On the Rivet: CX Nationals!

This year my family and I flew back to Bend, OR for CX nationals. Thanks to Harper’s Bike Shop for last minute maintenance on my bikes and Jon Crowson for loaning me a SRAM shifter the day before we had to leave. Also thanks to Dirk Pohlman for lending me a double bike box to use.

We left our house in Knoxville at 4:00 am. We got lucky at the airport as they only charged us $25 for the bikes. We’ve been charged $175 a bike before and it’s no fun. The flights to Bend were uneventful but when we arrived the car rental had run out of vans so we had to cram everything into an SUV, which was jam-packed.

We went to the hotel and unpacked the bikes then headed out on course, which was really cold and wet.

The next morning I pre-rode the TT course. It was covered in sheer ice and in one section I thought it was clear and got up to maybe 20 mph then ate it and bruised my hip on some kind of ice rock. Luckily, my mom came prepared and we had ibuprofen back at the hotel. We went to the hotel for some breakfast then relaxed. We drove back to the TT course and I did a quick warm up then did a cross TT which was a little bit weird. I rode pretty conservatively but I got stuck behind another kid on a section with no passing so that cost me a little bit of time but I could pass him on the icy run-up. I rode the whole rutted, icy descent off the hill with one foot clipped out to prevent crashing but even so I had a close call when I hit a patch of black ice at the bottom. My rear wheel fish-tailed but it put me going in the right direction. I think I ended up placing 6^th, which was what I wanted because it meant that I could start second row without having spent too much energy. After this, we hopped back into the car and zipped over to the race course so that I could pre-ride it for an hour. I rode it with my friends Drew Dillman and Luke Haley, both of whom I’m very excited to race with on Turner Prochain cycling come road season. We dialed in most of the tricky corners and rode the run/ride up maybe 15 times, but for me in the race it was a run-up. After this, my family cleaned bikes and we ate Chinese food then later had IHOP for dinner. Pancakes have carbs, right?

On race day, we arrived at the course and I rode it a little bit then hopped on a LeMond trainer and warmed up some more. Those trainers are a little loud but they feel pretty cool when you’re pedaling. After that I rolled around for a bit then went to staging and took off some extra layers, including the Glacier Gloves my dad bought for me the day before. The DeFeet woolie gloves I ended up wearing are my favorite gloves and moderately warm when wet, but the course included a flooded section which soaked me through and froze my hands. I lined up right behind Jordan Cullen and had a great start, riding in 5^th most of the first lap. By the time we went through the first lap I had moved up to third but then things started to go wrong. I took the outside line through a muddy section but my tires got caught in a rut and I crashed. Two people passed me. Then about thirty seconds later, someone cut into me on an off-camber turn. He ran into my side and I got tangled up between him and the poles. I think about ten people or so went by while we lay there trying to get untangled, but I guess that’s racing. I started messing up some corners after I got shook up like that and that didn’t help either. I finished ninth, which isn’t bad but I was a little disappointed because I thought I could do better. There’s always next year, though.

Saturday, we returned to see the junior 17-18 race. Due a mistaken official, Luke Haley had been told he would have a good start position because he had UCI points, but in fact he needed to do the TT but didn’t know this, so he started dead last. Drew got off to a great start and finished third. I think Luke was the hero of the race, though, because he fought up from last to eighth then crashed on his face, got back up and battled to 11^th, if you haven’t seen Luke before, he’s the cover picture for the 17-18 race on Velonews. He was unrecognizable underneath the mud. Fighting that battle takes guts.

Actually, Drew's in Belgium racing right now, along with my friend from MTB camp Gunnar Bergney. Good luck guys!

The U23 race featured a duel between Zach MacDonald and Danny Summerhill. On the first lap about 2/3 of the field went by Danny as he was forced into the pit by another rider. MacDonald had about a 15-second gap before he crashed into a spectator who wandered onto the course. Never do that! Summerhill caught up and they rode together for most of the rest of the race trading attacks. It was interesting to see a super-strong road rider race a smaller mountain bike racer with a pro downhiller’s license as Zach took dramatically different lines to claw back Summerhill. Eventually, Danny’s strength took home the win. Zach, though, deserves extra points for doing a wheelie across the finish straight. Eric Thompson, who I’ve raced a couple times at MSG, took fourth. Now I see why he can ride away from me, he’s among the best in the country. Sunday, Eric was attacking Zach for the collegiate title before a broken derailleur took Eric out of contention for the win. After running half a lap, Eric still took fifth. Now that’s strong.

We flew home Sunday and I got lucky because we had two snow days in a row in Knoxville so I could catch up on some homework. Thanks to my parents and everyone who has supported me in my cycling, and my school and my teachers who worked with me to make Nationals a reality.