Planes, trains and mountain bikes: Adamstown’s Freedman competes overseas for Team USA | International

For Freedman, though, one mode of transportation ranked above all the rest. That would be his bike, a Commencal Supreme, which he toted around the continent so he could hop on it and tackle tricky trails.

Freedman, a 17-year-old Adamstown resident, is a downhill mountain bike racer. He was overseas competing for Team USA in the 2022 Mercedes-Benz Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Bike World Cup, a series of races in various disciplines, including downhill, a demanding style that requires racers to speed down steep hills and brave tough turns, rocks and high jumps.

Racing in the junior category for 17- and 18-year-olds, Freedman participated in World Cups in Leogang, Austria, Lenzerheide, Switzerland, and Vallnord, Andorra, before returning to Adamstown in late July.

Freedman didn’t qualify for the finals in any of those events, but he was far from disappointed. These were his first World Cups, and he benefited from the experience of competing in Europe, which produces many of the world’s best racers and features some of the sport’s top trails.

“So much learning,” he said. “I’m feeling way better on my bike than I ever…