Hi Team,
This year was my first trip to collegiate national mountain bike championships to watch Justin race, and I wanted to send an update to the club even though he is required to race in his UC Berkeley kit and not LGBRC p/b Ben Dodge Realtor kit.
Justin, the reigning national champion in the XCO category from 2024, was brimming with excitement as he aimed to replicate his success. Additionally, he decided to participate in the overall omnium title, which involves accumulating points from his finishes in the XCO (cross country), XCC (short track), DH (downhill), and DS (dual slalom) events.
Powderhorn Mountain Resort near Grand Junction, CO, hosted the events this year. The weather posed significant challenges for both the riders and the organizers. Heavy rainfall disrupted the schedule, necessitating a shift in the timing of the short track and XCO events to avoid the forecasted downpour. The downhill and dual slalom races were not able to avoid the rainy conditions and were “mudfests.”
Justin had a rough start to the weekend in the short track event when he struck his pedal on a rock while in the lead group. He was no longer able to clip into either side of the pedal and chose to save his energy for the XCO, which started just two hours later.
The XCO was very exciting for me to watch from the tech/feed zone as the race came down to a group of three riders. The course was six laps of essentially just one big climb followed by a descent and a couple of flat turns to the finish. On the final lap at the top of the climb, the lead group was Justin and one other rider, and they sprinted each other to the start of the descent.
Justin managed to lead the descent, hoping to put pressure on the other rider, but as they reached the flat turns just before the finish, they were separated by just inches. Justin eased up slightly to save his legs for a sprint finish and chose the best line through the tight turns before opening up his sprint. He held on by just half a wheel to take the victory!
The downhill the next day was held on part of the XCO descent since the rock drops of the original course were unrideable and completely unsafe with the deep mud. So Justin rode his BMC XC bike with 120mm of travel and switched to DH tires. He remembered his skills from muddy cyclocross racing in the past and put in a fast ride to finish 2nd!
The final event was the dual slalom, which was a new experience for Justin. He put in a solid ride but did not make it to the elimination rounds of the top 16. But his points from the other events were enough to give him another national championship jersey from the omnium competition!
