Summer Part I

As always, a lot has happened since I last posted. Life keeps delivering!

In May, after a winter of travels and roller-coaster results, I settled back into life in the Netherlands. Carefully following my training plan, I slowly increased my volume and intensity before returning to road racing at the end of the month. No results to speak of, but finally racing without any concussion symptoms was a win in itself. At the end of May I returned to Bowdoin College on a short four-day trip for my graduation. I was unsure if I wanted to go, having last been on campus in early December and feeling disconnected from my college student-self. I decided to go just two weeks before and am deeply happy that I went. It was wonderful to see so many friends from Bowdoin, professors, and friends from the surrounding area in Maine. Several classmates who had graduated on time in 2023 returned to see old friends, and I shed a few tears as I walked through crowds of familiar faces. This also marked my third (and hopefully not final) student-faculty ride. In 2022, 23 and 24, I organized a small student-faculty ride with a few students and four to five professors. Sharing these non-academic moments with them was deeply meaningful to me and will remain some of my favorite Bowdoin memories. My graduation was a lovely way to mark the end of that phase of my life. 

Spring in Wageningen!

Student-faculty ride. Maine riding is unreal, and the weather was beautiful.

My parents and brother made the trip, which was lovely. My first year roommate Stephen, who also graduated a year late, and some friends from the Peucinian Society.

August 2019 and May 2024 with my parents in the same spot at Bowdoin.

Upon returning to Wageningen, I jumped back into racing with my road team Jan van Arckel, with a small breakthrough in early June in Clubcompetitie Noordenveld, marking my first top-10 in a European road race. The next day I received my non-selection call for the Paris Olympics. Did I think it was unlikely that I would be selected? Yes. Was it devastating nonetheless? Yes. I felt sad, lost, and confused. The dominant “why” of my relationship with cycling over the past several years – securing an Olympic selection – and more intensely in the prior few months was officially gone. Thankfully, the following day I left to visit my coach and friend Taco van der Hoorn in Andorra for a solid training block ahead of a good summer of racing. My time there was productive and relaxing. 

Andorra and the surrounding areas in France and Spain are gorgeous. And a Pyrenees Mountain dog in the Pyrenees for good measure.

For anyone who has the chance, please visit Andorra! It’s a small mountainous nation high in the Pyrenees lodged between France and Spain. Taco was driving back to the Netherlands at the end of my training block, so I took the opportunity to do a nice bikepacking trip. After a day of driving, Taco dropped me off just north of Paris, and I continued for four days and 760km through northern France, east through the French and Belgian Ardennes towards Luxembourg, north towards Aachen, Germany, and then through Limburg and back to Wageningen. Bikepacking never ceases to amaze me. I stumbled across countless historical sites and monuments, perhaps the coolest being the site where the first armistice between the Germans and French was signed in World War I.

From left to right. Taco’s van in Cahors, France. Pierrefonds, the town where I spent a month in the summer of 2019 when I first raced in France with the CCVSA. A grave for a French soldier who died in World War I; northern France is covered in small cemeteries like this one. It reads “mort pour la France” (died for France). The monument to the site where the first armistice between the Germans and French was signed in World War I near La Capelle. A lovely road in Luxembourg. A somewhat strange monument on the Belgian-German-Luxembourgish border to the pact of Rome, which created the European Economic Community in 1957, which would later lead to the EU. The Aachen Cathedral, where German kings and queens were coronated for centuries. My setup.

With lots of time to think on my bikepack, I dove into the “why” in my relationship with cycling. There are many reasons that I ride my bike. I enjoy competition, winning, discipline, seeing the world, the freedom that bicycles give you, doing something difficult, the feeling of satisfaction after training, the structure it gives you, the speed, the risk, the desire to be an Olympian, the feeling of belonging, the necessitated interactions with strangers around the world, the cultural education, being outside, and countless other reasons. As I wrote in my last post, cycling is also a cruel sport. Not all of these qualities of cycling will be present all the time, and many of them are fleeting. While it is helpful to have overarching goals and reasons to do sport, for me the simple motivation to go to the Olympics does not fuel the totality of my desire. 

In the months leading up to my non-selection, my motivation was dominated by the Olympics. While not a bad thing, this made the resulting emotions much worse. After much reflection, I have found that every day I have a “why,” and the “why” often changes. That’s normal and okay. When you’re not selected for the Olympics, is it still possible to train for six hours four days later? Yes, because on that day, I wanted to explore Andorra. My training that day had very little to do with upcoming races, let alone the LA 2028 Olympics. The nice thing about all of these “whys” is that your body doesn’t know any different. A six-hour ride fueled by interest in exploring Andorra is just as much training load as a six-hour ride fueled by a desire to medal at the LA Olympics four years into the future. All of these days of training and commitment, motivated by many different “whys,” result in a complete Peter Moore on race day, ready and fully prepared.

I keep coming back to one particular “why” that drives me more than any other. Winning is nice. The Olympics are nice (at least I think, I haven’t experienced them yet). The approval of media, fans, coaches, friends and family is nice. I am not an overly competitive person, but something specific about cycling lights a fire in me. The pure sensation and emotion of putting in a huge attack deep into a 50km Madison or a 40km points race, and knowing that everyone behind you is suffering and can’t follow, is what I live for in cycling. Words can’t capture this experience, and I’m glad that they don’t. If you were to deconstruct cycling and remove the fans, Olympic rings, results, media, and team support, I would want to put in that attack and fly away just as badly as I do with all those things included. I deeply want to put in that attack. This, plus everything else I’ve mentioned, are why I ride my bike. Understanding this about myself was an uncomfortable process. Many family members, friends and mentors helped me get there. I look forward to my next attack, and to my next peaceful ride in the Veluwe forest near Wageningen.

Now back to reality. I came back from Andorra in early June and raced a full calendar on the track and road over the next four weeks in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. I came away from it with two nasty crashes, a lot of road rash, a broken frame, some sad days, and a win. Cycling is cruel, life is beautiful. Now, to acknowledge that I am focusing on the good, the win came in the C1 points race in Pordenone, Italy. The Pordenone Six Day is where I first properly learned how to ride the Madison with the Czech rider Denis Rugovac back in 2021. I have been there twice on my birthday, and met one of my best friends there in 2022, Jan-Willem van Schip. Pordenone holds a special place in my heart and feels like home. Thank you to Christine and everyone at Amici della Pista for putting on such a lovely event year after year.

The podium in the C1 points race. Somehow this was the first time that I opened a bottle of champagne (prosecco in Italy of course) on the podium. Last shot is with my madison partner for the week, Felix Ritzinger of Austria.

Summer Part II will follow in a week or two, stay posted.