US MTB National Championships

We headed up to Mt. Snow Thursday morning aiming to pre-ride the course later that afternoon. As we approached closer and closer to West Dover, the skies got darker and darker. By the time we pulled into the parking lot, there was a decent, steady drizzle falling. Since the course would be closed from 8-7pm the next day, our only chance to pre-ride would be that afternoon or super early Friday morning. So despite the rain, we headed out on the course.

Wow – I’ve heard lots of things about Mt. Snow’s XC course and it lived up to all of it. Technical, wet, rocky, rooty, hilly killer course. It’s a 5 mile course laid out in a north and south loop. The start is a very slight uphill dirt road that then turns up the mountain, zigs and zags a bit on fireroad, still up, up (past the first feed zone) then goes left off the ski slope into the first wooded section. There you start the descent down on rocky, rooty single track, across a couple of small streams, pop out onto a ski slope and head straight down toward the start where you’d then head back out the opposite direction up a LONG climb to the south loop. The climb starts out gradual but after a level bit through the woods turns straight UP the mountain. Steep, mud, roots, rocks. I can’t imagine anyone being able to ride it (especially in the muddy condition) and sure enough even the pro-women were doing the hike-a-bike through that section. Lots more up, up, up until you’ve hit about mile 3 and then you start heading down through the most difficult trails I’ve ever ridden. Mostly single track, rocks, roots, stairs, 4 foot drops over roots, you name it, it was there. After about 1.5 miles of that gnarly single track, you finally pop out down a ski slope and onto a fire road, through a tunnel, past the Grand Summit Hotel, small gradual climb until a nice downhill to the finish line.

So imagine seeing it for the first time during a two hour deluge. Yes, it dumped rain on us the entire time we were out there. The climbs were made tougher by the dirt that was now inches of mud. The technical downhill sections were pretty much impossible since choosing a line was a total crap shoot. The puddles and mud hid the holes, rocks and roots. And all the rain made everything slick as snot. We kept telling ourselves if we could ride it in these conditions we could do even better when (if?) it dried out by our race on Saturday morning. We spent a few hours out there slipping, sliding, trying to figure out lines, etc. At one point on one of the more sketchier downhill sections, we ran into an expert woman rider we know who was also off her bike, walking (made us feel good) and saying how it was pretty much impossible to ride in these conditions. As we were discussing this particular section (two trees in the middle of lots of rocks – go left, between or right of the trees?) two guys come flying down the hill and chose to go between the two trees. That line looked good on the surface but under the mud was a slick web of roots. The first guy went down hard, second guy was able to stop. First guy was ok. We all decided the left line was best after that. ;-)

Friday we spent watching the men semi-pro, and women’s pro races. All the lap counts were reduced by 1 lap given the conditions of the course. For the men’s semi-pro, the gradual fire road climb between the two loops was so muddy that mostly all the guys were off their bikes. By the time the pro women’s race (3 laps instead of 4) went off at 2pm, it was much drier given the sun and breeze. Amazing race to watch. Mary McConneloug led out from the start and never gave it up. I think she ended up beating Georgia Gould by 90 sec or so. Wow. So cool to watch those guys ride.

Saturday was blue skies and breezy for our race. It had rained a bit overnight so the course got a bit of extra moisture on it. Lovely. Earlier that morning, the expert men and women races were held and their lap counts were reduced by one so expert women ended up with having to do only 2 laps. Beginners were scheduled to do 2 so we were wondering if they would cut us to 1. But no, they kept us to 2 laps which I figured would be to my advantage anyway since lately I’ve been relying on my fitness and not my technical skills. My goals were to: 1) finish 2) not get hurt. My strategy was to basically push hard on all the rideable climbs and put lots of distance between me and my competitors since I knew the downhill sections would be super difficult.

Our wave rolled up to the start, and the announcer introduced us each by name.(!) I was shocked when he mentioned along with my name that I was ranked #2 in the country. (Who was he talking about? ;-) Yes, I had discovered a few weeks ago I was the ranked as the #13 Women Beginner, then moved up to #5 but I guess my win last week moved me up to #2. Oh geez…nothing like a little more pressure at the start of the race. I can’t begin to describe how cool it was to stand at the start line as the clock ticked down, fans banging on the walls lining the course and being super excited to just start riding.

Race went off as planned. I rode up the entire hill of the north loop (found out later that all of the others in my division walked parts of it). I hit the first wooded section in first, and couldn’t believe the mud. It was like biking though a giant vat of peanut butter. Slipping, sliding, and off the bike for my first fall. And of course, in front a big group of spectators who had hiked up to watch the carnage. I was glad I did not disappoint in putting on a good show for them. ;-) I was so happy when I survived the first wooded section that when I popped out on the ski slope for the downhill, I almost endo’d as I flew down and hit a trench (nice recovery). Whew. The entire first lap was made difficult as I was spending a lot of time avoiding the juniors. Especially on the hike-a-bike mud steep uphill section and the downhill sections. I started catching women from the two age groups below mine as well. Toward the end of the first lap, in the absolute worst section of downhill rocks, I had probably my worst fall (hard enough to brake my plastic number plate), I lost my chain and thought I had broken my left shift lever. I spent 2-3 minutes getting the lever unjammed and getting the chain back on. Finished the first lap in 1 hr 20 min. (that’s almost as long as any mtb race I had previously done). Oddly, though, I pretty much felt ok as I headed out for lap #2. True to form, I rode that lap much better (and faster) than the first. With no juniors and very few other riders to avoid, I was able to set my own cadence and just ride. I could spin better up the climbs and was much smoother on the technical downhill sections. Finished the race in 2hr 39 min. 1st place for Beginner Women 40+ and I later realized would have been good enough for a 6th place finish in the Expert Women 45+ .

Coolest part - S doing her first 2 lap mtb race ever crushes the competition for 2nd place. How cool is it to be 1 and 2 on the podium together! Gold and silver medals. Yeah.

Beginner and sport categories aren’t awarded National Championship stars and stripes jerseys but they do get the blue stripes and red stars jerseys. So I have a very cool, new blue stripe jersey.