The Robbie Report is a weekly feature on MTBracenews.com. Robbie Squire is the 2008 Junior National Champion and the newest member of the US National Team. Just two years ago Squire was racing as a Sport. In '08, his first year and only year as a Junior Expert, Robbie won the Junior National Championship. In '09 his first year in the senior ranks, the Utah resident will be racing with the U.S. National Under-23 Team. Each week Robbie will share his experiences with us. Join in as the 19 year-old Junior National Champion and first year Pro travels across the United States and Europe racing his bike and living out a once in a lifetime opportunity.



The Europe excursion ended last week with me flying home 2 weeks early. The decision to come home early was especially difficult with the great racing I was doing and the opportunities I would be missing by coming home. The fact of the matter is that I was too sick to continue to ride let alone race and coming home was the right thing to do. I caught something Giardia like while doing a road race in Belgium, which essentially ruined any chance at having a good race or a good time at Ronde l’Isard, a 4 day stage race in France.

The race was very cool, aside from my feeling awful, we raced through the Pyrennes and did some of the climbs that are used in the Tour de France. Despite being way off the back it was hard not to enjoy the surroundings and I found myself becoming more of a cycling tourist as my sickness continued. I found I could ride for about 80 km and help the team leader, Peter Stetina, before my body shut down and I had to ride slow. The team we brought to Isard was really strong but unfortunately most of us were plagued with an inhibiting sickness. In spite of the poor health of the team, Stetina pulled off an incredible victory on the second stage’s mountain top finish.

Finish of Stage 4 of the Ronde l'Isard

Although I was really sick the entire time my goal was to simply finish the race and avoid a DNF. In the end I did finish and wasn’t even last! I finished in the 70s out of 110, which is fine considering the circumstances. I’m eager to get healthy again and try out stage racing again and see what I can really do.

Now that I’m home the main focus is to get rest and get better. I’m finding that it is very difficult to take time off the bike-I’m lost now. Unfortunately, I have not been able to kick this sickness yet, which is painfully obvious when I ride or try to race. So I’m resting and trying to take care of some business while I’m out of commission.

In the end the Europe trip was a good experience because it is so different. Cycling is much more respected there and it really shows in the races, the fans, and the venues. Everyone wants to be part of the races and that is really exciting. It’s crazy that probably all the fans from every mountain biking event in the U.S. combined would not come close to the numbers that came out to Houffalize(World Cup #3). Aside from the fans the courses are also very different. The loops are much shorter and there are more laps per race. I think this is the best platform for racing because spectators can watch more of the race. Despite the greatness of these things I’m really excited to start racing in the U.S.

My next race is scheduled to be the PROXCT in Colorado Springs June 14th. I hope I can recover in time.

Rob