Will Nowak Looks Back on 2010

What a whirlwind season 2010 was. My fourth season in total, and my third in the elite category, I was hoping that it would be a break out year for me. There were some lows and highs along the way, but I think overall 2010 was my best year yet. I’m looking forward to building on our success in 2011 as our Verizon team will look to reach the top step of the podium even more.

Being a senior at Northwestern University, and having started competitive cycling in the spring of my freshman year, the collegiate season held a special place in my heart and I was hoping for success, especially at nationals, which would be held on the awesome Blue Mounds course in Madison, WI. I had done well there in the past, and was hoping to win it.

In the third week of the season, however, I injured my IT band, and this injury would linger with me for about 7-8 more weeks. This effectively ruined my chances at being competitive at nationals. On the bright side, it did keep me from ramping up my intensity so soon in the spring, and I think this kept me fresher as a result later in the summer. I was still able to salvage a 2nd at the MWCCC regionals championship, missing out on my second win in a row by a tire width.

After the collegiate season ended my USA Cycling season began and it was great to get out and kill it with my teammates. We had success from the start- from Waylon and I beating up on the field at Vernon Hills, to our near-miss at Monsters of the Midway, to my second place finishes at the Urbana-Champaign weekend and my second place (again by a tire width) to Chris Uberti at the Fat and Skinny road race in Indiana.  Our Memorial day weekend did not go as well as planned, but I thought we still represented well. I was pretty fit, but burned a big match spending most of the road race in the break, but still managed to come in 3rd behind the Argentine and Ukrainian national champs.

Unfortunately, I got a job in Connecticut and had to leave the team for Dairyland and Superweek, and therefore wasn’t able to help Sherer and Freund and the rest of the gang- but their results seemed to say that they didn’t need much help. (Yellow jerseys at Dairyland, podiums at Superweek).

Thankfully, I got to return for the end of the season, and we won all three races I was in town for- with Sherer taking wins at Glencoe and both days of the Winfield weekend.

Overall, it was a successful and fun season for myself and the team. Sherer really had a breakout year, Ryan Freund scares men, women and children with his massive wattage, and Waylon, Hogie, and Danny did a nice job in their transition to the elite ranks. In addition, we had great support from Mike Ebert and Billy Dwyer at all the races. I really cannot thank these guys enough for their enduring support. Having two awesome guys like Mike and Billy to look after us meant that we only ever had to race our bikes, and judging from the percent of races we podium-ed at, I think that formula worked out well. We definitely succeeded in our first year by establishing Verizon as a top Midwest amateur team and I think by doing that we continued to represent the ABD elite team legacy well.

In addition to Mike and Billy, all of our sponsorship support was tremendous. The equipment from Prairie Path Cycles, including Treks, Serfas, Quarq Buttonhole, and Pactimo allowed us to perform the highest level, and thanks to Verizon we were always connected with our Droids and Mifis.

I hope these sponsors realize how much we appreciate being given this opportunity to race our bikes every weekend around the country, and I also hope well realize how much time and effort we put into striving to race our best to pay them back. Thanks again to everyone, and I hope that we can only improve on our successes in 2011

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