A great race for a great Dane

Mike Sciacca

Dane Jankowiak isn’t two months removed from high school and already

he’s beginning to hit the big time.

In his biggest race to date the 18-year-old Jankowiak, a domestic road

bike racer, came away as the surprise winner in the 17 and 18-year-old

division road race at the recent U.S. Junior National Championships in

Gainesville, Fla.

It is the same race that Lance Armstrong won and used as a springboard

to racing stardom.

There is no more prestigious road race in the country and the victory

has even surprised Jankowiak, himself.

Jankowiak emerged from the pack of nearly 130 racers in the eighth of

10 laps to take the lead, then held off one late challenge at the finish

line to win the 63-mile race in a time of 2:27.26.

His father, Don, was in attendance on that hot, muggy day.

“I couldn’t believe that I had won it. It really took awhile to sink

in,” said Jankowiak, a 2001 graduate of Huntington Beach High. “I mean,

this is the biggest race you can win. I knew I could do it, but there are

so many good riders out there, that you just never know.”

Considered an “unknown” in the race, Jankowiak caught the rest of the

competition off-guard and conquered a course that spanned several narrow

country roads south of Gainesville near the town of Flemington. As he

broke into the lead, he was surrounded by motorcycles and cars containing

photographers, all capturing the moments leading to up to his triumph.

The victory gave Jankowiak a spot on the U.S. national team, which

will compete October 13 at the Road World Championships in Lisbon,

Portugal.

Cycling is a very popular sport in Europe, so when Jankowiak is seen

wearing his USA shirt, he’s sure to be treated like a celebrity by fans

there.

“I am really looking forward to that,” Jankowiak said of his first

trip to Europe. “When I was younger I’d look for a competition to enter

just about every week. This, though, is unbelievable.”

Jankowiak has been riding for nearly six years, first taking up

mountain bike riding with a friend. The trick, he says, to being fast on

a mountain bike is to be fit and fast on a road bike.

The speed on the road got him hooked on road racing and he’s been

serious about the sport for the past four years.

His first competition, held at Camp Pendleton, earned him a fifth

place finish in his division.

“That was the start of all this for me,” he said. “I just stuck with

it, learned how to handle a bike and began to train hard.”

Jankowiak says he trains seven days a week, anywhere from three to

nine hours per day. Sometimes he heads north toward Palos Verdes, on

other days, he travels south down to Camp Pendleton.

For the past eight months, Jankowiak has been training with Roger

Young, a two-time former Olympian.

“He’s an awesome coach. He’s taught me that cycling is really a

difficult sport that takes a lot of determination and dedication,”

Jankowiak said. “The time and training you put into it will only make you

better along the way.”

Jankowiak, Young says, is a “complete” bike rider.

“That’s the term that is used for a rider who has all the attributes:

quickness, can handle a bike on flat ground, can handle mountains and one

who is fast on time trials,” Young explained. “You don’t see his type of

talent every day. He certainly can go places and he gives every

indication that he’s the type of rider who can very well compete in the

Tour de France. That’s down the line, though; right now, we’re just

excited to see how he’ll do at the world championships.”

Jankowiak, a member of the Jax road team based out of Huntington

Beach, will leave in September to train at the Olympic Training Center in

Chula Vista. He’ll be there for two weeks before going to Irvine to

compete in a Sept. 23 race. From there he’ll fly to Belgium to compete in

four more races.

All leading up to the world championships.

He admits that there are “a few times” that he does tire from the

intense training and wishes he was doing something else. On other

occasions, he has sacrificed going out with his friends in order to get

in that training time.

“The perspective I keep is to just go out there and have fun. If I do

that, then I know I’ll be all right,” he explained. “I’ve also realized

that there’s a lot of luck involved with road racing and that things have

to work in your favor in a lot of these races.”

He has little doubt as to the direction he wants to take.

“All the way to the top, I hope” he said. “I’m shooting to make it to

the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and hope to reach the Tour de France

one day.”