German Yannick Eckmann resides presently in Colorado. (Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
My trip has been short this year to the Euro 'Cross Camp. I have been here the past four days at the camp, training and racing hard.
The races haven't gone the way I hoped they would. Besides the bad luck I had during the races here so far I have been struggling to find a way from my last race in Loenhout to Germany. My first thought was finding somebody from Germany who is coming to the race to take me back to where I will be staying. I asked around 14 or 15 people that I thought would be coming to the race. With all the people I have asked, all of them told me that they won't be coming to the race.
I was pretty worried about that because I haven't had a plan B because I was hoping for somebody to be able to take me. Well, after that, I asked Geoff and some other people to help me find a way over. We came up with an idea to take the train to Germany I have been looking for a train that would go straight from Antwerp, Gent, Brussels, or even from Breda in the Netherlands.
I was looking for a straight way without any transfers to Germany. The best way I have found after looking for hours maybe even a day was from Breda to Germany, I was doing my best to avoid Brussels because the last time I was there I felt a bit sketched out and have learned from my brothers experience there.
So now that I got everything figured out on how to get to Germany I have to see how I will carry all my luggage from one train to the other. I have two bike bags and a normal suitcase. The last time I carried that much I didn't have such a great experience, and it was only walking 100 feet. Let's hope for the best and that everything will go smoothly with my travel to Germany and the other guys travelling home a few days later.
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Euro 'Cross Camp is about to enter its 9th year and continues to go from strength to strength. Its vision is to offer European race experience to young, developing American cyclo-cross riders and to prepare them for the world championships in late January. Founded in 2003, it utilises the same infrastructure as the USA U23 road programme. This year there will be 20 riders involved and a staff of 12 will be on hand to cater for their every need at the base in Izegem, Belgium.
Throughout the Camp riders will be updating Cyclingnews users on a daily basis, offering them a fly-on-the-wall perspective on the ins and outs of life in a residential training camp and the progress that they are making. The riders will do between 6-10 races over the two-week camp under the watchful eye of Euro 'Cross Camp founder and director Geoff Proctor, who also serves as National U23/Junior Team Coach for the USA at the world championships and is a member of the UCI Cyclo-cross Commission.
Euro 'Cross Camp IX Roster 2011-2012
Juniors
Andrew Dillman (Bob’s Red Mill Cyclocross Team)
Zane Godby (Clif Bar Cyclocross Development Team)
Curtis White (Clif Bar Cyclocross Development Team)
Tobin Ortenblad (California Giant-Specialized)
Logan Owen (Redline Bicycles)
Jordan Cullen (Clif Bar Cyclocross Development Team)
Cypress Gorry (Whole Athlete-Specialized)
Lionel Rocheleau (Team Geargrinder)
Luke Haley (Red Zone Cycling Team)
John Francisco (Red Zone Cycling Team)
Sam O’Keefe (C3/Athletes Serving Athletes)
Nate Morse (cyclocrossworld.com)
Stephen Bassett (Bob’s Red Mill Cyclocross Team)
Spencer Downing (Clif Bar Cyclocross Development Team)
U23
Yannick Eckmann (Pearl Izumi/Shimano)
Zach McDonald (Rapha-Focus)
Dan Gerow (Wolverine/ACFSTORES.COM)
Kolben Preble (Clif Bar Cyclocross Development Team)
Elite
Ryan Trebon (LTS/Felt)
Jake Wells (Stan’s No Tubes Elite Cyclocross Team)
