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 past week in Europe included two races, a Swisspower-Racers cup in Solothurn, Switzerland on Saturday and a Taelercup in Wittnau, Germany on Sunday. The Racers Cup consisted of a much smaller field than what I’ve become accustomed to with only 70 riders. Naturally I was called up in the back but with a field this small I didn’t mind. The course was only 5 kilometers long and included a lot of road riding-lame. The dirt section was much smaller than that of the road and consisted of a steep gravel road/ muddy singletrack climb and a really fast bumpy singletrack downhill.

The parade loop started in a tunnel on cobbles and raced around an old church before starting out onto the actual course. Once the group got onto the course it was a battle to make it into a group and conserve energy by sitting right behind other riders and being shielded from the wind. Although the field was a third of the size of the World Cups I’ve done, the pace was just as fast. After the first few laps I was able to get into a group with my teammate Tad Elliot and we hung in there for a lap or into in the middle of the race. The highlight of the race was on lap 6 when I went to the front with Tad right behind me and we broke up the group and I was able to get away from everyone by the bottom of the descent. I was able to hold this gap for 2 laps longer until I was passed right before the finish of my 8th lap by the leader and ended up being pulled. I made it 8 out of the 9 laps and finished 30th.

The next day I raced a local race about 20 kilometers from where I’m staying in Kirchzarten, Germany. The team and I road to the race where we were greeted by many of the locals who were excited to see the US National Team show up at their local race. It made me and the rest of the guys feel like a big deal which is nice after racing the World Cups. The course was only 3 kilometers long but in typical European fashion was straight up and down.

I was still tired from the previous days race and not ready for the speed that the competition had. Out of thirty guys I was able to ride in the top five for most of the race before I started to come around a bit and move up. On the last two laps I was able to make up a bunch of time on 3rd place and catch 2nd place. On the last lap I got away from him and finished second behind Tad 20 seconds back.

The podium experience is one of the best I’ve ever had because of the sweet prizes that were offered. For second place I was given a 5 liter keg of beer and 100 euros, pretty good for a local race.

This was a good way to end my mountain biking campaign in Europe and now it’s time to change gears and start road racing. This weekend I’ll be doing my first ever stage race, the Triptyque Ardennais. It is a 4 stage 3 day race in Belgium and should make for a good time. I haven’t really had the chance to do any serious road racing and I’m really looking forward to trying it out. I’ll leave Kirchzarten, Germany, (where I’m currently staying) on Thursday and head to the road house in Luxembourg where I’ll be based out of for the next two weeks before concluding my Europe trip and road racing campaign with the Tarragona Stage Race in Spain. AWESOME.

Robbie