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 weekend was World Cup #2 in Offenburg, Germany. This was my first World Cup race ever and only my 4th professional race. I knew it was going to be tough and my start position only amplified those thoughts. I was lined up last, dead last.

In a field of 230+ guys that can really hurt any chance at a solid race. When the race started I waited about 5 seconds before I even clipped in. Once I was clipped in, I was able to ride through the start/finish before having to unclip because of a crash that happened 2 meters from the start finish line. Really? Come on this is a World Cup and these guys can’t go 10 feet before crashing? I admit that it was really easy to get tangled up in the mess that is the start of a World Cup.

The race consisted of the usual chaos that larger field races have except here the racing is much more intense. From the get go it was a mad battle for positions. Guys were trying to pass any way they could which made for some sketchy riding. The worst part about the large field of racers is the bottle necking and the traffic that caused me to just stop and stand around for probably a minute or two during the first lap.

Unfortunately, none of these things contributed to me having a pretty bad race.


At the beginning of the race, I was able to hold my position fairly well and even move up a bit but I wasn’t able to get into my groove and I felt like I was crawling around the course. After the first couple of laps I started to come around a bit and pick up the pace a little. I started to catch a lot of the people that I had been riding with earlier but unfortunately I had taken to long to “warm up” and by this time I had already lost enough time to be pulled toward the end of my 4th lap. I finished 175th out of 195 starters. I didn’t have any mechanicals or anything just had a bad race. Hopefully next weekend's race in Houffalize, Belgium will go better. I know this is my first World Cup but it is still disappointing.

On a lighter note, the course was awesome! Laps took about 17 minutes and it consisted of short climbs and very steep descents. The descents were essentially drops that you could roll down if you were going slow enough. I’ve never ridden anything like it in the U.S. and it was a bit intimidating the first time around the course but after some more training the drops were a lot smoother and not a big deal. By the time the race came along I was comfortable enough on the descents that I could make up time and pass on them.

The crowd here was also something that I’ve never seen in the U.S. Reports are that there were upwards of 20,000 spectators for the men’s race. The drops were especially popular and the fans were 5-10 rows deep. There were more people at one of the 4 drops than at any U.S. race. With crowds like these it is easy to see that cycling is a prominent fixture in European sports.

I’m staying in a hostel in Kirchzarten, Germany. From what I’ve heard it's quite a hotspot for mountain biking. The local trails are less than two minutes from the hostel and were home to the 1995 World Championships. The trails are great but I can’t seem to find any singletrack longer than a kilometer. AHHHH it is frustrating but still a lot of fun.

This coming weekend will be World Cup #3 in Houffalize, Belgium. This is a legendary course and I’m really excited to get to ride it. The course is a favorite of several people I’ve talked to and apparently consists of more drops and technical sections than Offenburg-I can’t wait. I’ll leave with the team on Friday and we’ll drive 4 hours to Houffalze where we’ll stay in a hotel for the remainder of the weekend.