Nick began racing mountain bikes in 1998, but was inspired by Lance Armstrongs 1999 Tour de France victory and began focusing on road racing. As a part of the ISCorp Cycling Team, Nick got his foothold as very strong junior cyclist, winning over 40 races in his first 4 years cycling.

As he moved up through the categories, Nick began to emerge as one of the top young cyclists in the Midwest, and was invited to race as a stagaire on the Saturn Development Cycling Team at the end of the 2003 season.

In 2004, Nick stepped up his level of performance on the Endeavour Cycling Team, the top ranked amateur team in the US by the end of the year. A win in Superweek, plus numerous strong performances, landed Nick his first professional contract. As a collegiate cyclist, he led his team to the 2004 Collegiate National Championships, where he was on the winning team in the Team Time Trial.

In 2005, Nick got his first taste of being a full-time athlete, riding for the Advantage Benefits/Endeavour Pro Cycling Team. His strong riding earned him a spot on the US National Development Team, where he had top ten results in Europe. The crowning race of his 2005 season was the U23 Paris-Roubaix race; though he finished in 52nd, his 20km-to-go attack was a show of his courage and determination. 

In 2006, Nick signed a two-year contract with the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team. A step up, Nick was thrown into the Tour of California where he got in a breakaway with Jens Voight, Viatchyslav Ekimov, and Sebastian Lange. This was Nick's coming of age race, and afterwards he was looked at as a threat in all races. At the end of the year, Nick graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.