Europe

After a little over three weeks in Europe, I'm now home having thinking about school tomorrow. The past month was the best part of my summer. Four of us Specialized 15/16s were selected and we had a lot of fun in a world away from our separate lives at home and became better teammates. The racing is different than anything you'll see in the U.S and we learned a lot from it.

I spent six days with Christian Williams and his group on the West side of Belgium before heading to Sittard, Netherlands to meet USA cycling. I was able to do two races in the time there, where I finished 2nd then 1st. It was a nice head start and I was able to adjust to being in Europe before the camp started. We had 4 kermesses before the start of the West Flanders Tour at the end of the trip. We won 3 of them, with Sean wining two and Gage winning one, Us Specialized kids have worked well together all season, and that carried over to Belgium. In one race all 4 of us were in the winning breakaway with one other Belgium rider, and we finished 1, 2, and 4.  We had great results going in to West Flanders Tour, one of the hardest races for 15/16s in Belgium. We rode well as a team and helped Gage finish 2nd overall. The racing was hectic with 150+ riders on narrow roads. You had to stay attentive all the time, and moving up in the pack was a difficult task. We did a great job as far as results, and we all rode our hearts out.

Going over to Europe as a junior racer gives us a taste of what being a pro in Europe is like, both on and off the bike. I'm really glad USA cycling gives us the opportunity to do this, and I'm happy I was able to go over with some of my Specialized teammates. Thanks to my my buddies Simon Jones, Cameron Beard, Gage, Sean, Grant, our coach John Heidemann, and everybody else who helped make this trip happen. I'm looking forward to next time.

-Christopher