Hi Team,
Last weekend I continued my US Cup race trip with the Soldier Hollow bike festival in Midway, Utah! This was my 5th year in a row racing this event as it was my first ever UCI race back in 2021. This year it was part of the Continental Series, where a top 5 result earns riders a single World Cup entry, which was my goal for the weekend.
I flew down from Missoula on Thursday in time for the short track on Friday morning. It was a strong field of u23 and elite riders who would all be competing in the continental series xco races the next two days. I had a great start from the 3rd row and sprinted up into the top 10 on the pavement straight, and kept my elbows out to defend my position through the first few loose corners. The field strung out to a single file line on the descent, and I barely latched on to the back of the lead group. After two laps the leaders sat up and the group bunched up. Looking back at that moment, I should have sprinted up the outside, but I decided to sit on and recover before it swarmed and suddenly I was pushed back into the twenties. I was back in the chaos with bottlenecks in every corner and all out efforts in between in an attempt to close the gaps, going much harder than any of the riders at the front of the race. Eventually I settled into a chase group with some other strong riders, and we passed a guys who had blown up. I ended up 19th in a sprint finish, it was a good 20-minute effort to open up my legs and lungs, but I didn’t go too deep to save some energy for the big race on Sunday.
While some u23s decided to race up in the Elite XCO on Saturday to chase more UCI points, I decided to compete in the U23 XCO on Sunday in hopes of a top 5 finish to qualify for a World Cup this fall. After a relaxing day at the house, I prepared myself (physically and mentally) to race in the 90 degree heat on an exposed, dry, and dusty course. I kept my warm-up short and wore an ice vest to keep my core temperature under control, and planned on taking a bottle with electrolytes and two cooling “dump” bottles per lap. I executed my start plan perfectly, keeping myself in the top 5 riders on the first climb and descent to stay out of the dust and trouble. I had to go hard up the second climb to move up before the most technical section, but everyone else had the same idea, and we ended up ended up sprinting each other for the singletrack entrance. I was already on my limit but I held my position and tried to recover on the descent. I made it around the lap sitting at the back of the lead group of 10, but was absolutely pinned and didn’t have the punch to fight for the next singletrack tech climb. Instead I let a small gap go, but still got stuck behind the traffic as people were off their bikes and running. Emerging from the chaos in the singletrack I was back in 12th and the leaders were far gone. My lungs were burning from the dust and my heart rate was over 200 bpm, so I was forced to back off and ride my own race. A few others came past me, but I ignored the riders around me and settled into the fastest pace I could hold without blowing up. The cooling bottles helped bring my heart rate down, but I missed a few feeds and was only able to get one every couple laps. I kept riding consistent lap times and watched the laps count down. The race had spread apart and although I could see riders 30 seconds ahead and behind me it was hard for any of us to go faster to close the gaps. After 6 laps of suffering I rolled across the finish line in 11th.
Although I didn’t achieve the result I had hoped for, I still enjoyed the week riding high alpine singletrack in Missoula and Midway. This is one of the toughest races I have had in a while, and while my legs felt stronger than in previous years, my aerobic system just couldn’t keep up in the dry heat at altitude. I am planning on using an altitude generator to acclimate before Leadville so I’ll see if that makes a difference in my performance at altitude. Next up is a couple more weeks of training and work at SRAM before mountain bike nationals in Roanoke Virginia!