First off, take a deep breath, I know I am. The year is by
no means over, but MTB nats was the big target so the rest is just for fun.
Now how did it go? That’s a loaded question. I really do
have mixed feeling about it. I’m finding that there is a difference between
having something to be proud of, and being satisfied with your results. I
suppose I should tell the story and let everyone else be the judge. But for now
I’m going to take some time off the bike and starting thinking about how I can
improve.
It all started on a wonderful Wednesday night in Madison,
the whole town is filled with anticipation, because Halloween was just around
the corner. I was feeling anxiety, nervous about getting class work done, in
time to have my mind free to focus on tearing legs off in New Mexico. Wednesday
night was busy, packing and homework just trying to get it all done after
coming home from work. Then I had the choice of weather to sleep for a few
hours or just tough it out and finish cleaning dishes and my room. I opted for
sleep. Skip and I boarded the 4am bus to Chicago that left from Madison’s
memorial union Thursday morning. We began what was for me the longest day of
travel save maybe the day I had a layover in Kansas a few years ago. We got to
the resort and checked in, then headed out for a quick lap around the XC
course. Lots of climbing and lots of mud, can you say suffer fest?
Without any real understanding of what the altitude might do
to my body I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got a decent night’s sleep and woke
up in the morning feeling pretty good. I went out and watched a little of the
women racing and then started to get ready for my race. Things were still
frozen from the night during the women’s race, but everything was nice and
sloppy for the men’s D1 start.
I had a front row call up from being the MWCCC D1 champion.
This was good because I really needed it. In hind sight though I would have
rather been second row behind Rotem, because where I started there was a bunch
of thick mud. That is not the ideal starting spot. I was able to get a decent
start though, and went out top 15 around the starting loop. I got hit by
another rider and had to dismount on the first climb, and as a result had to
really gun it to stay up front. This put me into the red more than I wanted,
but this was to be expected on the starting line. But once we hit the climb, I
really felt like shit. We hit the thick mud and I couldn’t pedal. As other
started to dismount and run I was left behind the lead group. It wasn’t until
about halfway up the mountain that I started to feel back within myself. By
then the top 10 was long gone, and I had walked about a mile up a mountain. The
entire frist 2-3 miles were completely up hill. I don’t think there was a
single section that went down until you got to the top. Most corners were tight
switchbacks and as the day went on they all became impossible to ride.
On the plus side, I was able to start making some big
passes. I passed about 5 or 6 guys on the first lap after getting shot to the
back. Once we hit the top I had made all the passes I needed and the way down
was all clear. I think I made one pass on the way down, but made up probably a
minute on the guys in front of me. When we hit the bottom I was feeling better
and made another 5 or 10 passes including Cody and Josh, 2 big rivals from the
MWCCC. They seemed to be having mechanical issues. My second lap I felt pretty
quick, but the course was really beat up from all the mud. I made a few passes
on the way up and held off a few guys until the downhill where I had an
advantage over most.
The first section that went down was this huge open double
track section. The mud ruts were pretty deep, but if you stayed in the track
you could really rail it. Most people didn’t so I was catching people left and
right on this section. Right before it made a tight right corner into the woods;
there were a few mud puddles and big ruts. On the second lap I hit the deck
hard after my front wheel came out from me by getting pulled with a rut. I hit
the ground really hard but I got right back up and started pedaling. After a
few seconds back on the bike, my wrist and arm started hurting. I was worried
that I broke something, but kept going. Turns out it was fine and I finished up
the lap by catching a few more down the mountain.
The third lap was just impossible. The course was completely
torn up. I walked up the entire way until maybe the last half mile when the
snow was still frozen. I cannot tell you how good it felt to see the top for
that third time. I was at that race to place well, but I’ll tell you that it
turned into survival really quick. Just knowing I was going to finish was
assuring. But it just wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t crash again. Same place,
same reason, same pain as I hit the ground but with a little extra derp. The good news was that I knew
exactly where to find my bike afterwards. After fishing it out of the ditch, I
headed down the hill and made a few more passes. Ended up 24th for
my first National championship race ever. I was hoping for something better,
but looking back I don’t know how real my expectations were.
In the interest of getting some homework done and not boring
everyone to death, I end this post here. More on the Short Track race and the
rest of the weekend later. I do want to thank everyone who sent me texts and
twitter good luck wishes. It was awesome to see how many people were rooting
for me. And as always, thanks for reading!
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