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| 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!
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| MUD! |
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| team set up |
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| 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 9th behind four of my teammates, with Ashley from Appalachian State taking the win. We swept 5th through 9th, 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 :)
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| Rotem sitting by our wood fire stove! |
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| 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!
