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 16th 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 2nd, and 3 more in the top ten. Our Boys also had a good race, Rotem won and everyone else had a good finish!
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| 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 7th 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 7th. Which I was still really really happy with, but 6th 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.
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| passing up some girls on the switch backs! |
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| sweet skin suits |
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| 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!
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| Division 1 podium |
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| National Champs!!! |
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| 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 :)
