Website/Blog: www.mikefriedman.missingsaddle.com

Personal

A solid all-around athlete who excels at endurance events and can sprint, Mike Friedman has found his niche as both a road and track specialist. A full-time road pro in the summer with his Slipstream/Chipotle teammates and a U.S. National Team track member in the winter, Mike is quickly gaining experience and collecting results as one of America's most notable up-and-coming cyclists.

As a track and field athlete and wrestler at Pittsburgh's Peters Township High School, Mike had already given up on his first choice of competitive sports - BMX racing. After suffering a serious crash in junior high school that resulted in a broken collarbone, Mike took up road cycling and later became the youngest person to win a USA Cycling U23 road race national title at the age of 18. He went on to compete for the Penn State University Cycling Team, but later left college to pursue a full-time racing career, despite being only two semesters away from earning his degree in biology. The move seemed to pay off as Mike quickly began collecting national titles, World Cup medals, and victories on USA Cycling's National Racing Calendar. After earning a gold medal in the scratch race at the Beijing World Cup last December, Mike further proved his strength as a dual-discipline cyclist by earning a spot on Slipstream/Chipotle's roster for Paris-Roubaix, arguably the toughest and most prestigious single-day road race in the world.

Points of Interest

After complaining of heart attack-like symptoms in late 2006, Mike was diagnosed with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism that resulted in a severely damaged right lung.
With a body type unlike many of his ultra-lean road cycling counterparts, Mike is affectionately nicknamed "Meatball" by his peers in the peloton.

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