Well, collegiate mountain bike nationals has come and gone. It was a weekend nothing short of epic riding conditions, snow, ice, and some excellent racing. When I came to this program at the beginning of last year, I had plenty of people shaking their head sadly and wishing me good luck. These people were wrong. This team can race, and they can race fast, and they don't have to go to bed at 8:30 at night and put their feet up and not have any fun. As coach, I'm incredibly proud of what they did out there, how they dealt with the conditions, the weather, and the courses. Watch out, this team is going places.
The women (Angela, Alexis, and Madi) raced first in the XC. The ground was frozen for the first lap and then got stupid muddy by the second. Angela put her running skills to good use on the climb and held on for the descent to finish 5th. For those who don't remember, she couldn't ride down those rocks at the top of Jacks 6 weeks ago. Mad props. Madi put her descending skills to good use and finished 12th insisting that she wasn't going to race endurance next year. I pulled a bone-head move and let Alexis out to ride in sub-freezing temperatures in thin gloves. It did not end well. No worry, the girls still placed 3rd in the event.
The boys took to an even muddier course at noon. Brae, Ben and Owen lined up. Owen wore my flower arm warmers. They looked good. Brae was riding in a solid 2nd and looking good when I looked up the hill from the feedzone to see him writhing in pain from leg cramps. We got him to be able to bend his legs and when he started complaining about not getting bib shorts, I sent him on his way back up the hill, unfortunately without enough calories. Nationals is always a longer race than the conference ones and I think it took us all by surprise. Tulip rallied for an impressive 15th place finish.
The short track was fast. The DII women had the two fastest women at the race in their division, so it was a matter of riding as hard as they could until those beasts of women got 80% of a lap up. Angela decided to get into a fight with a fence off the start but rallied to an 11th place. Alexis, using her irritation at my stupidity from the day before as fuel, cracked the top ten. She'd never ridden a bike on dirt before this season. Madi secured third place for the girls by getting past one from Union gals on the last lap. Every single place counted.
The boys raced stupid hard too. Every time Ben came around, I watched him pass 3-4 guys on the sketchy downhill and straightaway. It was impressive. Brae raced in second before fading to 7th. We then heckled him enough that he passed back the guy in front of him (who was wearing goggles) to finish 6th. It was a Humbolt guy and the guys beat Humbolt in the event, which was key for the team overall.
Our DH guys dominated the DH, which, to summarize, looked terrifying. Covered in snow and ice. Mud. I would have cried. Owen finished 2nd, Colin 3rd, Ansel 7th, Caleb 9th, and Thomas was 26th at his first Nationals. Owen and Caleb were the only two that I heard of to ride the course without a crash. Needless to say, the boys won that event.
They opened up the dual slalom for practice on Sunday morning. It was a sheet of ice and the lack of skin left on Owen's stomach is proof that it wasn't a soft landing. Then the sun came out and turned the entire thing into mud. Crashes were frequent and ruts treacherous. Next year, the team is going to take a field trip or two to the BMX track in Montrose. We've got some bermage and leg speed work to do.
When the points shook out, the team took 4th overall, which is significantly better than last year, especially since we weren't in contention for 25% of the points. Everyone rode stupid-hard all weekend and I'm beyond proud of everyone who rallied in the mud. Mud is not our natural state of riding, so to be able to step it up, accept the conditions for what they were, and still ride as well as we did is a testament to our riders. As a coach, I learned a lot. From putting warm gloves on all my riders, to having extra calories in the feed zone to hand up, to making sure that we have several sets of parents on hand to have a dinner cook off so we don't have to cook for ourselves at all.
We're building something big here and each and every person who came out to practice and race this year is a huge part of it. I'm honored to be a part of it and I can't wait until next year.
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