A recap and synopsis of my adventures to Vancouver and back. What an experience. This was actually my third World Championships so the scale and eliteness of the event was initially lost on me. Until I watched the pros race. But that will come later.
In the beginning, I started to wonder if I would ever see my hotel. It was 5:30 pm when I left the east coast US state where I live and 1 am before I even made it to the Vancouver airport. Mind you that's in Pacific time so for me it was already 4:00 am. After 11 hours of traveling I really had no desire to "fight" for a cab, which was a silly thought anyways considering the row of cabs lined up outside the airport. But my bike case won't fit in a Toyota Camry. Nor a Prius. It wasn't like New York where most of the cabs make my Dodge Ram look small. No, no. It appeared Vancouver was quite the Earth-friendly city and so I was told to wait until a van cab could be dispatched to the airport. "Wait," I thought. All I've been doing all damn day is wait.
Lucky for me, there was another poor soul who had lugged his bike box across country and understood my misery. He had actually begun his travels at noon the day before from Costa Rica and was more than happy to share his oversized van cab (he had just beat me out of the airport and got in the cab line just before me) with me. I was so gracious and ecstatic that my mood was immediately lightened and we chatted the whole way to my hotel. This was his first Worlds event and he was very excited to be representing Costa Rica at the Championships. I told him about my past experiences at these races, the huge turn out, watching the pros, taking it all in. We parted ways when the cab pulled up to the Coast Plaza Inn and rest was finally in sight.
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