I went into the Nationals XC race with high hopes. I felt really good during the preride and training early in the week. There is a lot of climbing on the course, but nothing really hard, except the first climb, right at the start.
We had two big loops,and a shorter loop which skipped a fun single track which was a little rockie. I thought the course was challeging and a good duration for a national level course. I read some people thought it was too long. Though it was long, the winning time for my class was 2:26, and I finished 15min off, at 2:41 in 14th place.
I expected mostly local guys to be in the top 5, but it was guys from outside of CO. They set the pace very high from the start. My start wasn’t slow, but I wasn’t with the leaders. I did stay with they guys I normally race with in the MSC and Winter Park Series. But after the top of the last fireroad section, I started to lose some places. After completing the first lap, I started to feel my legs, and was able t pick up the pace. It wasn’t enough to get into the top 10.
Although I was disappointed with my overall result, I know that I did my best. My bike worked great, my riding was good, but I just didn’t have the speed I was hoping for.