JACK MILNER
A chance meeting in Plettenberg Bay with one of the country’s top cyclists, Douglas Ryder, set in motion an opportunity that allowed Aaron to race in Europe.
Ryder clearly understands the necessity of getting international experience and exposure and told Aaron how South Africa needed to get juniors into Europe to learn how to race.
That opened the door for the 17-year-old King David Victory Park learner as Ryder then spoke to the DCM Youth Cycling Team in Belgium on behalf of Aaron and, “the plan was afoot”.
Aaron flew to Europe at the end of June to ride for the DCM Youth Cycling Team in the Tour De Valromey, the Junior Tour of Flanders and then in local one day races and one or two stage races.
The Tour De Valromey is known as the Junior Tour de France and takes the riders through some of the same areas although it is a lot shorter than the three weeks of the senior event.
However, things did not go well for Aaron and although no details are available as yet as to what the circumstances were, he failed to finish the first stage of the event and obviously is therefore not allowed to participate in the balance of the race.
Something may have gone wrong with the team as there were three withdrawals from DCM Team.
As far as his cycling career is concerned, Aaron started riding as soon as he could walk, but only began racing when he was 13. Starting on his mountain bike but now doing both road and mountain biking, Aaron is ranked No 3 Junior in the National XCM Cup (Ashburton Series) and rides in 2015 for the Design In Motion Cycles team.
The chance to get to Europe and ride against the best juniors in the world is a great opportunity to learn how to compete at the highest level. Many top sportsmen such as Abe Segal have always believed that as a junior one can learn more from your losses than your victories. Not that Abe enjoyed losing too often!
The Belgian team has had riders such as Thomas de Gendt and Nick Nuyens who have gone on to bigger things.
“To go on my own on this trip is a huge step forward in my cycling ambitions,” Aaron told cyclingdirect.co.za. “I have to say huge thanks to Doug Ryder for putting this together, my parents and my private sponsors for their financial support as this is very expensive, as well as my coach Bruce Diesel, for getting me into shape for this – and also my dietician.”
