Collegiate Road Nats wrap up

So to recap, I had just finished 9^th in the crit and was riding pretty high after that finish. While you always want to win, there are some finishes that just get you pumped and ready to go for more. And that’s exactly how I was feeling. Even better than that was we all seemed pretty pumped and focused for the next job. I think it was nervousness going into the crit, but after the race and that night everyone seemed chilled out and ready for the RR.

Waking up the next morning, things were much the same as we were focused. But the early start for the women’s race threw us for a loop I think. We scrambled to get to the course on time. Once there Maddie and the women got ready and the guys just sort of sat around. Being as lazy as possible we watched the women go by and made sure we were there with bottles if Maddie needed one. She never did. But we drove over to the final feed zone right before the finish climb and made sure she was good. We then proceeded to ‘rally’ the sprinter past the field and make it up the climb so we could make our start. Kip is a pretty good sprinter driver, by the way.

With the women’s race over the attention turned to our race. The plan was to protect skip, keep him where he was safe and keep him near the front so he didn’t have to work. We had 3 reservoir loops to do about 15 or so miles each followed by a 30 mile or so finish loop. As we branched off the loop there was a narrow descent through a valley road. The road had construction so we made sure skip was sitting right at the front for that. Then through town it was much the same. I was pretty beat from the small climbs in town so I wasn’t much help to be honest. But as the climb hit and skip was where he needed to be my focus turned to surviving. We hadn’t even hit the climb proper and I was struggling so it was all about finding my rhythm.

As we made the right hander away from the neighborhood and onto the North Ogden pass, I was still trying to find my rhythm. It was all about getting the breathing under control and finding the line of pain where I could just sit. I had to ignore my power meter. With the altitude and other things I just wasn’t able to what I could at home. So I ignored it and found my rhythm. Once I did I stopped getting passed and started making passes. The side of the mountain was littered with athletes pushing themselves to the limit. Some broke and floated back like a plastic bag in the wind and others found the strength and moved up like salmon against the current.

I was beyond pumped with how well I rode. I was thinking I was going to be fighting the broom wagon, but I made it over the climb in the top 50.  Over the climb I looked on and knew somewhere in the distance was the finish line and less than 10 minutes of pain is all that stood in my way. I was one of those moments, when people say, “you can do anything for 1 minute”. Well for me it was, “I can do anything for these 10 minutes”. The descent was a blast, like nothing I’d ever ridden. Having to really corner and work the bike. It was honestly one of the most fun things I’ve done on a bike.

At the bottom I saw a few guys up ahead and a few behind. We were all trying to catch the big group up a head of about 15 guys. The individual chase was not going well as the group worked well together and the gap was pretty big. We formed a group of about 3, then 4, then 5. We paced it in until with about 2k to go we started to look around at each other. The pace was still high but the mood in the group was less friendly. With about 1500m to go an attack went and we chased it down, then a second with the same result. We were all just looking around now. Then a big attack came with about 1k to go and we all looked around again. It was clear nobody was helping anyone. So I went to the front and got the pace going again. I rode at a good pace and swung off hard. Sitting in I watched for the 500m mark and took my chance. It was maybe 5 seconds out of the saddle feeling like I was king and then the remaining 30 seconds in the saddle bleeding from the eyes in pain. In the end it was 35^th for my trouble.

When we finished we were all totally spent. As I crossed the line I almost started hyper-ventilating. Between the dry air and that effort I was coughing and couldn’t catch my breath. Some water and sports drink and everything was good.

But when it was all said and done, I honestly had one of the best weekends of my life. Staying in the mountains and hanging out with great friends. The host family was amazingly nice. They even threw us a BBQ when we got back from racing. It was amazing and they were so nice. It was all so surreal, but yet when I look back I remember it vividly. We had an early flight but none of wanted it to end so we stayed up talking a little later than we should have. Next thing I know all I have is a back pack and I’m making my way onto to plane, saying good bye to one hell of a weekend. Like waking up from a dream. So thanks Utah, you’re not so bad. In fact, you’re pretty alright.