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.

This last weeked’s race in Mt. Snow, Vermont was one that I was looking forward to the entire season. This was the site of mountain bike national championships last year and was a track that I really liked. The course was characterized by a lot of climbing and a technical fast descent. This year’s course was even better than last years in that they shortened it and made it more like the World Cup courses, which I have been racing.

It was nice to be racing in the US again after two world cup stops in Canada just because it is a little less competitive and more fun. The killer instinct is there but everyone in the race knows one another and is more courteous. I was excited for this race because I thought I would have a good call up being the tenth ranked American in UCI (international mountain bike points) points and I did to some extent. I was called up in the 20s, which was pretty good.

I came to this race looking for a good result after a pretty terrible race in Bromont. I was riding in the top ten up the first climb until we hit the first wooded section and I hit the “wall”. I just ran out of steam right there and the rest of the race was a sufferfest.



The first 2 laps I was a mess and just couldn’t get into a rhythm, after several close ones I crashed on the second lap going down in a corner that shouldn’t have been causing me any problems. Strangely enough I came around on the 3rd,4th, and 5th laps and started to ride the descent really well. On the 4th lap I caught up to U23 national champion Colin Cares and duked it out with him for the rest of the race. I caught him on the descent and passed him at the bottom of the course. I led him up most of the climb on the last lap until he attacked me toward the top of the course. I couldn’t hang with him and he had a 10 second lead going into the descent. I closed the gap to 2 seconds at the bottom of the descent but I couldn’t close it completely and once again I came in right behind him for the second time this season. I finished in 20th place and 2nd U-23.

The next day was short track, which is usually pretty fun. After how I felt the day before I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular in the short track. To my surprise I felt great. On the climb I felt great and just motored past people lap after lap.

Unfortunately, the promoters didn’t call me up where I should’ve been and I started in last. I worked my way up to 15th before getting pulled. I was pulled in a group of 3, which shouldn’t really have been pulled. I was moving up every lap and the group was not in danger of getting pulled in the next 2 laps, whatever.

Now I’m in for another week in Vermont until the last stop on the Pro XC Tour race in Windham, New York.

Another exciting thing this weekend is the announcement of the US team for world championships in Canberra, Austrailia. Worlds is September 1-6th and has been one of my goals for the season so I’m hoping that I’ll be selected for the team.

Rob