US National Championships
Mammoth, CA
September 24-26, 2004

I can honestly say that I never thought I would make it to this final weekend. After twelve months of continual racing, I didn’t think my body would survive. Somehow it did and I am feeling stronger than I have in months. Strange how things have a way of working out.

This is the first year that we’ve had a one-day National Championship. All the other years, the highest American in the Norba National Series at the end of the season became the US National Champion. It’s a goofy system because foreigners are allowed to race in the Norba Series. So foreigners are directly affecting who becomes the US Champion. That isn’t fair. The US champion should come from an event that is only open to US riders. So that’s what we had in store for us in Mammoth, CA.

Friday’s event was the cross country. The course was a giant lap on the upper ski area. The start was on pavement and then took a left onto a long gradual middle chain ring climb. After about ten minutes of misery the course took a right onto a super fun, fast singletrack descent. Then there was another long climb that traversed across the main ski run followed by another quick downhill. Finally there was the lung buster small chain ring climb on the far side of the course that inflicted the most damage. More descending followed by a tough dirt road climb that stair stepped back to the finish line. And that was only one lap. We did two and the altitude played a major part.

All the usual riders were on the start line except our lone female Olympian, Mary McConnelog. I guess she is still racing in Europe. The field was noticeably smaller without foreigners. We still had some impressive fire power lined up at the start. And that fire power made for an extremely painful first lap. The start was surprisingly fast for being at 9000ft. Willow Korber was at the front driving hard. I didn’t think I would make the podium I felt so bad. By the top of the first climb I had been dropped and went into the single track in sixth place. Not where I wanted to be. We raced down the descent and then the six of us hit the next climb all together. Sue Haywood moved to the front and slowed things down. The climb was all single track with no possibility of passing. The pace slowed up just enough that I was able to recover somewhat. That was a life saver. By the time we hit the lung buster climb on the back side my legs were feeling stronger. I surged up the climb and then attacked shortly after cresting the top. Willow Korber and Sue Haywood both got dropped. I was now alone with Dara Marks. I think Willow was paying the piper for her extremely fast start. Altitude is the great equalizer in mountain bike racing.

Dara and I rode together the rest of the lap. After crossing the start/finish as we started our last lap I went to the front. The legs were feeling even better. I led up all the climbs and finally attacked Dara on the lung buster. She fell off the pace by about ten seconds. That was all I needed. I turned on the after burners and powered my way to the finish to win by twenty seconds. It was a great victory and one I will always remember. To deal with all the pressure of being “the favorite”, expectations from the team, and my own personal goals; and then to actually deliver a win on the biggest day of the year is not easily done. I was thrilled to say the least.

Saturday was a day off from racing, sort of. I knew that if I didn’t do a good ride on Saturday my body would shut down and the legs would feel like blocks of cement for Sunday’s short track. So I decided to try something new. The Norba series started a new event called the Super Downhill or Super D. It is a kind of “cross country” style downhill. You don’t need a big bike, pads, or a full face helmet. There is even some climbing mixed in. But the fun part is you get to take the chair lift to the top of the mountain to start the event. So I decided to race the Super D National Championships with my teammate Marla Streb.

I pre-road the course Saturday morning with my friend Pat Bush. The gondola tops out at over 12,000ft. Incredible views and tremendous winds. We started down the course on a trail aptly named Skid Marks. It was the most technical of the entire descent. Lots of loose rocks, loose sand, and tight turns. After about ten minutes of descending there was a painful ten minute climb. Another fire road descent and then we had rolling twisting singletrack all the way down to the last mile. Then it was onto the Kamikaze course for a high speed fire road descent to the finish line.

My start time was 4:56pm. They were running this event as a time trial with riders starting every thirty seconds. Marla and myself, Zak our mechanic and Waldek took two bikes, two trainers, two spare wheels, a pump, and our bags of clothes up to the top. Once on top we found a place out of the wind to warm up. Being the cross country athlete, I proceed to do a typical warm-up for a short track event. Some tempo followed by a couple of jumps. Marla, being the downhill athlete, spun a bit on the trainer, walked around a lot, chatted with friends, and barely broke a sweat. We laughed at how different our approaches were to the race and took bets on whose warm-up would work best.

Marla went first and I followed a minute and a half later. I went as fast as I dared down the first loose descent. At high speed the course was ten times harder and everything I did was one big linked recovery. Lots of close calls but no crashes. I finally hit the first big climb, to my relief, and was able to get into a good rhythm. For me the hard part was over and I was excited to make up time on all the uphills. For Marla, the hard part was just beginning. She told me she was cross eyed by the finish and kept hitting the rocks and roots in the trail because she was so tired. I was flying by the finish and if I’d only had one more climb…..Marla beat me by eleven seconds. Soooo close! We both had a great time and I was thrilled to get second to such an amazing downhiller. Plus it was a good way to keep the legs opened up for Sunday’s short track event.

The final event of the weekend for me was the short track. We raced at 1:30pm. The course wasn’t anything special. It started on the road, took a hard U-turn onto a loose short climb followed by a long flat stretch. Then it went into a BMX course with some fun turns and jumps. Then it was back on pavement for a short descent and then a long 200 meter straight away into a brisk headwind. A quick U-turn and then it was only twenty feet to the finish line. After riding a few warm-up laps I didn’t think the course was going to be hard enough for me to get away. I tried to go through as many scenarios as to how the race would unfold. It was a good thing to do but unfortunately it made me very nervous.

The race started fast as always with Kerry Barnholt leading up the first climb. I sprinted around her to get into the BMX section first. I led down the hill back to the finish. After the second lap I noticed that gaps were already forming. Kerry Barnholt, Willow Korber, and myself already had a gap over the rest of the field. I decided to take advantage of this and surged up the loose climb on the third lap. I punched it across the flats and opened up a five second gap. Even though it was early in the race I could tell that everyone else was hurting. So I went for it. I got into time trial mode and slowly pulled away from everyone. When my gap was 15 seconds with three laps to go the adrenalin took over and I knew I was headed for victory. I won by twenty seconds. My second National title of the weekend! Such a huge relief. I celebrated by spending the next 1 1/2hrs in drug control. I was a little dehydrated so it took awhile before I could produce a sample. Then I spent the next hour packing my bikes. Probably my least favorite thing to do. But standing on the podium wearing a stars and stripes jersey and getting to spray champagne all over everyone more than makes up for all those not so fun things. So the season is officially over. Twelve months, eleven countries, 70,000 airplane miles, and fifty-nine races. Amazing!

Until next year!

Alison