Nationals Race Report!
US Mountain Bike National Championships
Granby, Colorado
July 16th 2010
Cat 1 Women 15-16
1st Place
After a great race at downieville I was feeling really confident and strong going into nationals but wasn’t completely sure what to expect from my competition. I felt really well prepared for the race, what with our amazing trip to get aclimated and Sofia and my morning race prep (complete with ke$ha, painting our nails blue, copious amounts of oatmeal and yoga). Watching the cat 2 races yesterday got me pumped up and I was ready to go on the start line.
Our start was really fast and I went out really hard, taking the lead up the first hill and into the first portion of the singletrack. Half way through the start lap I was leading with two girls right on my wheel. I went as fast as I could on the decent, hoping to make up some time on them, but one girl stuck on my wheel. Through the first and second laps, the rider stayed glued to my wheel, taking every line I took. This was really nerve wracking and it was hard to stay calm and not try and sprint ahead because I knew I didn’t have the legs for it and because she was right on my wheel, it was easy for her to counter attack. I considered letting her lead but I realized that being in front on the singletrack climbs really gave me the opportunity to control the pace and recover.
Through the second lap I started to gain time on the descents but she would catch right back up on the climbs. Going into the last lap, I gave it all I had on the big climb that comes up from the start line, barely able to stay in front because she was a really fast climber. As we started the singletrack climb, the girls coach yelled for her to, “Time your attack and attack HARD.” This made me realize that I would need the energy to counterattack when she tried to make her move, and if I could stay in the lead going into the last descent that I pretty much secured the win. I slowed the pace a bit, giving myself a few seconds of recovery. 
Through the end of the singletrack climb, every time I heard her switch gears and prepare to make an attack I put the wood to it and defended the lead. We went into the last descent and I was ahead, which meant I just had to haul down. I didn’t touch my breaks and came out of the last section to the straightaway in the lead. I guess I thought I was a lot closer to the finish line when I threw my arms up, but the videos reveal that I celebrated early. Luckily I won the sprint and earned a national title!! The race was followed for Sofia and I by a large amount of mint chip ice cream which I felt was well earned.
Thanks everyone on the team for the awesome support. Congratulations everyone on such amazing whole athlete performances at nationals! You guys were awesome and inspiring.
Downieville Race Report!
Downieville Classic
Downieville, California
July 10th 2010
Expert Women 34 and Under
1st Place
I went into this race totally psyched about riding from the amazing weeks in Tahoe. I was a little bit nervous about the length of the race because it was said to be extremely long, beginning with an almost 3500 foot climb. I didn’t have any expectations because we were racing 34 and under and there were quite a few racers competing. My goal was to have no crashes, no flats. I knew that I couldn’t take any risks because nationals was more important and I wanted to be ready for it.
We started the race up a really long climb and I put the peddle to the medal to stay with Sofia for the first part, going out as hard as I could in the intimidating mass start of hundreds of riders. The climb was long and hard but I kept a pretty good pace and the double takes I got from the men I passed were priceless. I finally made it to the top, got my feed, and starting the long, sweeping singletrack descent. I passed Sofia on the fire road leading down to the singletrack and she stayed close behind for a bit. By then a lot of the guys I had passed on the climbs came speeding by and I pushed myself really hard to keep up. When I looked back I had dropped Sofia so I kept riding as fast as I could, picking the smooth, safest lines and going as hard and fast as I could. I came through the finish overjoyed and found out that I had been the fourth woman to finish, including all the pros. I also won my category which was really exciting. It was such a great race and an amazing atmosphere and I’m so glad I was able to go. Great job whole athlete girls and Abbie!! Let’s get pumped for nationals!
Norcal Race #3
Kate Courtney
Norcal Race #3
JV
1st Place
The day before this race Branson had an arts show that some of the members on the bike team had performances in so we ended up leaving really late, planning to pre-ride in the morning. We ate Chilly’s for dinner and got to the hotel at midnight, not the best race prep. With 6 hours of sleep and my legs feeling terrible I even felt tired on the pre-ride which left me pretty unconfident going into the race. I decided that I just needed to get over all of that, and race a smart race, not necessarily a hard race. I usually try and drop the girls by the first quarter of the first lap, which leaves me alone for the rest of the race. I decided to let another girl lead and get right on her tail because it was a lot easier to stay on her wheel then to have to have her lead. When we got to the one short climb that goes up from the road, I sprinted because I knew I would be able to recover on the downhill. I put a gap on the girl right behind me, however I went into the downhill going really fast and made a technical error, and fell. She caught me, but I got up fast enough to stay in front of her. I was feeling pretty bad then because not only had I fallen, but I had used a lot of energy on a day I didn’t have a lot to begin with.
The next short jumpy climb I decided to try and gap her again, and succeeded in doing so. I just rode pretty hard for a while, not knowing how far ahead I was. By the end of the second lap, I had no way of knowing how far in front I was and yelled for gap times when I went by the feed zone. My coach told me I had a couple minute lead so I didn’t push it too hard the last lap, just keeping a fast enough pace that I knew I would keep the lead. Overall, it was a great race, but I plan on getting a bit more sleep next time!
Sea Otter Classic
Sea Otter Classic XC
Cat 1 15-18
5th Place
Teammates: Sofia & Victoria
Sea Otter was by far the biggest congregation of bikers I have seen. I was both nervous and excited to be racing at such a big event and to be racing 15 girls as opposed to having 5 competitors. The course was really fun and I felt really good on the pre-ride. At the start line I looked around and had seen most of the other girls do really well in varsity this year, which was really intimidating. I decided to just try and have fun and set a goal to stay with Victoria or Sofia as long as I could.
We started pretty fast around the track and I was able to hang on to the front riders. For the first half of the race I rode right on Victoria’s wheel and pushed myself to stay with her. When we hit about the half way point it was a bit flatter and I ended up putting a small gap on Victoria. I had no idea what to do at that point because I’m usually not able to keep up with Victoria and I didn’t know whether I would regret passing her later in the race. I felt pretty good and saw another girl just ahead me so I caught her and put a gap on her. The entire race I was basically pushing it to make sure I had a sizable gap on her. For the rest of the race I was pretty much alone, although there were a lot of riders around me that were in different categories. It was fun seeing all the WA guys pass me! At the end of the race I was going through the last part with 2 riders from an older category with me, and so at the finish I sort of sprinted in but didn’t know that a girl from my age group had caught me right at the finish line. I thought she was one of the older girls, and ended up losing by a fraction of a second. Altogether I was extremely excited about this race especially considering my original goals! Thanks Dario and Abbie for making the trip possible. Great job everyone!
