Suddenly, along with the dusting off of cyclocross bikes, something else is looming on the horizon… Interbike.

It’s the Vegas shindig where racers (among 1000s of other people) go on a door to door (or booth to booth) networking extravaganza in an attempt to make the right connections that will lead them to the sponsorship pot of gold at the end of a Vegas rainbow paved in glitter and lined in feather boas. Sometimes, the people you meet turn out to have a genuine interest, and it’s the beginning of a mutually beneficial rider-sponsor relationship (Nimblewear, for example). Other times, they smile in your face then never call back (I’ll not name names, but they know who they are). As a privateer athlete, it makes sense for me to go and shamelessly plug my ability to put forth an easily-recognizable face and promote a sponsor’s product via my mastery of both social media and of actual face-to-face interaction.

Last year, I went in with somewhat of a plan of who to talk to, etc. I quickly found out, though, that A) sometimes you need to schedule your meetings in advance, and B) it can be the more random interactions that bring about the best results. As a result, I’m going to pick a few companies to schedule an actual meeting with while also trying to get to know everyone else along the way. My goal is to pay for a little bit less of my equipment than what I do now… anything else is just glitter-filled icing on the cake.

Just to complicate things, I entered the USAC Crossvegas race. I’d originally thought it’d be fun to do the Industry race for Nimblewear, but I slept on it too long and the category filled up. I could still do the elite race, but it’d be an exercise in extreme ass-kicking. Might still be fun, though.

To-Do List:
-Update Race Resume
-Update Business Cards
-Find out the name of everyone’s marketing person
-Email the marketing people I want to meet
-Figure out how to get a CX bike to Vegas and back
-Shit, I need a plane ticket, too
-Fill flask with whiskey
-Trim mohawk
-Get WC Color fill on left arm tattoo

That should do it.