Collegiate CycloCross Nationals!

my bike <3

Right off the bat I just have to say this was such an adventure! We got to Bend, Oregon late on Thursday and headed right over to our houses. We got our first look at the course on Friday, with a noon practice on a pretty muddy course with some icy patches. The start shot you up a hill and through some rutted sticky mud. Then a turn past the pit, and through the gigantic puddle. They even pumped it out a few times over the weekend, but it was still about a foot of freezing standing water for 100 yards. The next stretch was on grass, and the mud was almost unbearably deep, and just held your wheel no matter how hard you pushed. We went trough a U-turn onto a short pit of pavement, up the first steep banked corner, and through a parking lot. The next section was a bit icy, and consisted of some sharp turns through the trees, and into another muddy straight stretch, followed by 2 little drops and run ups, which were mostly rideable.  Now back through the pit and the giant puddle and across to the second half of the course. This stared with a fast grassy off camber section and the barriers. Immediately after the barriers was the steepest hill, which was rideable only if you had your gearing right and got enough momentum after the barriers. After dropping down there was pavement, then more deep peanut butter mud, and the flyover, which as super fun! After a bit more struggling in the mud it was up the stairs, another small drop and hill, and then back on the starting road and through the finish. It was overall a super fun course, but pretty tough! Especially powering through all the mud!

MUD!

team set up

practicing on the run up

Saturday we were up bright and early for 7 am practice, since races ran for the rest of the day. While we were out on the course in the dark, in the mud, in the cold, while it was sleeting, I couldn’t help but smile, because really, who does stuff like this? My friend Mary must call it psychocross for a reason :) Unfortunately, I am still trying to recover from my crash at mountain bike nats, and I only got in 2 laps before I stopped because of the pain. I was really hoping I could rest it up and it wouldn’t inhibit my race the next day. Other then riding, we mostly just spent Thursday and Friday resting, watching races, and exploring the venue. I really enjoyed having collegiate and regular nationals together, since it draws so many fans, and I got to see friends race in the junior and U23 categories.

Sunday was race day. We were at the venue by 6:30 to warm up for an 8 am start. We had the wood fire stove going in our team tent whole we were on the trainers to keep it nice and toasty. It wasn’t nearly as cold as I had anticipated it being, and I raced in just a skin suit and leg warmers. I lined up towards the back of about 30 D1 girls, and right away barely avoided a crash at the start to move up in the field. Over the next four laps (45 minute race time) I battled to move up the field. My strongest sections were always the technical parts- corners, hills, barriers, stairs. But I tended to lose time on the straight muddy sections, so building up that power is something I am definitely going to work on! I avoided any major crashes, and only stumbled a few times. I ended up finishing 9^th behind four of my teammates, with Ashley from Appalachian State taking the win. We swept 5^th through 9^th, and came across as if we were in a team time trial. I was happy with my result and celebrated with my girls while we got warm again :)

Rotem sitting by our wood fire stove!

Jack going through the giant puddle

The boys raced next and had a very similar race. Jack was up in the front group until a flat forced him to the pit. They finished with Colton, Eric, Rotem, and Jack in the top ten and the rest of the guys not far behind!

In the end, Fort Lewis fell just a few points shy of Lees-McRae to take silver in the team omnium.  It was still a great showing by all riders, and we will just have to try harder next year!

After the racing was done, and the trailer packed up, we began our second adventure- trying to get home! Our scheduled flight from Oregon was for 2 on Monday afternoon, but as soon as we arrived at the airport it was delayed. The time kept getting pushed further and further pack, until we left at 8pm for San Francisco, after 7 hours in the airport. By the time we arrived, we had missed our flight to Denver, and were stuck till the next morning! So we tried to get some sleep and left for Denver at 7. By now our group was pretty split up, and the last of us left for Durango at 5, and finally made it home about 6:45. During our 30 hours in various airports we found many ways to entertain ourselves (including studying for finals of course!). But my professors were awesome, and exempted me from everything I missed :)

 So that’s pretty much everything about our weekend. We just got out on winter break, and the snow is dumping! So time to get in some skiing before starting base for road season, which I am going to try for the first time soon!

Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals :)

First off I have to say I was really excited to get to go to nationals as a freshmen, and it was a really great experience (I could do without the drive to California though haha).

So we got there on Wednesday, with time for a quick preride of the XC course. It was a really sweet 7-mile lap. The start was on a super gravely hill, which proved to be pretty sketchy, and it climbed for a while on double track, with one really rocky technical uphill section that was pretty short. The descent was so fast and gnarly, pretty rocky but nothing too big, and lots of sharp switchback turns. I really enjoyed it and was definitely able to catch some people there.

Our first race was Friday morning at 8, so we were on the trainers by 7, freezing our butts off and waiting for the sun to come up. I started off okay, struggling a bit on the climb, mostly because I was so cold. I caught back up to some of the girls by the second lap, and started climbing again. I mostly sat in the same spot from here on out, shuffling positions with a few girls for the rest of the race (which was 3 laps, about 21 miles). I pushed pretty hard and was feeling okay, but not great. It was definitely a mental race for me, and I didn’t do quite as well as I had wanted to, ending up 16^th out of about 30 girls. This was my first time racing in a field where everyone was older then me, and I definitely learned a lot! The rest of our girls did great, with Sage coming in 2^nd, and 3 more in the top ten. Our Boys also had a good race, Rotem won and everyone else had a good finish!

the girls warming up

Saturday we are warming up at 7 again for short track. The stxc course went up the same start hill, but turned off sooner and went into some really twisty singletrack in the trees, and then down some switchback on the face of a hill and through the plaza before making a sharp right turn into the gravel at the bottom of the start. I was at the back at the start line, and right off got involved in a pile-up. But I was feeling awesome today and quickly passed up most of the field to sit in 7^th with 4 laps to go. I was feeling so great, just giving it everything I got. It definitely helped that so many people were out cheering. I big group of guys from another team were yelling, “go pink bike!” every time I came around which was really cool! As we went through the plaza on the last lap I caught the girl ahead of me and hammered it around the corner… and then I crashed so hard… and the other girl ran over my hand. So I jumped up and ran across the finish line in 7^th. Which I was still really really happy with, but 6^th would’ve been nice. My arm hurt really badly so we went over to the ER for x-rays, which thankfully didn’t show any breaks. I am still off the bike as of now, and still checking in with the doctor to see if anything is wrong, but definitely feeling better. Once again FLC dominated, with Sage and Rotem taking the wins and the rest of the team finishing great. Mountain cross in the afternoon didn’t go as well, but our gravity riders put up a fight for sure.

passing up some girls on the switch backs!

sweet skin suits

after the hospital run

Sunday was downhill and our riders did really well, Sage won women’s and Sam podiumed for the guys. And…. OUR TEAM WON!!!!!! :) for the fourth year on a row!

Division 1 podium 

National Champs!!!

all the girls :) 

After a quick stop at In-and-Out Burger we headed back to Durango. I mostly slept the whole way back, which was nice :) now it’s back to school and then cyclocross season starts Halloween, but I will probably have to sit out a few races.

Go Skyhawks :)

Cross Time!

Got our new team cross bikes in :)

Can't wait for cross season now!

Collegiate Racing!

So my first collegiate mountain bike series was a blast :) I loved racing for the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team! Here are some mini-race reports from each weekend:

Gunnison race: For my first race I really had no idea what to expect. When we lined up on the start line I recognized several of the girls, but there were several new faces as well. We raced over in Hartman Rocks, and it was an awesome course! Once you get over the ridge and drop into the trail area, the riding is smooth and super flowy. There were several climbs, but they were all pretty gradual and spread out throughout the race. There were also a lot of rocky sections, not too technical but quite a few big drops and gaps. The only thing was once you got up on the rocks, it wasn’t always easy to see where the trail went and pretty much everyone got lost a couple times! My race started off pretty slow, especially since I had only been in Durango a week and wasn’t acclimated yet, and Gunnison is even higher (like 9,000 ft I think?). But as soon as I got into my rhythm I was flying and passing up the field. I ended up in 3^rd and I was stoked! A great finish for my first collegiate race :) The rest of the FLC team had some good finishes as well! The next morning was short track for me, and I didn’t feel too great, just since I worked so hard, at altitude, the day before, and it definitely showed in my performance. The course basically climbed up along the ridge, and then down collarbone alley. I can’t remember exactly but I ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack. Camping was fun too! We had a pretty sweet campsite, and we played a lot of shuffleboard in between races :)

Sol Vista race: The next weekend we went to Sol Vista (such a long drive…) which I was looking forward since I am more familiar with the riding there. The course was kind of a combination of both nationals courses, AND WE DIDN’T HAVE TO GO UP THE GIANT HILL!!! Which was pretty exciting. Basically we did a start lap of the beginning from this years nats course, then climbed where we had come down, kept climbing up the course from 2 years ago, with some sweet new singletrack, and then down the same epic descent from 2 years back. So it was about 6 miles and we did 2 laps. Sorry if that’s too confusing! My race started off really well. I was climbing strong, and sitting about 4^th or 5^th I think. But on the waterfall section of the descent, which is really loose and steep, I slid out and hit a tree with my leg locked out. It took me a little while to get back on the bike, but I was somehow able to get down, and then do my second lap and finish the race. I lost a lot of time, but still pulled out an okay finish. The next morning I wasn’t able to ride, which meant no short track. When we got home I got my knee checked out and turns out I dislocated it, but they didn’t think I tore anything which is good.

Womens A start

Durango race: Since my knee was still messed up I didn’t get to race in our home race which was a bummer, but FLC did really well with lots of good results in all disciplines! Since I couldn’t race I took a ton of pictures so I’ll post some here :)

FLC B men leading out the short track

Fielding racing dual slalom 

Winter Park race: This was my first time riding at Winter Park, and even though it’s only a half hour from Sol Vista it is way different. The XC course climbed and climbed and climbed and the first lap felt like it took forever! The climbing wasn’t technical, mainly fire road, and wasn’t too steep expect for a few sections. The descent was sooo fun though! It was rocky, but not really technical, and had a lot of big, smooth switchbacks and you could just fly down it! We did 2 11-mile laps. The start was pretty cold, but I warmed up pretty quick. I was still struggling a lot with my knee, but riding didn’t feel too bad. My first lap was pretty slow, but the 2^nd lap I went all out and felt awesome. I think I finished mid-field, which I was happy with. As soon as I stopped though my knee completely locked up, so I decided not to race short track the next day. Once again FLC performed very well! Another highlight from the weekend I have to mention was our amazing tent that Kaila brought :) It was one of those large canvas tents, and it had bay windows and an awning and was pretty much a mansion. We slept 8 people in there, so we were cozy and warm!

End of XC

Daniel in DS practice

Greg leading out in DS

Overall the season went great for our team! There might still be one more race, then nationals in a few weeks, and then cyclo-cross season starts. I am hoping my knee will heal up soon so I can race more!

On a side note, college has been going great :) Durango is amazing, and I love being able to ride literally right outside my dorm. The Fort is really cool, and all my classes are going well. I think racing and riding has been my favorite thing so far though! 

a little late...

sooo i know this is quite late, but i finally got around to making a blog and thought i might as well post my race report from nationals. enjoy :)

Cat 1 Junior Women 17/18 at the start line

We're all so smiley :)  

me approaching the finish

We started the race on my favorite hill ever (NOT) (which, by the way, lewis' garmin told us had a 23% grade) starting at the base lodge, heading off on our start lap which would be followed by 2 laps of the complete Pro course. The course was a two-leaf clover shape that was 4.32 miles long and had an elevation gain of 710 ft. The first side of the course consisted of a recently cut trail that switchbacked up the mountain, then made a sharp u-turn and generally leveled out until reaching the base area at which point it turned and went straight down. This first descent was quick and fast, with many steep drops and berms that were basically wall rides. Incredibly fun, but it was filled with holes since it was cut just a couple weeks ago and there were numerous times I thought I would surely go over the bars! After passing through the feed/tech zone it was up the hill of death again, and then several more uphill switchbacks and into the aspens where it leveled out. This is also where they apparently brought in rocks to make what was a sad excuse for a technical section, especially for a Pro course. Then it spit us out near the top of the mountain-cross course and followed last years course to about halfway up the mountain (on nice smooth trail!). The final descent was next to a dirt road (really guys?) and again really rough and extremely sandy and sketchy. Towards the bottom there were a few sharp, rocky switchbacks and then joined the super-d course to the finish line! (Which was super fun!) So overall, a fun course to race on (minus the roughcut-ness), and the climbing layout was much better suited to flatlanders like me! But definitely not technical, and not quite what we expected for a nationals course. (Also, the start lap was the second half, after the death zone.)

           When we went up the first climb I was feeling great and powered up to sit in third for a short bit. But when we hit the long climb, my body wasn’t quite ready to maintain the pace, and I got passed up by most of the field by the end of the start lap. The first real lap I wasn’t doing too great, definitely feeling the altitude, and wasn’t really able to push myself as hard as i wanted. I would find myself closing in on people on the descents only to have them leave me behind on the climbs. But after a frustrating lap, I started the second lap (which was oddly my fastest lap) determined and was able to catch and pass 3 girls. I went into the final descent right behind ellen, but wasn't able to catch her by the finish. But i gotta say I was happy with my finish! The competition was fierce and everyone did awesome!