Border Grill powered by Quick Stop Bike Shop: National Championships

My first attempt at the National Championships was in Sun Valley, ID. Although it didn't matter where they were this year I was attending. It just happend to be that it was in the middle of nowhere, Idaho and I found my new favorite little town in the process. Sun Valley is a small mountain town of 6,000 people. The town had everything you wanted for a small town and it is super clean and neat. You could tell it was a place for the wealthy. It was set in the valley of the mountains giving you an incredible back drop no matter where you looked.

I arrived in Boise, ID on Tuesday before the race. I found a local bike shop that directed me to their only single track in the city. It is always neat to ride new single track but this stuff is nothing to write home about. It was set in the foot hills, in a massive open area and they were hard packed dirt trails that ran up and down through the hills. The only good thing was once you made it to the top you could descend for up to 10 minutes. During and after the ride I realized my legs were still out of commission from my blow up the weekend before, not how I want to feel the week before Nationals. After a quick discussion with my brother he talked me into taking an ice bath. He use to take them when he played football for Northern and said they helped him tremendously. I took 2 ice baths and laid with my legs up for the rest of the night.

Thursday I was on my way over to Sun Valley. A beautiful 2 1/2 drive up the hills into the mountains. Upon arrival I had time for 1 pre-ride lap. The legs were feeling much better and the course had me grinning. Although a 25 minute climb is tough to grin about I was having fun. The course started at the base of the mountain and it wrapped up the mountain in single track until the last 1/3 finished it off with two track. It was 25 minutes of constant climbing. The reward, 18 minutes of single track down hill. I did another lap of that night and was starting to feel comfortable on the course. Friday was much of the same. More ice baths, recovery, and pre-ride.

Category 1 25-29 Cross Country
Our start time was 7:30 am. I had been keeping my body on EST the whole week so the early race wouldn't affect me to much. Besides the 5:30 breakfast everything else was great about the early race. Especially the cooler temps.

I got a front row call up because of my USA Cycling ranking. I lined up in the middle because there was really no preferred line as 100 meters off the line you start a steep climb. My mind and nerves were good and I was ready to go. The whistle blew............bam! On the ground in a pile up no more than 10 feet off the line. I'm typically always the first out but because of the severity of this climb I figured I would ease into the start. It most likely cost me my XC National Championship. I went over the top of 2 riders that converged in front of me. They were all tangled up and I calmly grabbed my bike and found my way around it. It had costed me 30-45 seconds. I approached the climb and the leaders were half way up the 90 second prologue climb. I stayed incredibly calm for what my usual reaction would be. I started to climb just picking one at a time. We started the first down hill and in a single track down hill you have no choice but to follow whose in front. I came out of the prologue lap sitting 20-25 according to my parents.

At the start of the big climb I settled into a groove and knew if I stayed calm in my tempo I would catch a group. Sure enough I caught a group of 5 climbing. Because of the technicality of the climb the first 1/3 had a lot of dismounts following 5 guys. Because of this I was riding pretty comfortable. About 1/2 way up I was able to take a couple spots and when we approached the 2 track climb I went into my race pace. I was able to pick off quite a few more people before the 15 minute descent. The descent is a blast but believe it or not it can get sickening going down hill for that long especially when the opportunity to pass is just about null

The start of the second lap I had a clear shot at the climb and got into a tempo. I could finally see another group of riders and worked my way up. By the 2 track I had over taken that group. Because USA Cycling doesn't use back numbers, I had no idea if I was racing these guys or not, which made it tough to judge the effort. Approaching the top the 2 guys I passed took over and started the descent. On the descent I dropped a chain and had to let the 2 guys go. I didn't panic and knew I was probably around the top 5 so I figured just stay calm and finish the race safe. Come to find out the 2 guys I let over take me on the top of the climb were 2nd and 3rd. I rolled in solo for 4th place. I was extremely happy with 4th place but now all I could think of was, "what if?" I only finished 1:50 behind the winner and I lost all of :50 seconds between my pile up and my chain drop. But racing is full of, "what if's" so I took my podium and let it go looking for revenge in the short track.

Category 1 19-29 Short Track Cross Country
I knew the legs were good and I was ready for an awesome STXC race. They changed the course a bit which worked out into my favor because they added 2 sections that were power climbs. This is exactly what I needed to make the race hard and ensure that I could stay up front and safe.

On the whistle I settled into 7th or so place. Even though it was the first lap this isn't exactly where I wanted to be knowing their was a crash the day before. I took an inside line for me to shoot to the front. By the half way point I was in 3rd exactly where I wanted to be. The race was 15 minutes plus 2 laps, so about a 20 min race. I'm typically the aggressor and I wasn't changing it for the National Championships. About 5-7 minutes into the race I was on the front and noticed I was pulling about 10 guys along. This course favored drafting and I knew that if I kept this pace we would have way to many in contention. At the 9 minute mark I picked my first attack point and made my move. At first it took about 5 guys with me but the continued pressure eventually pulled me and another guy off the front. For 3 laps this gap stuck. I briefly told the guy, "We can keep this gap, lets work." After the 3 laps he didn't come around and I noticed a group of 3 approaching. With 3 laps to go another rider attached. The guy I was with never came around and in the heat of competition I let him know my feelings. With 2 to go the other rider fell off leaving it down to 2 of us again. I gave him the lead for the final laps taking a small break and planning my move. In the same spot as my first move I went for it and took over the front. The course ends with 3 corners and whoever is in front in those 3 corners is going to win the race. Coming down the last straight stretch I hammered it but was over taken on a nice inside move into a corner. With only the 3 corners left I made one last attempt to come around but ran out of real estate. On the last corner I sprinted off his wheel but ran out of room losing by a wheel. 2nd place.

I was so close I could feel the Starts and Stripe jersey on my back. I wanted it so bad but got out done on the last 1/4 of the lap. As a racer we train hours and hours on end. Race so hard our bodies hate us. We do this all for 1 moment, the win. Coming so close to that one moment and not getting hurts more than the race effort itself. Don't get me wrong, a 4th and 2nd place at the National Championships is wonderful but I trained for the win. Coming so close to that win leaves a burning inside me to get faster so I can overcome that last 1/4 of a lap and feel that moment.