[laughs]

... a successful cycling career and, uh, a substance abuse problem.

And it was a really hard year for me because I was, uh, yeah, when I was feeling stressed, I would turn to alcohol.

And then I would beat myself up for this because my body is my tool for my job.

And so I know that I'm hurting myself, but I just didn't feel like, yeah, I, I, I had an addiction.

I have an addiction, I guess.

And I'm dealing with that now by not drinking.

Yeah.

Did you have any bad weather, like, anywhere? I think maybe I saw a photo of you in the rain towards the end.

On day one, it was a bit messy, and I...

Yeah, it was a, a bit messy on day one on Coco Plains.

It was pretty muddy.

There was reports of a lot of snow up there, and there wasn't a lot of snow.

There was a little bit of snow, but it wasn't a big deal, and the roads were sticky, I would say, on day one or two, and definitely a bit slower than 2024 because they were, yeah, they were just sticky and muddy and stuff.

Um, I got caught in a, like, a short thunderstorm on the paved stretch into, uh, Grants from Cuba, and man, they just come up on you, and things get wild for, like, you know, 10 minutes, and the wind and the rain.

Did I get the name right?

And how are you expecting things to evolve as you get further south as well?

Definitely expect to see some snow in the northern sections.

Yes, it's been a real like mixed bag of winter here in British Columbia.

And where I live, there was hardly any snow in the kind of lower mountains.

There was still, you know, snow to operate the ski hills and stuff, but people were climbing way higher than I thought they could.

more than like january and february i thought usually those areas are snowed out so really dry and we're in drought conditions here and for those who don't know i'm in the okanagan in british columbia um a few valleys over from banff it's about a five and a half hour dryer hour drive away but like just very very different conditions than the rockies are experiencing um i think it's been snowing almost every day of the week uh in banff and southern alberta and british columbia Definitely snow on the early passes like Elk Pass and Cocoa Claims, probably in Galton Pass.

And if not snow, it's going to be muddy and slow.

So do you have any particular strategies or anything that you found that works in order to like, keep moving forwards and clear the clear the drive chain and, and yeah, any strategies that you you've found?