Debaets-Devos PRO-AM

The 2014 Debaets-Devos PRO-AM was held on Labour Day Monday in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Katrina (age 11) raced in the USA Cycling Junior 9-14 category against other girls and boys, ranging in age up to 14. Here in Ontario the youth are divided by smaller age groups and the boys and girls race separately. Although the youth ride together, the USA Cycling race prizes are awarded to boys and girls separately.



The 2014 Debaets-Devos PRO-AM is a bicycle race with a substantial (for amateur cycling) cash prize purse and attracts racers from across the United States and Canada. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the race and the last race in the Michigan Challenge Series.

The race is held in Auburn Hills, Michigan just south of the Oakland University campus. It is race on the surrounding roads and is a fairly challenging course with lots of rolling hills and challenging corners. The police have the nearly 3 kilometres of roads closed to traffic so the course is kept safe for all the racers.

Katrina was the only Canadian racing in both the Junior categories in Auburn Hills. The Junior 9-14 category followed the older Junior 15-18 racers. Katrina was concerned to see all the larger and older kids, mostly 14 year olds, which would be racing against her.



Very quickly from the start of the race the cyclists moved fast into the first turn. Almost immediately after the turn there was an early race crash involving a leading solo rider but he managed to get back up without any serious injuries. No other riders went down and everyone managed to avoid crashing into the fallen racer. The race was very fast because of the older juniors and the large starting group broke up into small groups of 2 and 3 riders after getting past the crashed rider. Katrina managed to get into a good position together with the leading boys and immediately pulled away from all the other girls.

Katrina worked hard to maintain her position and tucked in very nicely with another larger boy. She used the advantage of drafting behind the boy to conserve energy and, after a couple laps, pulled away from him to try and get closer to the leading boys. Katrina wasn’t able to catch the leading boys but managed to put a significant amount of distance from the riders behind her. As a result of her strategy and tactics, Katrina managed to lap all but one of the other girls and a large number of boys.


Katrina took home the Gold Medal in the girls Junior 9-14 category.



Race information at: Debaets-Devos PRO-AM

Full results at: USA Cycling