Ore to Shore!

After a five hour drive to the U.P. and one stop for pasties my dad, sister and I arrived at the finish line Friday afternoon. We prerode the last five and a half miles of the course which really paid off. We dried off, washed our bikes and got some Mexican food before crashing at our host house.

The next morning we woke up at six, ate and headed to the course. My dad took his bike and a chair and sat in the first row behind the preferred starts to save our spots, which is important when it is a mass start of 950 people! I warmed up and went to my spot ten minutes before the start. They shot the gun and we took off. I moved up as fast as I could and went from 6th row to the front of the race by the second corner. I sat in but people were pretty squirrely so I moved to the front. As we turned onto the dirt after 5 miles of pavement we hit a descent and the big pack started to break up. No one wanted to work so I more or less pulled the entire race. Parker and I controlled it together and put in a few good attacks every now and then to try and slim down the pack. After awhile the group was down to 15 or 20 riders. I continued to push the pace but was still basically soft pedaling.

With about six and half miles to go we hit a big descent after some single track and two other riders started to hammer. The group started to shatter and we were down to group of six or eight riders. With just six to go some one buzzed my rear wheel and caused a break in the pack, I took that as an opportunity and attacked as hard as I could and only one rider could follow. I started to open up a gap on him and when we got to a climb the gap got to about 15 seconds. I kept hammering as I got to the last five miles that I had prerode. I started to get out of sight of the other rider and I kept laying down the power, I ripped through the sand dune-ish part of the course and down the sandy descent. I kept on fighting and started to get out of sight. After a long solo five miles I finally popped out of the woods and onto the pavement with one mile to go and saw no one behind me. I kept on the gas all the way to the finish line and won by exactly thirty seconds with a average of 20.3 mph! I was so stoked accomplish another one of my season goals and to do it with style :). My sister won the womens overall and was 16th overall, we were so stoked to take the men's and women's overall wins!

Emma, Me, My good  friend Carter who finished 10th overall!

Big thanks to my coach Joseph Maloney for helping me get this level of fitness and huge thanks to my family and my team, Team Wisconsin presented by KS Energy Services/MOSH for all the suppoprt! Also huge thanks to Brent Emery and Emerys Cycling, Triathlon and Fitness for helping me be able to race on the best race bike available! Also thanks to Trek Bicycles and Bontrager for supporting me and my team. Last but not least thanks to ESI Grips and Wolf Tooth Components for sponsoring me this season and allowing me to ride the best grips and  components possible! #cxiscoming

Awesome riding the next day with awesome people!

Mountain Bike Nationals 2015

Not especially enjoying myself in the short track, haha!

This is an extremely late nationals post so bear with me, haha! As most know my mountain bike nationals didn't go as planned but here is my account of my two races...

After an amazing week in Bend, Or of riding, resting, eating and watching the tour, Joe, Carter and I hopped in the car for the eight hour drive to Mammoth Lakes. We arrived late Sunday night and prerode Monday and Tuesday, the course had a ton of non technical climbing and it more or less went straight up with a few intermediate flat sections and then all the way back down in one long gnarly descent that is marked as a downhill trail.

Wednesday I raced the short track, due to a rule mix up, staging was by registration order for those that didn't have points, which most didn't. Unfortunately I was one of the last to register so I had a last row start. After the gun went off I was fifth to last off the pavement out of 50 riders. I sprinted up the climb and passed a pack of ten people. I then hung on for the descent as my heart beat out of my chest. I did that for 9 more lap until I was in 20th which was where I finished. I was happy to have moved up so much but due to the intensity of the effort and the altitude my legs almost didn't recover at all for the cross country event the next day which was my main focus.

That night I had a good meal, lots to drink, put my legs up and got to bed early but it was to no avail. I warmed up thinking my legs would be fine and went to the start. The longer we sat there the more nervous I got and was relieved when I got my call up to the front row. After a few more minutes they fired the gun. I was third off the pavement and was sitting 4th wheel going into the first climb. I got boxed in and the pack started to slide by me, I made a aggressive move and powered up the side of the road into third right before the single track. That was the only time my legs felt good the entire race and it was the same punch I had for nine laps the day before, I used it all up! I sat in 3rd the rest of the way up the single track climb and when we got out on a steep gravel road climb I lost some places and knew I was in trouble. By the end of the first lap I had dropped back to 10th and my legs were completely dead. I slipped back slowly the rest of the race but managed to gain a few spots back on the last lap to snag 16th. It was a very hard race physically and especially mentally, seeing people I had beaten handily at Missoula and Colorado Springs go by me and to see some of the people I was battling for podium spots with at those races at the front. Despite my physical down fall, my Trek Superfly 9.9 was flawless! Combined with my Bontrager XXX wheels and XR2 tires I had the best race bike on the market, weighing about 18 pounds! My ESI Grips kept me comfortable and my hands from rattling off the bars while my Wolf Tooth drop-stop chain ring kept me from dropping a chain on the crazy gnarly bumpy descent!

Good start!

Huge thanks to my coach Joe Maloney for making this awesome trip possible, by traveling with me and Carter and for all the mental, tactical, training, advice and support. Also big big thanks to my family for meeting me at nationals and my team, Team Wisconsin presented by KS Energy Services/MOSH for helping me be able to have this awesome experience and be able to fly and drive all over the western half of the U.S. racing, riding and training. Also huge thanks to Brent Emery and Emerys Cycling, Triathlon and Fitness for helping me be able to race on the best race bike available! Also thanks to Trek Bicycles and Bontrager for supporting me and my team. Last but not least thanks to ESI Grips and Wolf Tooth Components for sponsoring me this season and allowing me to ride the best grips an components possible! I'm bummed things didn't go my way but this had been the best summer of my life and there are many more big races to look forward to this year and in the years to come! #cxiscoming...