6 Years Later

Larry has formed a habit over the past few weeks of finding old pictures from the junior team and posting them to Facebook. Saying that I changed would be an understatement. The first year on the team (AMD - Discovery Channel) the team website had my weight as 87 pounds and I've grown close to a foot. As my final junior season ends I wanted to reflect on the past 6 years.

First photo: Actually racing my bike. It's been why I have been on the team, but probably one of the less import impacts the team has had on me.

Second Photo: I showed up to cherry pie with Larry's bibs for some reason. Luckily another junior had a pair I could use.

I may have joined the team to race my bike, but the friendships and experiences I have had around cycling are what have been the most important. Many of my best friends are teammates would I have traveled with, lived with, and suffered with. We have had to work together under pressure. As the 18s go our separate ways in terms of teams for next year we are always having conference calls to share stories.

The first year on the team I was 13 and we were each assigned a mentor (master teammate would we could ask questions). That was a huge challenge for me. It forced me to practice communicating with adults on my own. I struggled with taking full advantage of the resources the team has to offer for a few year. It was helpful that Team Specialized has the most generous masters. Each one of them has gone out of their way to help me and teach me. They have such a wide array of knowledge both on and off the bike that any question has an answer somewhere in the master team and it's just up to me to find it. This generosity is best exhibited this Summer when Craig Roemer coached us at Nationals and then took me and a few other juniors around Europe to race for 3 weeks.

Finally I want to thank the leadership on the team. Wyatt, Larry, Steve and all the other silent heroes of the team who work endlessly to ensure that each junior teammate can grow as much as I have. They are the motivation for us to preform in races and support who we enjoy sharing our successes with.

quick shout out

Happy Birthday Wyatt!

Thank you to every teammate (junior, master, and leader) who has influenced me over the past 6 years. I may be wearing a different jersey next year, but I'm going to continue to soak up as much knowledge as I can from these teammates.