Update from Beglium/race weekend 2

I have been taking in everything that Belgium has to offer in these past couple weeks. Over this past weekend I did two more races. The race on Saturday was 10 laps of 6.3 km. It went through small narrow farm roads, had two hills to climb up and two downhills that were very fast. There was also "road furniture" like concrete curbs in the middle of the road. There were 90 starters and about 16 of those were other Americans from the USA national team, slipstream/garmin junior devo team, and others from the trip I'm on. It was sure to be a fast race. For the first 6 laps I sat comfortably in the middle of the pack making sure to conserve my energy. On the 8th lap I followed an attack up a hill on the backside of the course and the two of us quickly built up a gap. Later on in the lap I messed up on a turn and the other guy gapped me and I was stuck by myself. I gave it my all to stay away, but I was caught early on during the last lap. I finished up a minute behind the field. I am proud of my effort in this race because I gave myself a chance to win. It didn't work this race, but it may work in my next race.

My other race was the next day on Sunday. I woke up with a sore throat, headache, and a stuffy nose. It was one of those days where I had to man up and just do the best that I could in the race. This course involved 12 x5 km laps. Each lap involed a little over a km of a very hard cobble section on the finishing straight. There were 105 starters in this race and it started off fast. The first 4 laps I was dying and trying to hang on to the back. I was getting whipped around every corner and I thought about dropping out. On the 6 lap I started feeling a lot better though and I made my way to the front. I made some attacks during the last 3 laps, but it was clear that it was going to come down to a field sprint (while I was on the back 8 riders got away). I positioned myself at the front and stuck my elbows out. I gave it my all and I finished 41st.

I am disappointed with how this weekend went, but I have another race on Tuesday. Hopefully I will feel better by then. I am truly becoming a better racer over here and I am seeing a lot of improvement in myself. Thank you everyone for reading my blog and supporting me. I have the best friends and family in the world!

second race of the trip

Today we had a race in Zingem, a town about 7 miles away. I got an awesome massage from Holly Germer yesterday, co-owner of the Chainstay, so my legs were feeling ready to go. The course was short and we had to do 13 laps. The race started off fast and I was feeling good. I was very aggressive and was almost always at the front staying out of trouble. With two laps to go another racer named Phil O'Donnel took off and soloed to the finish. A group of 3 others took off and also stayed away. I missed out on those opportunities and I had to fight my way to the front to get in position for the sprint. We were flying on the last lap and moving up was hard. On the last corner I got bumped to the side of the road and came out of the corner slow. I was passed up by 10 others and I finished 25th in the race.

The lesson learned is that even if your feeling good things don't alway go your way. I need to be more prepared for sprints at the end of races and I need to keep my elbows out.  It is a decent result and there is always another race to do better in. Congrats to Phil O'Donnel for winning and Grayson Brookshire for getting second. I am having a lot of fun!
Thanks for reading,
Richard

First couple days

I have now been here at the house in Belgium for a couple days now and I am adjusted to the time difference (Belgium is six hours ahead of Michigan). I had my first race the day after I arrived and I was still tired then. The race was 63 km long and was on a 7.5 km long circuit that winded and twisted through the country side while leading us back through town each lap. The race started off fast and stayed that way. I was doing a good job of positioning myself at the front and staying out of trouble. I even found the strength in me to put in some good attacks. Halfway through the race it started to rain and the corners got slippery. I took a sharp turn at a wrong angle and my wheels slid out from underneath me and my body slided up against the pavement for a couple feet. By the time that I got up and checked my bike the field was gone. It was a really windy day and that made catching the field by myself impossible. I got pulled from the race and got 30th place out of 70 some racers. I am disapointed about how the race went, but thats how it goes sometimes.

The last days I have been chilling around the town square and riding around the country side with some of my friends. My next race is on Sunday and I am very excited for it. Thank you all for reading!!!!!!

Its been awhile

Wow, It has been a long time since I posted on here and I apologize. To catch up on things I did decent at road nationals in Augusta (not what I had hoped for) and did fairly well at Track Nationals in Pennsylvania. My partner Alex Riva and I did the madison together and got 3rd.
What's happening now is that I just arrived at the Chainstay house in Belgium where I will be spending the next 3 weeks. I am once again trying to conquer the races of Belgium and I am doing it with the same people that took me on the trip earlier this year in March. I am coming into this trip knowing what I have to do and I plan on getting some results. My first race is tomorrow, I am not sure how it will go though knowing how tired I am from the flight and getting used to the time change. I am so thankful to be racing in Europe again and I can tell that this will be a great trip.

Preparing for the National Championships

Since my races over Memorial Day weekend in Iowa I have been riding a fair amount and getting my body ready for one of the biggest races of the year, the road National Championships in Augusta Georgia. This is the biggest race for road cycling in America. This race is where the best juniors from around the country all gather up in one city to compete for the title of being the national champion. Needless to say, this weekend is very competitive. There is a time trial, a criterium, and a road race. My goal is to get a national championship. I wouldn't go to any race if I didn't think that I could win it. The National Championships are my place to prove that I belong on the national team.

My mind is certainly ready for this big event, but I have had some problems with my body lately. After pretty much every race I have thrown up or felt nauseous. At first my coach and I thought that it might be something that I have been eating. I have looked at EVERYTHING that I have been eating and I am just not sure what might be causing my stomach problems. I went to the doctor a week ago and he thinks that it is heart related. I did an EKG and I had my blood taken, but both turned out normal. Tomorrow I am going to the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor to do a stress test and have an echo performed on me. The doctor hasn't let me do any hard workouts in the past week so I am kinda unhappy that I can't train the way I want to before nationals. I am hoping that everything goes o.k. tomorrow and that the doctors say that I can race.

Anyway, I am excited for nationals and I will be putting up a new blog everyday while I am there. I am also almost finished with school which is a good feeling. Thank you for reading!!!!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend in Iowa

This past weekend I spent the Memorial Day weekend with my parents and team racing in Iowa at the Quad Cities. This is a very famous and historic weekend of racing in some very cool downtown areas. My parents and I left early friday morning so that we could stop and eat lunch with my grandparents who live in Illinois. I don't get to see them that often so when I do it is a treat. I loved being able to see them! After eating lunch, we finished up our last hour of driving and made our way to the hotel. The night was finished off with a great Italian dinner and going to bed at a good time.
My first race was early Saturday morning in the downtown of Burlington. This weekend I decided to just do the junior 15-18 races since these races are more important and attract a lot of junior talent. We had to do eight laps where each lap consisted of a really steep and twisty cobbled climb followed by a really fast decent. The name of the Race is Snake Alley. The climb really does look like a snake. Here is a video of last year's race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0InwFypMe-c . I was not able to stay with the front group of racers last year, so my goal was to stay at the front this year. The race started off really fast, but I was able to hold my position and fight hard. On the last lap I went to the front and drilled it up the climb hoping that I could help pace my teammates up and stop attacks. I got to the top and everyone passed me. I reached the bottom of the descent and picked off a racer in the sprint to place tenth out of over 50 juniors. After the race I overheated and threw up though. Something has been going on with my body lately and I am not sure what. Hopefully I can get that figured out soon.

Sunday was the Melon City Criterium. I will save you all time on this race because my chain got caught in my frame on the first lap and by the time I got it fixed the field was already over a minute up the road. I chased for a couple laps, but then I gave up.

Monday's race was the Quad Cities Criterium which consisted of 14 laps of a big figure eight shaped loop with a lot of corners. Last year I got 4th in this race so I had some confidence. After not feeling great on Saturday and dropping out on Sunday I really wasn't sure what was going to happen though. I attacked right when the race started and I soon opened up a decent sized gap on everyone else. I knew that I had 14 laps to go so I had to pace myself. 2 laps into the race it started to rain really hard and I startes slipping around in the corners. I figured that there would be a lot of crashes in the field and I was right. With 4 laps to go I was 15 seconds ahead of a group of 20 chasers. I realized that I had a chance of winning. I still had a small gap when I crossed the line with 1 lap to go and I put the hammer down. The field came 10 feet away from catching me in the end, but I held them off by myself and crossed the line in first. It was a great feeling!

I had such a great time this weekend and I would like to thank my teammates for helping me out and being such great friends to me. My team also did really well over the weekend and I am so happy for them. Every single person on Prochain cycling gave it their all in every single race. I would also like to thank my coach Lucas Wall for all of his advice and dealing with all the crap that comes with training a teenager. I know that I'm not the perfect athlete to coach, but he somehow manages to always be able to make me improve on my love of this sport. I would like to thank my family for always supporting me and cheering me on. I would like to thank Honey Stinger for all of their great nutritional products and Enzo's Cycling for their chamois creme. I don't know what I would do without the great sponsor's that I have. Finally, I would like to thank my parents. They are the best in the world and they are always so proud of me. It is their 19th anniversary today and I love them so much. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's been going on lately

Nothing crazy has happened to me since my last post, but Ill do my best to make this post sound interesting. I have been racing really hard lately and I am only a couple weeks away from finishing up my sophmore year of highschool. My training rides have been pretty exciting lately. Yesterday I got attacked by some geese who were protecting their children from me and I almost ran over a squirrel. What really scared me is that the geese started hissing at me and even jumped at me and tried to bite me. haha.

Since my last post I did a local spring training series race at Ann Arbor where I got fifth in the pro 1/2/3 race. I was able to make it into the winning breakaway of 8 and gave it my best in the sprint. The next weekend I did a road race called, Cone-Azalia. The course consists of a rectangular 10 mile loop with 4 miles of gravel and 6 miles of paved road. The pro 1/2 race had to do 7 laps. The first 3 laps went fine and then the pace started to pick back up. I got dropped 55 miles into the race and then I rode with one other for the last part of the race. 3 others caught us in the last mile so I had to bring out a hard sprint. I got 20th place out of 30some riders. It is a hard transition going from cat 3 to cat 2 and racing with the professionals. The races are longer and the riders are better. I am learning a lot and I enjoy the high level of competition.

This week I am preparing for a two day stage race in Grand Rapids this weekend. Saturday consists of a 14 mile time trial in the morning and a criterium in the afternoon. Sunday consists of a 90 mile road race. I can't wait!!!!!

Also, I would like to wish everyone mom and expectant mother out there a happy mother's day! My mom means the world to me and I am so thankful for her. She is always cheering me on and supporting me. I feel so blessed that I have her!!!!!