I started coaching Nate a little over a year ago. His goal at the time was to prepare primarily for mountain bike racing during his final year in high school and hopefully earn a scholarship to a college that offered them for cycling. That goal was met and he will be attending Fort Lewis in Durango starting this fall. His father has raced on the road for a number of years so Nate started to participate in some local races near where they lived in Pennsylvania. He was able to get upgraded pretty quickly through results so I suggested that he join the group of juniors that I and Sean and Rachel Wilson would be working with this summer at the Junior Tour of Ireland as well as the Belgian kermesse block to follow. I also cajoled him into writing some posts for the website during that time. This is the first of those posts that he put together a few days after landing in Ireland. Enjoy.
I am Nate Meister and I am an 18 year old junior cyclist from Reading, Pennsylvania. My cycling career officially started just over a year ago when I finished my junior year of high school running track and cross country. Since then, I have set my sights on progressing and gaining as much experience as possible since I was very late to the scene.
Through my coach Joe Holmes and Tete de la Course Cycling, I was offered a position on the Team California / Tête de la Course Cycling Junior EU Race Trip for the Junior Tour of Ireland as well as 3 weeks in Belgium. In the weeks leading up to the trip, my excitement only grew as I began to prepare my bike and gather kits, nutrition, and spare parts. Finally, I was packed and ready to set off to the airport for a long day of travel. After arriving in Shannon, I was picked up by James, Rachel Wilson’s Irish mechanic friend, who took time out of his day to show me around while I waited for a hotel room. The next two days were a rush of excitement as the rest of the team arrived from team camp in Redlands and bikes were built and we were finally able to get out for our first ride.
For our first ride, we planned to ride Stage 6, the circuit race, as it was close to the hotel and an easy route to get adjusted to the roads. Since I have lived and ridden in America all of my life, it has been a pretty big adjustment to ride on the opposite side of the road and have to look the “wrong” way for oncoming traffic. For the most part, we have all adjusted quickly and are glad to be doing what we came here to do, riding our bikes. I am looking forward for the racing to begin this week.
