UCI Urban World Championships: Prologue

After an amazing experience in Columbus, GA earlier this summer, I couldn’t turn down the chance to try another World Cup XC Eliminator event before the snow starts to fly and 2018 comes to a close. If you aren’t sure what the heck I’m talking about, check out this LINK to the Georgia write-up, and learn more about XCE races. With the amazing support of KS Suspension and Chinook Winds Casino Resort, as well as my other amazing sponsors and support team, I was able to secure a rider selection to represent the United States in Chengdu, China for the World Championships in Urban Mountain Biking. XCE is a UCI-recognized discipline at Urban Worlds, providing an opportunity for the very best eliminator riders in the world to compete for a coveted Rainbow Jersey. Without a doubt, this was one of the most perspective-altering and incredible experiences of my whole life. Every day was full of amazing things- and it has been impossible to cram them all into a single blog. Instead, I’m breaking it up into 3 pieces: Prologue, Exploring Chengdu & The World Championship Event itself. It has been so much fun to hear from all of you as we traveled abroad! I look forward to hearing more of your own travel stories and hope that our journey inspires you to try something wild, exciting and wonderful.

Prologue
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Initially I was pretty nervous about extending my training so late into the Fall. It had been a long XC season and I was hopeful that my body could handle the workload, but admittedly a bit nervous. By incorporating lots of skill and strength work, as well as partnering with Lee McCormack to build the RipRow machine into my program, we made lots of progress in our 12 week build and I was really really excited with the fitness we were able to develop in what felt like a pretty short period of time.

One of the most stressful things we encountered was actually coordinating our travel visas. We learned so many things in this process: firstly, that you need a letter of invitation from the event in China in order to even apply for a visa from the Chinese Government. In turn, the Chinese Government requires you to have hotel reservations in order to grant you a visa. This becomes somewhat problematic when your hotel won’t give you a reservation until your visa is secured from the government. Not to mention that both parties struggle significantly with a major language barrier. It all worked out in the end, and everyone worked so hard to be helpful and understanding- we were definitely lucky to have good people helping us.

We also learned how important it is to work with an experienced travel visa agency when going to China for the first time, as you can easily make mistakes on your visa applications. When this happens, the applicant is not often informed with enough notice to reapply- should they be on a tight time line. The applications are taken to Chinese consulates for processing in either Washington DC or San Francisco, so its not like you can just walk to the local post office and check on it. In our case, we were super lucky that someone at the agency caught my error of wearing jewelry in my first visa passport photo- apparently a big “no-no” for Chinese visas. Who’dathunk right?

When it came to packing, everything seemed so simple… until I read up on the city of Chengdu and immediately realized I’d have to pack for much more than a bike event. Chengdu is home to nearly 17 million people, as in nearly twice the population of New York City. Surrounded in all directions by the lush Chengdu Plain, which is sometimes called the “Country of Heaven” or “Land of Abundance,” Chengdu has such an incredible depth of culinary, agricultural and artistic heritage that it could take an entire lifetime to properly unpack.

DIY Challenge: In a single carry-on suitcase, pack for an opera, 3 days on course at a world championship bike event, and enough non-spandex to dress yourself during the start of the Chinese winter season to see a city and countryside whose temples and history are thousands of years old, and therefore generally require hiking and lots of walking to explore. (Hint: laundry detergent and a clothesline were helpful)

When the time came to load up for the airport, we were as ready as we could be. My Pivot LES hardtail 29 was wrapped carefully, fresh Kenda Sabers were sealed on the rims- ready for some excitement, and my KS LEV Ci dropper was, as always, ready for anything.

Chinese Characters for the City of Chengdu

City Seal of Chengdu, China