Logan Owen (Axeon Hagens Berman) is a man on a mission. The American who turns 22 in March is racing his last year as a U23 rider, and he's determined to sign with a WorldTour team at season's end.
The 10-time US junior and under-23 US cyclo-cross champion thought he had done enough in the past two road seasons to punch his ticket to the top level, winning a stage of the 2.HC Tour of Utah in 2015 and winning the prestigious U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April of last year. More wins failed to materialize after Liège, however, and that hoped-for offer never materialized.
"I was a little surprised, for sure, being the first American to win that race and the first guy from our team, I believe," he said of his Liëge win. "It's a huge race. I looked at the results, and it seems like from the past 10 years everyone who has won that race has moved up to the WorldTour. So yeah, I was a little shocked that I didn't move up. But I guess that means I just need to work harder and go win more races.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I thought with having won a stage of Tour of Utah and doing well in Liëge and putting together a pretty solid season, I thought it would have shown that I was solid, especially with the fact I have been racing 'cross," he said. "It kind of shows that I've been consistent all year round and I'm still able to perform with that and not having a proper build up for road season. Seeing that, and obviously I needed to get results, so that was another big reason why I decided to not race 'cross."
Less than a week ahead of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, the USA Cycling team is heading to Luxembourg without Owen for the first time in years.
"I had been steadily progressing even with doing cyclo-cross, but I figured it was my last year as a U23 and I still haven't moved up the WorldTour, so I figured I might as well try and make myself better and make an even bigger jump, and I think that really kind of pushed me to say I need to take a break from 'cross," Owen said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2jS4xEh
No comments:
Post a Comment