The last 4-5 years, I’d been working myself to the bone. I graduated high school 2 years early, was working with over 80 juniors over a couple years, invested in a car rental company, then came back to professional cycling, graduated university, and hopped straight into an extremely demanding position in the Data Observability space with the top-performing platform in the space, Datadog. All of this while creating a privateer program and using it to give resources back to grassroots development. 

Then I had enough… Getting sick 5-6 times a year because of stress and sleeping 2-5 hours a night caught up to me. I needed a break. So I left the rat race, and jumped into cycling full-time. Thanks to the financial support of Hunt Wheels and many others, I’ve been able to focus on cycling with my full energy and spend time re-discovering myself. With that, came the thought; 

“What if I could escape the LA hustle-bustle culture and get away to a space where I can focus on cycling to the best of my abilities?..” 

This is how Project Colombia began…

I’ve been lucky to have been teammates with some of the best crit racers, Bryan Gomez, Alfredo Rodriguez, Ruben Companioni, Michael Hernandez, Danny Estevez, when we dominated the crit scene back in 2022. They ALL mentioned Medellin and training on the outskirts of the city: how cycling is worshiped as a national sport, how the food is amazing and healthy, how it’s easy to acquire moto support to enhanced training conditions, how the climate is warm and humid year-round for heat training, and that it’s at altitude (one of my favorite features). 

So I went to work back in April to make this possible, booking the ticket and seeing what would be needed to make this work. I built the training infrastructure, created a media team to appease sponsors, and ensured my presence wasn’t essential in LA for this off-season. And October 1st came like a flash and before I knew it, I was on the plane headed to a foreign country with the #1 goal of getting fitter than ever for 2026. And it worked. 

My routine as a pro athlete took a bit to figure out, but after a few months of doing this full-time, here’s how it looks. 5-6am wake-up call, quick breakfast then out the door, uninterrupted training as there’s no stop lights once you get out, finish up with a quick coffee, recovery shake and stretch. Then I take my spanish classes and make a whole, well-balanced lunch, then typically meeting with brands for 2026 in the afternoons and handling any bike maintenance. The nights are spent with another stretching session and a salsa class if time permits, but bed is strictly between 8-9:30pm.

And it’s worked, my LT1 is about 14% higher over the last 6 weeks, putting me close to the fittest I’ve ever been and we still have 8 more weeks of base training. 

How’s it translate to racing though? Well we were able to put it to the test! Thanks to chance and God working in mysterious ways, the organizer for the biggest crit in Bogota had followed me on Instagram for a while and saw I was training in Medellin. He invited me out to the event and also 2 other Americans that I brought out to Medellin as well. So we flew out to Bogota, and thanks to the organizer, we were able to organize a group ride, interact with the community, laugh and share coffee, and share tips on training, racing, and building a privateer program! 

When it came to the race, it delivered in every aspect. Tight and technical with a high-speed downhill off-camber initial corner with a double apex straight into an uphill with 4 more corners before getting to the finish. The course was set-up on a race track, making it easy for spectators to see the whole race unfold. And of course, there was a little section cheering for me as the American, but mostly everyone was rooting for a Colombian to smoke us hahaha All great competition, and unfortunately for the crowds, we did not fail. After the halfway point in the race, I made a decisive attack to break the remaining 15 riders into a 2-man break with me and Camilo. From there, strategically the advantage was in my favor as the sprinter and I took the sprint handily on bell lap. 

While I came to Bogota invite to race from the organizer, for me, the purpose of this trip was to explore Bogota and understand more of the racing, cycling community in Bogota. After all the race interviews, I spent another 3-4 hours just chatting with the local young guns (thanks to taking 3-5 spanish classes/wk since March haha), hearing their stories and sharing as much as I could to give them information to help them grow in the sport. And chatting with the organizers to share how we run crits in the US as to help with growing their criterium further. They have a gameplan to make it similar to US crits with a national calendar stretching all over Colombia and now, I too, share this ambition with them.

So what does this all mean for 2026? My outlook for 2026 is so positive. Colombia has given me the space to have a mental reset, to dial in my nutrition and training, to make connections in a new community, to give me a different perception of cycling, and to expand my privateer program. We’ve doubled the amount of sponsors supporting my privateer program, I haven’t been this fit in November since 2020 (if at all), and mentally I haven’t been this focused on the sport since 2021. I think if all goes smoothly, it’ll be one of the best seasons yet! 

Thank you to HUNT for keeping me safe, keeping me slippery, and allowing me to live the dream younger me never knew was possible - traveling the world on two wheels.