US National Championships
Mammoth, CA
Sept 16-19, 2005

I never thought this weekend would actually happen. Over the many years of racing you always wonder what it would be like to retire. What would it be like to compete in your last race? How would you feel knowing that your career was coming to a close? I made my decision to retire at the end of this year sometime back in the fall of 2004. I had originally wanted to finish out my career at the Athens Olympics. That dream was never fulfilled. I needed to end with a season I enjoyed and had fun with and last year wasn’t that season. So I decided to go one more year. And now after my eighteenth season of racing I am ready and anxiously excited to try something else. So the big weekend was finally here and the day I never thought would come was fast approaching .

We arrived in Reno late Wednesday night. My husband, Greg, came with me to race in the Single Speed national championships as well as lend me moral support. After along drive to Mammoth we were in bed by midnight. My teammates were gracious enough to give us the master bedroom. Always nice when your husband doesn’t have to sleep on the floor or the hide-a-bed.

Thursday was a day of training on the course. We slept in, had a leisurely morning, and then got on our bikes by early afternoon. Mammoth has two different mountains and we’ve raced on both. Last year we were at the upper lodge; six miles up the road and a thousand feet higher. This year we were back down at the lower lodge. Seems to depend on which area is under the most construction. I’ve raced on the lower course many times and have always done well there. This year they finally made some changes and we had an almost entirely new course. Change is always fun.

The course started with a long and painful climb up an access road. Plenty wide, which is good for passing, and plenty steep, which is good for inflicting pain and suffering. After climbing for ten minutes there was a short descent that narrowed into single track. The course continued to climb for what seemed like forever. The trail was very non-technical. Lots of twists and turns and short up and downs. The downs were only one or two seconds long. If you so much as blinked your eyes you missed them. Haha! Climbs like this are challenging in that you never get into a rhythm. You are constantly shifting, constantly braking and then accelerating, and constantly feeling worse and worse. After finally topping out at what seemed like four thousand feet higher than we started (not really) we finally got our big descent. It was rough, rocky, and super dusty, but as always lots of fun. Mammoth sits on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Millions of years ago the area was volcanic. Most of the rock has decomposed into a kind of pumice or very fine gravel. It makes for some impressive dust storms and is particularly challenging when trying to ride down a descent behind someone. It’s almost as bad as riding in dense fog; you can’t see a darn thing.

I followed Greg down the descent trying to push myself to ride out of my comfort zone. I’ve found that I need the chaos, excitement, and adrenalin of the race to really push myself to go super fast. You get into a kind of zone in a race that allows you to descend without fear. In training I always err on the side of caution.

Much of the descent was on trails that were anywhere from six inches to a foot deep in this loose pumice. Throw in the many sharp rocks that were buried underneath and you have yourself an exciting trip down the course. The loop ended with a long 400 meter paved road to the finish line. The loop was shorter than other courses and we were slated to do three laps.

Day of the race was the normal sleeping in and then figuring how to hang out without going crazy. It was another beautiful day with temperatures in the low sixties. After two bowls of cereal for breakfast and pancakes for lunch at noon I was fueled and ready to go.

Much of the descent was on trails that were anywhere from six inches to a foot deep in this loose pumice. Throw in the many sharp rocks that were buried underneath and you have yourself an exciting trip down the course. The loop ended with a long 400 meter paved road to the finish line. The loop was shorter than other courses and we were slated to do three laps.

The riders lined up at the start line on Friday morning were the same riders I’ve seen all year long. Makes things somewhat predictable in that you can guess fairly accurately which riders will be on the podium. The excitement of a one day National Championship, however, is that every once in awhile a rider will have the most inspired day of her career and shock everyone by winning. A season long series rewards excellence. A one day championship rewards brilliance.

The women’s race began with the usual suspects at the front setting a brisk and somewhat painful tempo up the first long climb. Mary McConnelog was in front followed by Shonny Vanlandingham and then me. About half way up the hill Shonny decided to up the pain threshold and accelerated around Mary. Within a minute we were all promptly dropped. Ouch! Shonny continued to make time on us the entire first lap. Mary dangled about thirty seconds behind and then me and Willow Korber were another fifteen seconds behind Mary. By the top of the big climb Willow and I had been caught by Heather Irmiger, Georgia Gould, and Sue Haywood. Our group went down the descent together and caught Mary by the bottom. I was towards the back of the group choking on everyone’s dust and trying to keep from hitting unseen objects in the trail. Shonny was still off the front. Mary rode away from our group on the climb. I was able to drop the rest of the riders and made it to the top of the hill in third. Willow caught me on the descent and we started the last lap together. I dropped her again and actually caught and passed Mary half way up the last climb. She must have temporarily lost her focus because once I passed her she kicked it into gear and quickly passed me right back and rode away. I stayed in third but I was only five to ten seconds ahead of Willow the entire lap. I didn’t have superwoman legs today. Willow caught me on the descent and we started battling for position going into the last downhill to the finish. Luckily for me there was a short power climb before the last descent where I was able to attack Willow and get enough of a gap to get into the single track first. But it wasn’t over. She closed the gap and was right on my rear wheel as we flew down the hill. She tried to pass twice but I had sharpened my elbows the night before and she wasn’t able to get around. We hit the pavement and started a furious sprint to the finish line. Sprinting for 400 meters at the end of a two hour slug fest at 8000 ft is excruciatingly painful to say the least. But I held off Willow and finished in third. Then we found out how excitingly close the race really was. I guess Shonny crested the last climb with a minute lead over Mary but then flatted half way down the hill. Mary caught her but couldn’t pass on the last descent. Shonny rode her front flat all the way own the mountain and when she hit the pavement at high speed she lost control of her bike and flipped over her handlebars, hitting the pavement hard. Mary, being right behind her, easily took the win. When Willow and I started our sprint we also passed Shonny who was trying to pick herself off the ground. And we were only nine seconds behind Mary at the finish line. Made for a great finish and the spectators loved it. So I actually finished in second place behind Mary, the new National Champion. Of course I wanted to win but today I didn’t have the strongest legs. I am very excited with second place!

The short track event wasn’t until Sunday afternoon so I had another thirty-six hours to think about my upcoming “last race”. My husband raced the single speed event on Saturday morning and finished 7th. It was a great finish considering the top three men in his category had raced the men’s pro cross country event the day before. I also enjoyed being the soigneur/manager for Team Frozley.

The hour leading up to the short track was really difficult. Everything finally hit me and the emotional breakdown that I was hoping to avoid finally arrived. The timing wasn’t so great in that I started crying about ten minutes before call up. Greg and I had just finished checking out the last turn of the course and he asked me if all was ok and was I ready to go. I said yes and then everything fell apart. I cried and cried in his arms. I knew they were calling the riders up but I couldn’t stop. Waldek told me I was going to get called up last so Greg and I hung back from everyone. I’m sure they could tell what was going on. I was finally called up to the front row. Once up there Waldek, my team manager, presented me with a special custom jersey that was made in honor of my retirement. On the back were my name, the date of my last race, and three riders wearing the world’s jersey, the Olympic jersey, and the World Cup jersey. It was beautiful. I found out later that I had most of the field in tears. It was quite overwhelming. The race itself was fairly uneventful. It played out like all the other short tracks. I got dropped about half way through and rode alone in seventh or eight place I’m not really sure. Today the result didn’t matter all that much. When I crossed the finish line I had my arms raised in victory because I knew it was finally over. But it wasn’t over. My team presented me with a big bouquet of flowers and then lots of pictures. The whole day was such a wonderful end to my career.

And there was still more to come. After the kids’ race, the men’s short track, and the industry cup race we had a big party at the Luna truck in honor of my big day. There was a full spread of Mexican enchiladas, taquitos, beans, rice, and tortillas and of course lots of beer and margaritas. It was packed with friends and sponsors and a few riders I’d never seen before but were obviously hungry. We talked, laughed, told stories, and imbibed for almost four hours until the Mammoth Mountain security closed us down. By 10pm Greg and I were in bed, exhausted and emotionally drained. It’s amazing how time marches on and the day I’d been thinking about all year was quickly gone. As I finish this race report it’s a month later and I’m sitting here in Moab getting ready for our mountain bike camp. It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m retired. Come November when I would normally start training, I think that’s when I will start to feel what it’s like to be done. I’m sure I’ll have days where I question my decision and feel the impending doom of unemployment. But hopefully they will be short lived. I know they will because I feel good about my decision and I’m so ready to start a new life.

That also means that this is my last race report. Thanks for reading and being a part of all the adventures. I’m sure I’ll find other crazy things to write about in the months to come but this is officially the end of the race report updates. It’s been an amazing career and I’m glad I was able to share it with all of you. Thanks for everything and until next time….

Alison