The Thin Red Line

What a great weekend, it's too bad every weekend, or even every day can't be like this weekend. The USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships were held at Mt. Snow, VT and not much is better than a bunch of fat tire riders gathering to ride their bikes.

We arrived at our condo Thursday night, and everyone was pretty ecstatic about the place. An awesome kitchen space for cooking real food, some comfy living room space, and ground level sliding doors directly to outdoors.

Friday was the big day, the showdown for the Sport class national championship. My class; the age 25-29 Sport class. The showdown was at high noon, on a bright sunny day, and a bit toasty to be honest. As to be expected, most of the field shot off like rockets at the start while Taylor and I sat back a bit knowing that start meant nothing in this race. There would be no single track for a while, and a non-trivial climb within a quarter mile. And with the nerves I was already feeling like my muscles were short on oxygen, the body must send it elsewhere when anxious. So I hung in there till the trail turned skyward. Sure enough, as soon as we hit the climb guys started shifting gears and going backwards. I moved up to 5th after sitting in 11th out of 12 off the start. Then we hit the steep spot of the North loop and one guy spun his wheels on the 5 yard kicker that began the final grunt for the top of this short climb. The top 4 guys, all bunched together, were forced off their bikes from the one guy's spin out, affording me the chance to pull up through them. I found myself in 2nd upon completing the short North loop. On to the South loop and the source of significant climbing and pain. Despite my surge through the field I still wasn't feeling like I had legs or that my breathing was comfortable and a few guys passed me up the initial easy slope. Then we turned up the steep nonsense that began our quest for the highest point on course. Already sucking wind, this pitch pushed me to the red line. I caught some loose gravel on the upper section and despite a late push from a fellow rider I couldn't recover from the spin out. I didn't walk very far though, just enough to get away from the loose rocks. I was still red lining as I turned into some single track a short bit later and I looked back to see Taylor just behind me looking strong. At that glance I was pretty sure he was catching me quickly and was on his way to victory and sheer domination. Apparently he was at the red line too, as we separated in the trees somewhere. During the rest of the climb I lost a few places and maybe gained a few back. I wasn't completely sure where I stood, but I knew which guys had been in first and second.

The technical descent was the source of my demise the previous year. I was mentally defeated by it as I'm not a great descender, especially through technical rooty stuff. But this year, things were to be different. I blew down the hill like a pro, undeterred by the assortment of roots and rocks trying to take me down. In fact I almost taunted them as the elevation dropped. I finished lap one in 2nd or 3rd and promptly lost a few spots on the short North loop.

I was feeling a little better though and I came into the 2nd and final lap wondering if I had enough to get those spots I'd lost back. One guy from my class was just ahead but seemed to be slowly pulling away, but as we worked up the hill I started to close on him ever so slowly. I passed him at one point, only to be countered and slightly gapped. I had the feeling I'd catch him easily on the long technical downhill though. Sure enough I did, but it's difficult to get close enough to make a move for the pass and maintain good visibility on the line you'd like to take. I finally had my chance, and once I got by, promptly left him behind. Not long later I unexpectedly caught another guy in my class. I tried to surge by him on the last piece of climbing but he counter attacked and opened a little bit of a lead. But back into the technical down-hilling I promptly caught back up. I thought I'd be able to ride his wheel on the dirt road to the finish and take him on the sprint, but last bit of down hill was some open dirt road which he gravitationally, slightly more adept at. He opened just enough of a gap on me. As the road flattened out I tried to catch him, but couldn't. I finished strong though and rolled in for a 4th place ride.

A satisfactory ride. Strangely my usual strong suit of climbing was not my source of strength on the day, conversely it was my descending in the technical single track where I really made up ground. I was only able to maintain my place and limit my losses on the climbs. I'll say that my legs weren't at their best, they've been much better on climbs and I can only wonder what I might have pulled off had the legs really been there. But what's done is done, I still rode a great race, and I felt great about the way I'd ridden.

Big props to Chris for running a pro pit/feed zone for me. The bottle hand-off was almost botched but we got it without slowing down and the time splits and info were great.

You can take a look at how close a few of us were at the finish, take a look at the results page.

There will be yet more pictures to come but for now you can see what I've got here.