Matt Lynch - 2nd US Nationals

US Cycling national championships were held in July at Mt Snow, Vermont. Although this was not the first time Mt snow hosted the event, it was my first time there, and my first time as a participant in the XC nationals event. I heard that this course was tough, described as burly, I think, and my Thursday morning preride verified that it was as hard and rugged a course as I had imagined. It involved consistently steep double track climbs, and very rocky and rooty single track that made picking a line challenging as the trail hooked and turned across the tree lined slopes, occasionally popping out onto the ski runs in a five mile circuit.

The race started at 8:00 Saturday morning, sparing the expert riders the sticky heat of a Vermont afternoon, and the lap count was reduced from four to three in order to keep the expected winning time within US Cycling guidelines of 1.5 to 2 hours. I started behind a rider from California that I had raced against a few weeks earlier. He started that race like he was shot from a canon, so I suspected that he might be the wheel I’d need to grab onto at the start. I was right; he bolted from the line and into the first climb at around the 100 yard mark at a pace that immediately strung the field out. I grabbed his wheel and sucked air for all I was worth as we started the sharp climb up to a turn that brought us ripping back down past the start zone before heading out in the other direction where longer, steeper climbs awaited.

We came through the spectator area very fast where my friend from California dropped his chain leaving me in first position. This was definitely not my plan, but I have never been very good at racing according to plan, so I let the excitement of the moment and the challenge of the next climb guide my race. This usually amounts to an oxygen depleted tunnel vision pain fest, and this time was no exception. The first steep section on the climb had many riders off their bikes, but there were a few lines that could be ridden and the damp soil after a midnight thunder storm improved traction on what would otherwise have been very loose ground. It all gets a little fuzzy from that point on, but I was able to shake all but two riders on the first lap, Perry Roper from the Tri Cities, and Kevin Hines from Massachusetts. By the time we were about to start the real descent I had a small gap on Kevin and Perry was nowhere in sight. Unknown to me, somewhere near the top of the first lap Perry had slammed his freewheel into a rock, bending one of the middle cogs and setting him back by a minute or so. On the rugged, rocky decent I discovered that Kevin was a better descender than I was on through the rough stuff. He could get out front but could not open a gap with the traffic from the younger guys.

Now I had a plan that I thought had a chance; open a gap on the climbs and give as little back as possible on the way down. The next lap went well, and by the top I had a large gap on Kevin, although he was still in sight. Back through the rugged winding woods we went, and back on my wheel he was by the time we got to the bottom. I was almost killing myself on the climbs and he was still in sight, so it became clear I had to come up with something special on the final climbs. I gave a huge effort on the final climbs, passing as many of the younger riders as I could going into single track sections in an effort to bog him down, and it was working, the gap was growing. When I hit the top I looked back through blurry eyes and could not see Kevin. The race was almost mine, just the final descent into the finish.

Well, like I said earlier, I seldom race according to plan, and this final plummet to the finish line is where mine came unraveled. I had burned so many matches on the final climb that I started to make mistakes on the rough sections through the woods. I think I went down about five times, once slamming into a stump after going over the bars. My mojo was blown. Kevin caught me with less than a mile to go, and I could not close the gap before the finish line where I finished in second place, 43 seconds off the winning time. I’m over the disappointment of losing a race that I thought was in my grasp, and I’m thrilled with my first experience at the US National XC championships. It was a blast!

Many thanks to our sponsors who helped make it all possible: Black Diamond Bike and Backcountry (thanks Peter for all you do), SEGA\Gameworks, Therapeutic Associates, FSA, Rudy Project, Schwable, Nuun, Marzocchi and Ritchey.