SAMI racing and other Off Season News

It's been a long time since my last post. Since then I've gotten a cyclocross bike, trained through the off season, and switched teams to SAMI racing.

SAMI racing is a new team for 2010 based in Michigan. It is an elite junior team that currently has 3 riders-Alexey Vermeulen, Rudy Peterson, and myself. If you've never heard of them before, I'm sure you will soon, but here is a little bit about them.

Alexey Vermeulen-Racing age 16 in 2010, Alexey is the favorite for Junior Nationals this season. Some of his results include 3rd place overall in the 15-18 category at the Green Mountain Stage Race, a cat. 3 race victory and many other cat. 3 podium finishes, and 5th in the TT at Nationals in 2008. Unfortunatley Alexey couldn't make it to Nationals this season, but he was invited to the National Development camp in Colorado Springs this past October.

Rudy Peterson- Racing age 15 in 2010, Rudy placed 8th in two of the three events at Nationals last season, and crashed in the other, which he had a great chance of a top 3 finish in. He upgraded to a cat. 3 after Nationals, which is incredibly rare for the racing age 14 year old he was at the time. In addition to this, he won a big LAJRS race, the Chicago Criterium, last July--in the 10-18 category.

Given the talent of my teammates, I think that 2010 will be a very good season for us. I think we have the potential to dominate the 15-16 category this year. Regardless of how I race though, I want to put my 2010 season in God's hands. If I do good, I want to give Him the glory for it.

Another thing that's new is that one of my Birthday gifts was a cyclocross bike. My Dad and I built it up ourselves, and since then I have been riding it a lot. I think it is better training than a mountain bike and is more fun, too. It puts you into the position of a regular road bike, and is much harder to handle than a mountain bike, which hones your bike handling skills.

I also want to thank the Raleigh Allstars cycling team for being a great team for me in the past 3 seasons. I have gotten much better as a bike racer under them, and they have also helped many other juniors improve in all aspects of cycling since I joined. Thank you.