A Quick Recap of a Fortnight -- Church Creek TT/Reston & Tysons

Jake started his own blog so I didn't feel compelled to say anything after last weekend.  You can find it here http://thesharpenedelbows.blogspot.com/

From my perspective, last weekend was a nightmare.  The last minute problem with the disc wheel was terrible; thank goodness I didn't ride over with Liam because Jake never would have even made it to the start. 
Here is Liam finishing

 Sunday was Reston.  I was hoping Jake would finally have a good race to get a little positive energy back.  I saw him go by in great position but then didn't see him come back by, but then he was rolling toward the pit.  I ran up to the pit and he seemed to be ok.  They put him back in the lead group.  He came around in good position again, but one lap later...no Jake.  Ugh.  I waited and nothing so I started walking briskly toward the crashy corner.  I saw a guy carrying his bike and asked if there was an HPC kid down.  His response was that "there are like 15 guys down."  Ugh.  So I started jogging down there.  When I got to the corner, I didn't see him.  I was about to go back but crossed the road and there he was in the cop car

He was in the cop car because the chairs were all occupied.  He was pretty shaken up actually, as the adrenalin kicked in and he was a bit queezy when they scrubbed his wounds.  So I brought the car around.  He was ok, but still.   We spent some quality time that afternoon applying tegaderm and gauze.

Today was Tysons.  We wanted him to attack for training.  It was good.  He attacked on the lap 2

Then he tried again mid-race tried to bridge to a break but got shut down by NCVC.  It started to rain so he sat in the back.  He clearly wasn't hurting though because he was talking to the guy next to him while riding up the hill.   There was a crash ahead of him on turn 1 of the final lap, which gapped him (along with a bunch of others).  He came back around with the others and sprinted with a guy just to get in the effort, which was good.  He rode to and from the race.  It was pretty positive.  He felt good and got in some attacks.

Now we're packing for Nationals  We'll drive to Madison WI tomorrow.  Hopefully it will take something like 13 hours (including stops).  More reports from there.  Based on our last 2 years, we're not over-worrying about nationals.  Yes, it's important, but it's also a crap shoot.  It's so chaotic. We'll see how it goes.

USA Cycling Taps Jake, Twice: Dad nearly has a heart attack

Let's see if anyone reads this when I don't link to FaceBook.

Two weekends ago, on June 2nd, we were in Manhattan for Loren's brother's wedding.  Sunday morning, I'm sitting on the bed in Loren's and my room when I get an email from Jake (who is in the boys' room across the hall).  It is an email from Geoff Proctor, inviting him to attend the USA Cycling Cyclocross Development Camp in Montana in July!  Jake comes running into our room.  It is unbelievable.  Simply unbelievable.  Jake is one of 17 boys between 15 and 18 who are invited.  Geoff Proctor runs Euro Cross Camp and I guess the USA Cycling junior cyclocross team for Worlds.  The camp is from July 21st to 26th.

Ok, wow.  So the CX camp starts the Sunday of Cascades Classic.  Ok, well, Geoff understands and in fact another boy, Sam Rosenberg from Oregon, is doing the same thing.  The plan was they would race Cascades then fly to Montana after the final stage Sunday, getting there at midnight.

This is absolutely incredible.  An unbelievable honor and opportunity.  Thanks to Geoff Proctor for giving him this chance.

This little guy is going to CX camp

But, then, today, at 8AM-ish, I checked my comcast.net email, and there was an email from USA Cycling inviting Jake to attend the 15-16 year old European Camp in August!  I literally screamed "oh my god" and ran upstairs and shoved my iphone in front of Loren, who was brushing her teeth, and she screamed, and then my heart started racing faster than in any race.  Unbelievable.  

Jake is one of 6 boys invited to the August camp (6 others are going in July).  It is a 3 week trip from July 29th to August 19th.  They will stay in the USA Cycling team house in Sittard, Netherlands, and they will do 4 Kermesses (local races around/through little towns) and then they will go to the USA House in Izegem, Belgium, and do the West Vlaanderen Tour stage race (4 stages in 3 days).  They will ride USA Cycling team bikes, the whole deal.

Here's the schedule:

        3 Aug: kermesse Voorshoven
        4 Aug: kermesse Drieslinter
        7 Aug: kermesse Rukkelingen-Loon
        11 Aug: kermesse Heers-Bovelingen
        16-18 Aug: West Vlaanderen Cycling Tour (UCI 2.17 IC)

Well, so, today was crazy.  I had to cancel the trip to Oregon because that would be too much travel.  Then re-book Jake to fly to Montana from DC.  USAC will book his travel to/from Europe.

I have to thank Sue Hefler for her coaching and support of Jake.  She submitted some critical testing data that I think had to tip the scales for him.  Also, everyone else who has supported Jake, like Bicycle Outfitters/Trek, Van Dessel cx bikes, and all our friends and family in the local racing scene.   

And this guy is going to Europe to face the Belgian Hammer