With his home county of Sonoma decimated by the recent Californian fires, cycling understandably isn't Peter Stetina's major priority at the moment. The consummate professional would rather be at home helping his community deal with the repercussions but is half a world away in China for the inaugural Tour of Guangxi.
The 30-year-old Trek-Segafredo rider started his season at the Tour Down Under and will finish his season in China, having also packed in a Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España. For Stetina, the preparation has been less than ideal for the six-day race but he explained the importance of lining out in his team colours.
"It is not easy right now with the fires. The air has been so bad you couldn't even ride a bike down there and 20 per cent of our city has been evacuated or lost their home," Stetina explained to Cyclingnews. "My thoughts have not been with bike racing for the last week. This was secondary if we lost my house then there is no way I would leave my family and my home. It looks like over the weekend right before I came out that the winds started to die a little bit and they were able to get things under control and we felt safe that we could come.
ADVERTISEMENT
"You feel guilty that you are one of the lucky ones who hasn't lost everything. I still have my house and my family. I have lot of friends that don't. You almost feel bad that you are in a fortunate situation so you want to help but this is a job and also so stressful and such a shell-shocked feeling in our town that it was a bit of a vacation to get away from that. If I can do something nice here it gives people a lot of motivation that we still persevere through and we keep trucking no matter what happens. That is where I am at right now.”
Just a matter of weekends before the devastating fires hit California, the worst in terms of life lost and damage bill on record, Stetina was celebrating the successful first edition of his Lake Tahoe to Nevada Stetina's Sierra Prospect. It is an event for which Stetina co-collaborated with a local brewing company for a limited edition beer.
"That was a career highlight. It was successful and we got what we wanted out of it. We already have bigger plans for next year and it was such a high and then I flew straight to Italy and had a really good race in Milano-Torino with a leadership position and I was able to duke it out on the club with some of the best guys in the world.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2hUdKex
No comments:
Post a Comment