Braden makes breakthroughs in Ireland and Belgium – Australian Jewish News

Besides completing the HSC course, Moriah College Year 12 Brayden Bloch had another major goal for 2022, which was to make a breakthrough on the world’s junior cycling circuit.

He has already achieved the latter, returning last Thursday from a grueling, eye-opening and ultimately successful six-week race trip across Europe. There he made his impressive debut in the six-stage 2022 Junior Tour, the longest U19 men’s road cycling event in the world. In Ireland (JTI) – and in Belgium he raced in seven separate one-day U19 road series in his race.

The current co-winner of the Maccabi Australian Junior Sportsman of the Year Award couldn’t have gotten off to a better start at JTI, which features the Irish junior national team, eight American teams and teams from European nations.

Ridden by an American-Australian team, Bloch took third place in the opening 50km stage with a sprint finish.

He won the Green Points jersey in eighth place on the rugged 103km second stage and defended it for another day with an eighth place finish on the third stage.

A mid-race crash on stage 4 left him with cuts and bruises, as well as damage to his bike’s gear, but he still managed to finish 20th and finish early in the 106km stage with another rider. I found enough determination and energy to form a breakaway for 5.

They were caught in the peloton for the remaining 10km of that stage, which featured four climbs totaling 1200m, but Bloch hung there to finish seventh.

In the final stage, he recovered from the crash again and finished 9th in the overall ranking, 6th in the points ranking, and 10th in the King of the Mountain category.

A week later in Belgium against 150 U19 cyclists from around the world, Bloch joined a team called BRE and scored several Top 10 and Top 30 finishes.

He told AJN the competition in Ireland and Belgium was “an incredible experience with so many riders and the Tour being six days long compared to two days maximum in Australia. Yes, it was a big learning curve.”

“It was really fun and I think I was surprised too. [in terms of results] … just knowing you can compete at that level is huge. ”

Bloch completes the HSC Trials trials by competing in the 2022 NSW U19 Road Cycling Championships and will travel to South Korea to take part in the five stages of the Junior Tour de DMZ from August 26-30 to make his overseas cycling debut. finish the season.

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