2014 in the Rear-View Mirror [Vlog]

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It’s been a great year, and judging by the first three days of 2015, this year is going to be one to match. But before we go charging on to new things, new resolutions and goals, we need to process 2014, this crazy-wonderful-psychotic-up-and-down-awesome year. Let me tell you, summarizing this year in one blog post was not exactly an easy task. But here we go.

2014 by the numbers

5 continents (although, technically speaking we only spent the last 2 hours of 2014 in Asia)

7 countries (8 if you count the 35 minutes I spent sprinting through the Beijing airport on New Years Eve)

16 states and 1 canadian province

9 bike races with 22 days of racing

10,000 miles driven, in 6 different vehicles

1 brush with flesh-eating bacteria

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7 stitches in my face

innumerable bruises, cuts and scrapes

3,197.1 miles ridden (according to Macky’s strava, WHAT.)

364 hours of riding

70+ nights spent sleeping outside

1 bout of mid-race food poisoning and 1 resulting bumpy ride in the back of a police truck

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not nearly enough showers

5 different phone cards

1 trip to Machu Picchu

countless amazing friends and family members (old and new) who fed us and let us sleep on their floors and couches

far too much Italian pistachio gelato to admit on the internet

1 missed flight (and several more close calls)

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365 days of adventure and making it up on the fly

so, so, so many new friends scattered all over the world

2014 highlight reel style

Sleeping in the back of our 1995 toyota corolla in New Zealand, the door propped open with sticks because our legs are too long, getting eaten alive by sandflies, making sandwiches on beaches with black sand and turquoise water, discovering the wonders of New Zealand’s “tuna in sweet chilli sauce” and wondering a) why we don’t have this in the US and b) why Kiwis can’t spell chile.

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Staying with great friends in Santiago, Chile, teaching four-year-old Amaya to ride a bike, long bike rides ending in late night asados with obscene amounts of greasy meat and strong piscolas.

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Slipping and sliding our way down a Peruvian mountain for Inca Avalance — starting at 16,000 feet and ending at 9,000. Spending our evenings in the hostel courtyard drinking cheap beer and eating pollo a las brasas.

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A Colorado summer, cold nights, mild concern about bears, campfires, using creeks as a refrigerator, good friends, bike races and hours spent lounging in the van

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British columbia rain, aka “how to get everything you own moldy in ten days,” big ferns, long days spent riding the world’s best trails, one flooding tent with moats built at 11 pm

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and many, many more…

2014 dedications

Last week Macky and I tried to send out postcards to everyone who helped us out this year. Let’s just say we ran out of stamps. We are so, so, so grateful to everyone who helped make this year possible. To our sponsors, for hooking us up with the sweetest gear and for believing in our dreams, to our parents for feeding us for several months out of the year and never asking “do you have a real job yet?,” and to all the friends and relatives, near and far, who housed us, fed us, let us ship packages to their houses and use their laundry facilities and showers and when we were in dire need. We are some seriously lucky people. Thank you for being amazing, and helping make our 2014 amazing. We love you all.

HAPPY 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Syd Schulz

Pro mountain biker.

Average human.

I write about bikes and life and trying to get better at both.

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