This weekend was the Pan-American Championships in Missoula, Montana. The first UCI ‘cross race west of the Mississippi in a couple of years. The MVP of the week was Charlie- our mechanic- for driving the van and trailer 44 hours from Massachusetts to Montana, picking up people and equipment along the way. This weekend we were hosted by the Westenfelders, who were amazing hosts and made sure we had everything we needed for the weekend. On Friday and Saturday we focused on pre riding a super fun course that consisted of steep uphills, off cambers, and tight turns. Not to mention the beautiful mountain views that served as a backdrop for the course. All three of us decided to skip the racing on Saturday evening and opted for freshness going into the championship races on Sunday. Saturday night, we were treated to some rain which turned the relatively dry and fast course into a slick and muddy one.
Come Sunday, Kaya kicked off the racing for the team in the U23 women's race- one of the only opportunities all year for her to race solely her age group. Kaya was off to a fast start, taking the holeshot and leading the first lap of the race. After that she would hang on to the front group for a couple more laps. Kaya got popped off the group with a couple laps to go and struggled to keep her rhythm from there. She ended up in 6th place- not the day she wanted, but still a solid result for her first year racing the U23 category at Pan-Ams.
Next up was me in the U23 men's race. This would be my last chance to race Pan-Ams as a U23 before moving up to the elite race next year. I had a decent start, slotting into fourth, and the four of us leading quickly established a gap to the rest of the field during the first lap. From there, the rider in front of me let enough of a gap grow to the first two that once I got around him I was unable to fully close it down. In chasing hard solo in third, I crashed and fell back to fifth. I worked my way back up to the group for third, and after a couple more mishaps was able to secure 3rd place in the last lap, though that final placing left me disappointed.
Lastly was Sidney, racing the Elite Women's race. Like Kaya, she had a blazing start and led the field for the first lap. Sidney was looking strong in the front group of four who were all battling it out for the podium spots. As the group split in the middle of the race she was put in a fight for the final spot on the podium. Then suddenly, there was a big gap to third and she was alone in fourth, which we later learned was due to cramping in both her legs every time she stood up. When she got off her bike to go up the run up her leg seized and she fell down to the ground, which inevitably took her out of the race. Chris described the ordeal as ‘it looked like she was being tased,’ which is not a reaction one likes to hear about a bike race. A DNF was the last thing Sid wanted to do, but there was no choice on the day.
It ended up being a bit of a disappointing weekend on the results front for the team, but we still learned plenty from the weekend and had a blast at this cool event. We all got to enjoy watching the Elite Men's race at the end of the weekend and experience the crowd on top of the hill. Next up, we will all be traveling over to Europe in the next week to compete in the Troyes and Dublin World Cups!
- Jules
Comments