Powering towards the Worlds

Gradually building his 'cross credentials on the European circuit, American Jeremy Powers is glowing with confidence as the 2008 World Championships approach. As he cleaned up after round five of the Gazet van Antwerpen Trophy, Powers told Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown about the season so far and his expectations for Treviso.

"The whole season so far has been awesome," Powers says with enthusiasm as he and Tim Johnson clean up in their kitted-out van following the day's race in Loenhout, Belgium. He had just finished 23rd in one of the Gazet van Antwerpen Trophy races, and was pleased with the day.

One year ago the Massachusetts native raced in Europe in Jelly Belly colours, the same team he races with for the road season, but has since found his new setup with Team Cyclocrossworld to be better suited to his needs. "Last year when I talked to Brecht [Decaluwé of Cyclingnews], it was about getting a better team and getting back over here with good support. Jeff Proctor's [Euro 'cross] camp is good, but there was not a whole lot of support from Jelly Belly for cyclo-cross [he is still with the team for the upcoming 2008 road season - ed.]. The whole goal was to get myself on a better team which had better support."

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Powers' season got off to the right start with three big wins at Louisville, Gloucester and Wissahickon on the US domestic circuit – all good moral boosters for making the transatlantic flight. "I was confident in coming over her, this year has been much better," he says in a relaxed tone.

"I was mentioning to Tim that last year, before the start of a big race I was gluing my own tubulars until two in the morning. I rode with an iPod in that race because I knew I was going to be crushed; my arms were slush because I had been pushing on tubulars all night. Now we have Stu Thorne gluing on 30 sets of tires – I don't have to do anything. On top of not worrying about the money and having enough bikes and support... there is no reason not to perform; if you have all of this and you don't perform then there is something wrong."

To read the full feature with Jeremy Powers, click here.