'I was missing the mental side' - US teens tackle technical challenges on Sven Hill and sand pits with EuroCrossAcademy and it pays off

This is the second installment of personal experiences provided by EuroCrossAcademy 15- and 16-year-old riders, men and women, who took part in the November session in the Netherlands. This 15-16 block took in races at VAM Berg and Spijkenisse, November 15-16, after initial training rides and educational sessions.

A total of 12 riders from 10 different states and nine different 'cross teams participated in the second week of skills development and racing - November 22 at Hilversum and November 23 at Venlo. A block of four Belgium races will also be held for 12 riders in the 17-18 age group in December.

Cyclingnews will feature diaries from several riders during and after each ECA block, with first-person accounts of their experiences and photos from the off-course and race landscapes in the Netherlands and Belgium. Follow the ECA on Instagram@eurocrossacademyig.

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Ava White, a 15-year-old from Elkins, West Virginia, has been competing in cyclocross since she was nine years old, and Emmett Davis, 16, from Missoula, Montana also began with a few local races at a similar age. Though from opposite sides of the US, the two teens became teammates for EuroCrossAcademy the past two weeks, joining 10 other up-and-coming athletes for introductions to European everything - food, culture and cyclocross hills, mud and sand.

"Great block. Lots of strong growth both on and off the pitch," Geoff Proctor told Cyclingnews in a basic summary of a two-week block in Europe for his 15- and 16-year-old cyclocross student-athletes.

While the entire team competed in races in the Netherlands across two weekends, it was a mid-week training session in Lichtaart, Belgium where riders learned to blend physical skills and "positive mindsets" for the days ahead with challenging courses and high-level competition.

Proctor prioritises the "student" part of the equation, but his young pupils adapted quickly, with all six girls finishing 15th or better in Hilversum, and in a huge field of 85 riders, the boys finishing in 13th to 31st.

The final day of racing on November 23 was in Venlo which was a cold day for the eighth round of a regional Limburgcross Cup. The girls swept the top 5 in the elite women's category, with White going eighth. In the elite men's race, Luke Johnson finished third, with four others in the top 10 and Davis 11th.

Sven Hill and barriers

Before the final competitions on the trip, ECA participants spend a full day in Lichtaart, Belgium "skidding around in leaves and hopping over logs" as Davis described it, with special skills sessions led by former pros Tom De Kort and Ellen Van Loy.

"We first did starts, working on clipping in, getting off the line fast and sprinting for the yellow cones. Start after start, the thing I found most necessary was to have an open and growth mindset. It turns into a mental game real quick, and if you don't keep a positive mindset, you get wrapped into all the negatives," said Davis, who earned a bronze medal in the men's junior 15-16 category when Pan-American Championships were in Montana last year.

"It sounds silly but when you have multiple sets of coaches’ eyes on you and you're racing your friends, you don't want to mess up. As soon as you clear your head and focus on the task at hand, everything starts to click."

Both he and White enjoyed the tight single-track of the famous forest, but doing repetitions up Sven Hill was one of the more epic experiences of the sessions.

"I wasn't able to get the Sven Hill the first few times; I knew I had the strength and skills to do it, but I was missing the mental side," Davis said. "I was riding into the hill with no plan, just me, my bike and a super steep hill, which made me realize there was actually a huge mental aspect to it.

"Riding up a technical hill definitely requires a lot of power and technical skills but that's only part of the picture. Being able to forget the little mistakes and clear your mind before each rep is essential to success. It’s getting over that learning curve that sets you apart from the others, and it's your growth mindset that allows you to do that."

Davis said he learned to "reset and recenter" to conquer the climb. White said the wet conditions and barriers just across the top made it a double threat.

"The second part of the training was to climb a very steep, muddy hill (aka the infamous Sven Hill), sprint over the top and then get over barriers about 100 meters after the top. When it was my turn, I was so excited and eager to try to be the first girl to make it up the climb," she said.

"On my first attempt, I went straight up the climb and almost made it, except I couldn’t get my wheel over a hump and ended up running. When I got to the barriers, I tried to jump them, but I ended up crushing both at once.

"On my second try, I started the climb and could hear people cheering for me. Luckily, I made it with a little push.

"My final challenge was the barriers. As I sped up to jump, I felt my nerves kicking in. I pulled up on my bars and cleared both jumps. I was so happy because I have never cleared barriers before."

Dune field of sand

"There is no way to be fast in the sand if you don't stay focused and have a clear head," Davis assessed.

The group spent time with this obstacle as the final pair of Dutch races had large sand sections. Davis said he applied "the 2%" idea that was taught at one of the academy's evening sessions, a study that showed only 2% of a population pursues a more difficult path in the short term to benefit in the long term.

"In other words, by taking on challenges like doing reps up the Sven Hill, pushing the comfort by learning to hop the barriers, and ripping through the famous sand ruts over and over, we put into practice this idea of the 2%.

"You're braking, then pedaling, looking up, making sure your weight is centered correctly and so much more. It's a lot to think about, and as soon as you stop doing just one of those things, it's easy for everything to fall apart. It's lap after lap, fall after fall that teaches you and builds who you are."

White stepped up to Category 3 elite women's races this 'cross season, finding the podium four times, twice at Kings CX in Ohio. There is sand at US races, but this sand was different, what she called "a dune field".

"I was excited about all the training sessions, but I was especially nervous about the sand session. My heart sank at the word “sand” because I was so nervous about it," White said.

"We headed to an area that looked like a dune field. Once we got to the course, Tom coached us not to look at our front tire while riding through the circuit, but to look where we want to go. Ellen then gave me some advice about changing gears, which also helped me get through the sandy corners and turns more easily."

Whether it was smoother skills to clear obstacles like barriers or sand, or balance and focus with climbing, both White and Davis used the same word to describe what they had learned - confidence.

They'll bring it back to the US where they are expected to compete in mid-December at USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships presented by The Meteor in Fayetteville, Arkansas.