Luke and Team USA

Luke Allen, Abilene native and BikeTown employee, got the chance to race over in Europe as part of the USA Cycling Development Team. He left for Germany on August 18th and will spend about a week racing over there. He's sending a few blurbs back to us to share with everyone here on the blog. So, read and enjoy a bit of Luke's adventure.

I arrived here in Germany yesterday. I did not sleep on the plane, except for about an hour before the flight attendant woke me up to ask if I wanted a drink... We met up with four other guys in the Frankfurt, Germany airport, the first and second place guys from nationals, the top 15 year old, my teammate Zach Carlson who was fourth at nationals, and then me.  USA cycling selected five guys based on results from nationals, the ProXCT series which is a national series around the states, and the regional camp we attended in Colorado Springs in early June. It is very cool here in Germany, and the mountains are beautiful. They are super thick with huge trees mixed with patches of green "golf-course" looking grass. Everyone speaks crazy German, but it's okay because I do, too. Well, just "your fly is unzipped" because my mom says that in German, because her mom said that to her brothers in German growing up. Today we are racing a "smaller" race in Switzerland with about 30 15-16 year old juniors registered. Our coach said the Swiss junior national team will be there and they are wicked fast, along with the Rabobank junior team. We race at 1:30, and got our "USA" team kits yesterday. They are sweet! My bike and gears are performing great so far thanks to Jim and Gary at BikeTown! Thanks everyone for the support! I will try to write again later this week before the big world cup at the end of this week.

-Luke Allen
 

We've known and ridden with Luke for many years now, and it's great to see him get the chance to race at this level. His hard work is paying off. Good luck, Luke!