Fenders

(Chruch in Downtown Flers)


Its coming together. Tickets are booked for France leaving on the 4th of February and returning 16th of June, just in time for Nationals. When plane tickets get booked, usually I get a rush of relief as my mind goes from thinking about where I'm going, to counting the days until I go.

As with most times I leave its always bitter sweet. I leave PEI which is cold as hell, to go somewhere to pursue a dream, but PEI has all the family and friends who I wont see for many months. I've been doing this for long enough that I know what to expect, but it never gets easy. The whole time I wonder about how they are changing while I'm gone, and how I'm changing and what our relationships will be once I return.

Most years when leaving I get to go to someplace warm and soak up the sun. This year I'm, leaving cold as hell PEI for slightly warmer, rainy, windy France. This year has been especially bad as most people know in Europe for weather. Flers France, where I'm going, is no exception.

Its funny how people tend to follow a trend. Along with me heading to France I will meet up with three other Maritime cyclists. Zack Garland, Dustin MacBurnie,and Stuart Writeare all heading to the same region if not the same small town. Bizarre.

I'm told my living arrangements are with another teammate who just bought a house. I'm stationed with him because he is a single guy and I'm staying there the longest(as opposed to living with a family). Its expected that we will live to the fullest the bachelor life of the mid-twenties cyclist. This of course means a busy house, and busy beds with all of the rice cooking in the kitchen and going to bed at 9pm.

When I say I'm going to France, most people think of a twenty something backpacking, staying in hostels, and living wild. For me and most cyclists, its consists of 6+ months of being celabit.