As usual I flew from Chicago to Newark and from there to Brussels. We took it easy Thursday and Friday and drove to Hoogerheide Saturday for pre-ride. The course was super fast and frozen, making it bumpy and slick.
Sunday morning we were up at 5:30 and on the road at 6:30 to head to the course. I headed out for a lap, dialed in my tire pressure and jumped back in the USA van to thaw out. Next it was onto the trainer to warm up and then to the start. I lined up fourth row and when the light turned green we charged up the start hill. I was in a pretty good position but got stuck behind multiple groups crashed and was pushed back to almost 10th from last.
I let the breaks loose on the downhill in the woods taking an extremely sketchy and alternative line passing four riders before slamming around the ninety degree turn at the bottom. I hopped on a wheel through the flat open section and jumped them before the 180 turn.
The rest of lap one I continued to move up but came through at the end of lap one in 50th place. My legs started open up and making passes was getting a little easier. I was faster in the corners and kept it upright but I would often get jumped by a ride as soon as we got to a fast open section.
It reminded me how aggressive I needed to be and I started to take those spots back, hitting it hard out of every corner and scrapping for every position. I continued to move up the rest of the race little by little, passing when ever I could which the course made very difficult.
Going into the last lap my dad(my parents flew over for the WC and Worlds!) told me I was two spots outside of the top 40. I hit the last lap as hard as I could, keeping the rubber side down and moving up steadily. I made one final pass on the famous Hoogerheide stairs and hammered up the finish climb leaving a Dutch rider in the dust.
I finished in 39th place, close to my Valkenburg WC finish where I took 37th. It was still not even close to where I want to be finishing but after taking the entire week after nationals off due to strep throat it was not too bad. It was great to represent the USA with my teammates and now we're in Luxembourg ready to bring the pain to the World Championships this Saturday!
I would like to thank everyone who has supported me and helped to make this trip possible, I really couldn't do it with out you all! I would also like to Marc Gullickson, Andrew Hawkes and Chris McGovern from USA Cycling. Lastly thank you to my coach, Joseph Maloney, my family, and my team Trek Cyclocross Collective for all their support as well as Trek Bicycles, Bontrager, SRAM, Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix and Englewood Grass Farm!
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