USA NAtional Mountain Bike Championships Sol Vista Colorado

Photo credit ©Dave McElwaine

Sorry this is so late, but here it goes........... National Champs last weekend, as close to home as I think they have ever been! The course was a total Colorado course, lots of climbing, then a sick descent. A super steep road climb to start out, then it leveled off for a bit so you could take a breather before hitting the single track climb. Lots of switch backs, but pretty smooth, a nice climb that you can power up. After about 20 minutes of climbing you come out on a road for the last grunt to the top. Then into the sweet single track descent! The start is fairly flat with twisty turns; you hop over a log and then take a sharp right hand turn into "Wentz's way" triple black diamonds, steep, rutted, dusty switchbacks, with a super steep drop and a sharp left at the bottom. A bit sketchy, but awesome too. Then across a road into some more twisty fun single track. You then have a short steep rise to a bridge that goes over a road, and then under a tunnel into the woodchip climb, short but hard in the middle of the descent. At the top of the climb your back into a turney descent, with another log hop and out onto a road before hitting the last scary offcamber switchbacks to the finish. The Junior women did 3 laps.

The climb on my first lap was awesome; I was able to get on Alicia’s wheel before going into the single track, sitting comfortably in second. I held her wheel all the way up the climb, I was super excited, I hadn’t been able to do that all season. Then I passed her on the road right before the top, and opened a little gap. I was increasing my lead on the descent, I took a stupid little spill around one corner, but I didn’t loose much time. I was feeling awesome. Then over the second log jump, BAM, I slammed my rear wheel into the log and knew I pinched, I rode a bit further praying I hadn’t actually flatted, but of course I had. I started changing my flat, hoping I had gained enough time on the climb that I wouldn’t loose too many places. Alicia rode by, then Kayla, and Essence, Wesley, Lennia, Ellie and Ellen, and A few other girls I didn’t know. But I got the tire changed and was determined to gain some places back. Riding past the start finish I was freaking out, barring myself to catch the lead girls. But I was able to calm down a bit, and just get into a rhythm. I started picking people off, I went from about 9th place at the bottom of the climb to 4th going into the descent. I moved up into third right before the woodchip climb. coming through the start finish I could see the second place girl. people were telling me I was 2 minutes back from first. I wanted to win. I wanted to catch Alicia. I killed my self up the climb, and finally caught the second place girl, and was able to pass her down the steep drop, when she got off to walk. Into the turney single track and I got my first glimpse of Alicia! I was so close. Up the woodchip climb I tried to catch her, but I wasn’t quite able to. Into the last sketchy set of switchbacks, I was gaining on her fast, and on the second to last turn I finally made contact. I just couldn’t get the pass. A sprint to the finish, .48 seconds behind. I would have loved the win but it was an amazing race and I am happy with how I did. I was felling so good, and climbing so well. I surprised my self a little, I didn’t think I was going to be able to catch back up, it reminded me about how mental this sport is, you have to be mentally tough, and believe you can do it and always ask yourself if you can go faster, cause chances are you can.

Saturday I got to go up and watch the Pro Races! They were intense! I got some cool shots, here they are.

Home again.

The last week in Germany went by so fast!

6/30 The whole crew went on a super sweet ride, maybe my favorite of the whole camp. we did an hour road climb to the top of a mountain called Shauinsland, were there was a awesome view of everything. Then we went on a ripping fun descent.

7/1 Was feeling pretty tired, so Lydia Davis and I went on a short ride close to the hostel, we went up a nice fire road, then found some sweet single track to take us back down. that one thing I love about Kirchzarten, you can ride up almost any road and find some sweet single track going back down. After riding everyone was pretty board, so we played this card game called threes, and had 3 rounds of word championship matches, I won the first, Davis stole my title in the second, and Lydia is the current world champion. We also went to core with the German national team again, not as hard as the first time, but still a major work out.

7/2 Went for a ride up to St. Peters and over to the Roscof (Really fun steep descent), with Lydia, Will, Kevin, and Davis. Good ride, fun trail!

7/3 Rest day, so Jimmy took us all to Basel to go see 70 of Vincent Van Gogh's Land scape paintings. It was very cool, you really need to see the originals to get the full effect of the painting, there is just something different about it, then when you see the prints, and alot of them have such thick paint it gives it a sort of texture that would never transfer into prints. It was just so cool to see them. And we also got to go look at the rest of the museum, saw some Picasso, and Monet, and some other artists I haven't even heard of. Very cool, I'm glad I got to go see that.

7/4 Pre race day. went out with the whole crew, Lydia leading us on a ride you chose by looking at her map. up up up a paved road, Lydia wanted to find the trail she was looking for, so her and Bryce forged on, they ended up doing a bunch of hike-a-biking, not the best for for the day before a race, but what ever. Will, Davis, Kevin and I turned around and headed down the paved road. The boys were trying to do nothings (no hand or feet), pretty stupid I think, at least they didn't crash. Then we stopped at the park and took some turns on the zip line.

7/5 Race day! We did a small local race in Frieburg, It was the same day as the German junior and U23 nationals, so there were not many people there. It was still a really hard race!

The course was really fun. It was really, only about 2km, and the pro women only did 5 laps, winning time was an hour. The start was on a little fire road climb that turned into double track, not very steep, but in the sun and really hot. There was a little dip into a creek bed then back out onto a fire road. Short descent on the fire road then a hard left into a single track climb. There was one switch back then a right onto a dirt road that took you into another section of single track (happened to be part of the Roscof, which we had been riding DOWN all week), this was the hardest part of the course, rocky and steep. At the top you got a little break, a single track smooth descent onto a fire road descent, before being shot back into a bit of a climb. At the top of the climb you funneled into a SWEET single track descent! Very twisty, and rooty and steep! You popped out of the woods at the bottom for a short section of road before a tight 180 over a bridge and the final stretch to the finish.

I started off with the elite women. I also ended up being put into the same category placing 6th (last but oh well they are elite) and winning 40 euros!!! It was pretty cool to line up with them and start with them even if they did drop me with in the first 30 seconds. The rest of the race I was pretty much by my self, but always pushing my self to see if I could catch some one, and also to try and not get lapped by the leader. I was so close to not getting lapped, but at the very end of my forth lap the leader caught me, I was finished. I was kinda bummed I didn't get to go out for my last lap. I guess I just have to ride faster. It was a really hard race, it was so short you had to go like you were racing a short track, but there were still some killer climbs, you were just killing it the whole time.

Chloe and Lydia had AMAZING races! Chloe placing 2nd and Lydia 4th about a minute behind.

Don't have pics from our race but I did take a lot from the boys race, who by the way did AWESOME, taking the full podium sweep, with Kevin 1st, Will 2nd, Davis 3rd, and Bryce 4th.