In May 2015, I was planning a long drive out to Arizona for the Chino Grinder gravel event and needed something to listen to. I knew the Cyclocross Network existed, but I never had the time to listen to episodes from the previous season. In attempt to fill the cyclocross void of Spring, I binged-listened to Cyclocross Today for hours driving across the desert and laughed at the ramblings of Scott Dedenbach, Mr. David Palan, and Bill Schieken.
Needless to say, I befriended these nerds at the beginning of the season and finally met Scott in person at Providence. A week later Scott introduced us to Corey Green in Waterloo and once David Sheek got in a room with those two, the rest was history. Cyclocross lives in its own weird corner of the Internet and as a west coast-based racer, I’m so very grateful for the connections I’ve made over the past couple years through social media. The racing won’t last forever, but these relationships will, and I can’t wait to get started on this next adventure!
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| FORESHADOWING... |
See the official news release here: Women's CX Project takes huge step with mentoring program.
It's been such a treat to get to know the Women's CX Project this past year and witness the time and energy that Corey and Scott invest for the ladies on the team. Their passion for development and their love of the sport is infectious and I can’t think of a better group of people to stand by. The beauty of this partnership is I will still have the flexibility of planning my own program with David and the SDG Factory Team. Last season I wrote a lot about the struggles he and I faced traveling to races and working on everything out of a rental car and paying too much money in baggage fees. Yes, the Women's CX Project is going to solve a lot of those problems for us. But the biggest benefit is being part of a sister team where I can also give back to the riders. There are so many things I wish I had known in my first year as an elite and I learned a lot of lessons through many struggles. I'm looking forward to being there for this team, being a resource, sharing my experiences, and mentoring as best I can. The icing on the cake to all of this is that Courtenay McFadden has way more experience under her belt and I can't wait to chase her around and learn a lot from her as well. We're on the same west-coast-extension-sister-team of WCXP now : )
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| TXCX Photo by Bo Bickerstaff |
Everything else about the upcoming year is still in the air, but the Women's CX Project is the home away from home. And also I'm certainly racing at the CrossVegas and Jinglecross World Cups. I'm still in the process of nailing down sponsors, and the final dollar amount will drive most of our remaining schedule and travel decisions. If you want a copy of our sponsorship proposal for the SDG Factory Team, please shoot me an email at amanda.nauman@gmail.com and we will get that to you!
Thanks for reading and I hope this is some nice news to get everyone in the spirit of #crossiscoming summer season : )
