win. This was good confidence going into Pan American Championships just five days later.
Photo Credit: Ismael Reyes
The week in between flew by and we were barely able to make time for Cole’s iguana catching (although he did catch one). My Pan American race day rolled up and the weather was just the same but I was a bit more used to the humidity by then. The U23 Women started at 9am, so I thought this would give us a small head start into the heat of the day. I was wrong, I think the temperature changes by 1 degree between 9 and 1pm, haha! It was another hot battle, lap after lap downing bottles and dumping more on my back. After five laps and 1hr 20min of all out racing I was able to take the win!
Photo Credit: Maximiliano Blanco
This win is special, not only because of the title but to me it represents the work that I have put in silently over the last year when there were no racing opportunities. It was also special to be there as a team, Cole and I, and see our dreams come to life. The last 6 months have been so challenging at times as we’ve built our team, and there were many days when we thought we wouldn’t be able to make it happen, but days like this make it all worth it.
