Karlsberg and Next Few Weeks

I've already posted some pictures from the Junior Nations Cup Trofeo Karlsberg stage race in Germany, but I haven't written up an actual report from the race yet. Overall, I don't think that the race could have gone any better. The team (Ryan Eastman, Nate Geoffrion, Kristo Jorgenson, Benny Swedberg, and Anders Newbury) went in with good morale after we finished third place in the prestigious Pays de Vaud in Switzerland the weekend before. The team rode perfectly all weekend long and with their support and dedicated team work I was able to finish in the lead group of 20 on the first day, and then went on to win stage two after bridging up to a breakaway that already had Ryan and Anders in it late in the race. I then defended my lead in the time trial the next morning and increased my lead to 11 seconds over Bob Jungels of Luxembourg. The stage that followed that afternoon was pretty relaxed for me. The team just rode on the front all day long and kept me out of the wind. That stage ended up ending up in a field sprint with a Slovenian winning. The next day was the last stage. I still had an 11 second lead over Jungels, so our plan for the race was to have the team to stay low for the first half of the race and then after that to get on the front and bring back the break. After that I would take over and do my best to defend the yellow jersey and win the overall. The guys did a perfect job and dropped me off with about 10 km to go with the race all together. I then marked the other overall contenders and went into the last kilometer with one rider up the road by about 10 seconds. As he wasn't that far down on GC I went to the front and did my best to bring him back. He ended up staying away and won the stage by about 2 seconds over the pack that I was in which allowed me to take my first stage race victory in Europe. On Sunday, I'm leaving for Bend, Oregon for the Junior National Championships. I'll be doing the road race, time trial, and crit. After that I'll be heading over to stay at my team directors house for the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic Stage Race. When that is done I'll drive up to Pennsylvania for the Junior Track National Championships. It's gonna be a fun next few weeks!