Nationals countdown - 14 days to go

Fourteen days until USA Junior Road Nationals begins. We have fourteen juniors on our squad. One day at a time, I’d like to introduce you to my young teammates and share some of the experiences I have enjoyed with them. I’ll start with our youngest teammate.

Jack Maddux (racing age 14), hometown: Fresno, CA

Jack joined Team Specialized in 2010. His 2nd place in the individual time trial at Junior Nationals in 2009 in the 10-12 age-group caught the attention of our team, but it was Jack that sought us out. After meeting Jack and his family, it was easy to see that taking initiative came naturally to him. I share this with you because reaching for what you want is a strong characteristic common to all good cyclists. Jack’s tenacity on the bike and his willingness to listen and learn from his teammates off the bike is exactly what we are looking for in young recruits.

Jack’s personality helps to define our team. It’s obvious to outsiders that our team works hard and has fun. We can always count on Jack to play both roles. On the bike, Jack has had a dramatic 2011 racing season. He did some cross racing and put in some good base miles in the winter, including long drives to Fremont in January to mentor new racers in the Early Bird Crit Training Series (thank you Maddux family!). At the first race of the year he got caught up in a crash and was banged up internally. If that was not enough, a car broadsided him a few weeks later. He lost his Specialized SL2 and broke the driver’s front windshield! Thankfully, Jack bounces back. Since March, he’s made great strides in his confidence, strength, speed, position in the field and ability to read a race. He’s worked hard with his time trialing, his position on his Specialized Transition and went on to win his third consecutive California state time trial championship.

Good luck in Augusta Jack Maddux! Cheers, Larry Nolan, Team Specialized Director