Race Report from Karla Segale
I’m a roadie at heart, so I certainly did not start out this season expecting to spend much time on a mountain bike. For one thing, I don’t like dust. Or mud. What my young teammates refer to as pebbles on a downhill are boulders in my book. And while I do have pierced ears, so far my nose, navel and eyebrows are virgin territory. No tats, either. I have, on occasion, uttered the word “Dude”.
Put another way, my experience coming to Sun Valley for mountain bike nationals was akin to Dorothy’s trip to Oz—if only Oz were at 6,000 feet, loaded with gnarly single track, 25% grades, and people with really baggie shorts and T-shirts peppered with names like Bone Crusher, Cranky Monkey or PsychoPATH.
I am, as our coach and team manager Joe Brown says, a “little stiff” on a mountain bike. “You’ve got to stay loose, Karla. Loosen the death grip on the handle bars and let the bike do the work”. Who is that man talking to??? I’m a control freak. I trust no one and nothing.
The day we arrive at the course, Joe takes me and my junior teammates Cody Cupp and Keelan Christensen out to preview the course. It’s brutal. But hey, it is, after all, Nationals! Joe talks strategy with the boys. I’m thinking survival. As we’re hanging out cleaning our bikes the night before our races, someone starts up with the saying: “Represent”. We are here to represent the Methow, and our generous sponsors who have supported us throughout the year. When the gun goes off, that’s our job: “Represent.”
Before I get to the race itself, a word of thanks to our sponsors. We looked super cool out there. Best looking kits by far. Distinctive orange Giro helmets that could be seen from anywhere. Schwalbe tires that “shred” (just one of many additions to my vocabulary). Amped on high octane Blue Star Roasters coffee and the confidence and support of all of our sponsors, we rolled up to the line with a singular purpose: “Represent.”
The cross country race was estimated to take about an hour and 45 minutes for my age group. The good news for me was that there was some major vertical—first on very technical single track, then about a mile more climbing on double track before the descent. My goal was to pass everybody I could on the climb and not give anything up on the descent. At the start the officials had marked our calves with our respective ages, so it was easy to spot the competition. I passed all but one of my competitors on the climb. So far so good. The tough part for me was not to buckle on the descent. First came the double track, which was steep and fast and full of gravel. “Stay loose, Karla.” “ Let the bike do the work.” Now was as good a time as any to see if that worked. To my utter disbelief, nobody passed me on the double track. Next came the single track, which by the time we raced had gotten pretty rutted up. To sweeten the pot, there were a number of difficult switch backs with steep side-hill drops added in just for fun. Miss the turn and over the bank you go.
“Stay loose, Karla.” “You did not work that hard to get to the top only to lose on the downhill.” I got passed three times on the single track—all on the switchbacks—and all by women out of my age group. The last switch back before the finish was the toughest. I did an endo but sprang up like my hair was on fire. Only a short straight-away to the finish. I am not about to lose a place here.
I crossed the line with a time of 1:04:50—40 minutes ahead of the predicted finish time. As I cross the line, I hear my name being called by the announcer, along with something about the silver medalist. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are at the finish line waving their hands and jumping up and down. My teammates and their parents are doing the same. Something must have happened. And then it hits me. They are celebrating for me. I just picked up a silver medal in mountain bike nationals. MOUNTAIN BIKE…NATIONALS.
Dude, that is so chill.
Keelan Christensen:
First of all Id like to thank Joanne Metzler for an awesome condo almost directly next to the race venue that made time between rides and races very relaxing. And that relaxing time was very needed because the course was incredibly strenuous. To start, the climb was on a doubletrack loose dusty road going up the ski mountain at a 26% grade, in other words, STEEP! The descent was, however, not very steep, and filled with semi=technical switchbacks. Near the bottom of the descent was a fun rocky part called “the waterfall.” After like 10 runs at it, Cody and I found a good line, and all we had to do was get back over the saddle, stay off the front brake, and it wasn’t too hard at all. On the flats before the climb were two rock gardens that made it hard to get a good rest in before the climb. As Cat 1 juniors, we had to do the course 4 times! I felt okay out of the start, but I wish I didn’t do as much riding the day before. The competition was as I thought, very difficult. I started near the back of the junior 17-18s and finished the same. I gave it everything I had and pushed myself as hard as I could to keep climbing up that terrible road. I finished 39th out of about 55 in my category. Going into this race, I had no idea what to expect, therefore I had no expectations for myself. This year I raced for the experience, and next year I will be a lot more competitive, hoping for a top 15 finish next year. Still, it was a fun weekend, watching the pros was exciting, and my Kona King Kahuna worked great over all the rocks! Through August, I have a couple of fun races scheduled, perhaps a sprint triathlon, and then I set my sights on Cyclocross.
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