USA Cycling Nieuwelingen Camp Week One Recap

On July 13 I boarded a plane bound for Europe where I will be until October 1. For the bulk of that time I will be working for USA Cycling as an Associate National Team Coach for the Junior Men and Nieuwelingen. USA Cycling has a base in Sittard, NL in an old sports hotel located approximately 400 meters from the border with Germany.

The first group that I am working with are the Nieuwelingen which translates roughly to “newbies”. This is a group of 15-16 year old juniors who have been selected by USAC’s Junior Program Manager to come over and experience racing in Europe for the first time. The 15-16 Camp is the first step on USAC’s Development Pipeline which goes all the way up through the U23 ranks for men. The six riders in my group are: Matteo Jorgenson from Boise, ID; Brandon McNulty from Phoenix, AZ; Maxl Freeman from Lakewood, CO; Tyler Stites from Tucson, AZ; Justin Leong from Los Altos, CA and Ben Watkins from Tulsa, OK. This is European Bike School with the main purpose being providing these guys the opportunity to get a taste of what living and racing in Europe is all about. What they do with that opportunity is entirely up to them.

Everyone arrived early in the morning on July 14 into the Brussels Airport. After a little over an hour drive we arrived in Sittard where we were assigned rooms, built bikes and went out for an easy spin. It is imperative during the first couple of days to stay busy and not succumb to taking a nap which will simply delay adjusting to the new time zone.

I was able to connect with an old friend of mine, Karsten Kroon who races for Tinkov-Saxo. Karsten is a 16 year veteran of the World Tour and even won a stage of the Tour de France in 2002. He was at home with his family in Vroenhoven Belgium just outside of Maastricht. Karsten took us on a two hour loop that included some of the parcours of the Amstel Gold Race. I am pretty sure that was the highlight of the trip so far.

Typically days start with breakfast at 8 am in the common dining room. The first week we have been sharing the facility (called Fitland) with the USAC Women who are also here along with the other USAC staff. Then we are usually on our bikes by 10. Most of the riding we have been doing has been in Germany which is under a kilometer away. The roads in Germany are mostly countryside and thus don’t have much traffic although a good portion of our riding is on the numerous bike paths that are everywhere in the area. One day we did manage to ride into Belgium from NL after taking the shortest ferry ride ever across the river which divides the two countries. The ferry itself was half the width of the river.

Bike school hasn’t consisted entirely of bikes. In another life I was a climbing instructor and it just so happens that there is a facility called Fitland XL here in Sittard that has a new indoor climbing gym. I am a big believer in rock climbing as one of the perfect team building exercises as it throws the guys into something that most of them have little to no experience in, forces them to communicate, work together and more importantly trust each other. It also allows me to see how well they take instruction and how they interact with each other. I took the guys over the the climbing gym on our second evening here and even roped up myself for a climb.

While the guys are here they will be racing in 6 kermesses. Our first two took place on Saturday in Kerniel, Belgium and on Sunday in Budingen, Belgium.

Kerniel was 11 laps of a 5.3 km selective circuit then finishing with a final 3.7 km loop for a total of 62km. In addition to the selective course, the heat was pretty oppressive, especially for Belgium. The attrition rate was very high with a number of DNFs. Brandon wasted no time on Saturday attacking within the first couple of kilometers and taking a Dane and Belgian with him. The Belgian eventually got dropped out of the move but Brandon and the Dane were able to stay away with the Dane putting in an attack on the last lap that Brandon had no answer for. Still though, second in your very first European race is pretty damn good. Tyler Stites almost made it onto the podium himself just getting edged out on the line and ending up in fourth.

The kermesse in Budingen was 66 km in length on a course which was quite a bit easier than the day before. It wasn’t quite as successful though as Brandon flatted out on the second lap. Tyler Stites was able to get 15th in the bunch finish. From my point of view the highlight of that 15th place was what transpired to enable it to happen. About two-thirds of the way through the race Justin saw that Tyler had flatted. He knew Tyler was on a better day than he was so he stopped immediately and gave up a wheel and Tyler was able to get back in. Teamwork in action.

This group of guys will be here for another two weeks. The next kermesse will be on Wednesday in Westerloo-Vortkapel. I will also be taking the guys to a local training race in NL on Tuesday. Stay tuned……