It's Not Over Yet

It's been a busy few days since Nationals. I'm sure you've all seen Sunday's result was better than Saturday's (imagine that) and it could have been even better had I not been taken out by a rider in our group who crashed in front of me on the gravel turn near the pits. Basically, he took me off the back of our group and I ended up riding the last 4 laps solo and really wishing the race was a lot shorter. That's the brakes. Monday and Tuesday were busy days of packing, cleaning, and driving back to Wisconsin. 16 hours and 1000 miles later I arrived home.

My race weekend finally took a turn for the better when Marc Gullickson came up to me after the races and asked about my intentions for the US Worlds team. Marc is the USA cycling elite athletes manager for the worlds team this year and has a lot to say on who gets to go. Really, I hadn't thought about it too much, but basically Marc encouraged me to apply for a spot and gave me all the travel and info I would need for the trip.

Basically, at this point I need to send in the petition with a large chunk of money for a down payment and on January 9 the Elite team is announced with the team leaving on the 18th for Belgium. The trip would include a local C2 race in Belgium, the World Cup in Hoogerheide, NED and then the World Championships in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium on January 27, 2007.

I think I am convinced I could train that long, or at least I am right now since the weather is still decent in Wisco, but the main concern is the $1500 down payment. I am really excited about the opportunity and just about everyone I've told has encouraged me to take it, so really it's just a matter of coming up with the money. Over the next few days I will be thinking of ideas to raise the money for the trip and hopefully some sort of cool gift for donors if I can come up with something. I've had some others offer their help in raising the money already and I would appreciate any one else's help or ideas for doing this if you're interested in helping with that.
You can contact me at my email: tschouten@gmail.com or through this website.
I will let you know soon about ways of donating and the information that I will need from you.

Thanks - Tristan