Leap Years don’t happen very often, but finding a few extra moments on Leap Day to look back at 2015, Develo Coaching riders—and “headquarters”—didn’t have a common year either.
The 2016 cycling season is here, or nearly so in still-cold Michigan, and with Leap Day giving me some extra time to finally recap the ups and downs of 2015, it was a year that would be hard to reproduce. Around “headquarters” we added one more to the staff and moved our operations; in other words, we had a baby and moved. That kept things busy off the bike!
On the race courses, it was a year of big ups and downs. From a National Championship by Richard Rainville with the Furman University team at Collegiate Nationals to National Championship silver medals by Nick McKey and Alexey Vermeulen, the national-level results were solid! But let’s not forget the state road race championship by Cameron Buccellato, the huge CX season from Alex Morton all over the U.S., the season-capping win by Chris Roush, or the many challenges taken on by other Develo Coaching riders.
The downs in 2015 came in the form of injuries with broken wrists and (to start 2016) a dislocated hip. But riders pressed on, and the final big success of the year was Alexey getting the call up to ride with Team Lotto NL Jumbo for 2016!
Leap year comes around but every four years. A year with the success and challenges of 2015 may not come around even that often, but for all the Develo Coaching athletes we’re always trying to make the positives of 2015 what we chase every year and the barriers what we overcome.
To a great 2016!
