Online Exclusive: The US XC Nationals

Decker leads Shultz Colin Meagher

For a complete gallery of images from this event go HERE.

The course has changed--"not as much awesome single track as last year" according to Adam Craig, last year’s winner, "but still a whole ton of awesome East Coast single track, so as far as I'm concerned, it's all good."--but the song remains the same: real mountain biking on real honest to goodness technical single track. The kind that makes the Euros cringe. Kinda funny, the courses at Mt Snow in Vermont have one thing that makes them stand out in my mind: technical, technical, technical… and a LOT of climbing. To win here, you really need the whole package: fitness, power, and finesse. Plus a bit of luck--in the numbers game of flatting, on this course it's just a matter of time. It's a shame Mt Snow isn’t part of the World Cup circuit, because this course is a true test of skill. The only thing close to it so far this year was the track at Andorra.

The women"s XC:
God, I wish I could ride like a girl. I mean, really. Watching Mary McConneloug and Georgia Gould descending the upper reaches of the XC course at speeds I wasn’t coming close to approaching last night aboard a Yeti 575 (OK, the Larson TT tires on that bike terrified me, and I watched “Skippy” eat a biiiig dirt sandwich mid descent, so I was a full-on wuss, but still!) was amazing.

The race was pretty much a dual between these two ladies. Georgia would rail the descents, Mary would catch her up top, and then Georgia would get a pass again. Repeat.

But on lap 3 of 3, that all changed…
"I was getting her on the top of each climb," said Mary, "and I was being real conservative on the descents, and she’d pass me. So finally on the last one, I dug deep, and just said to myself, 'not this time'. She made contact, but fortunately I was able to hold her off."

Hold her off indeed; Mary and Georgia had a full on sprint finish to the line with Mary taking it by a wheel. The rest of the podium was Heather Irmiger, Lea Davison, and Willow Koerber.

The Men's XC:
If the women were riding fast, the men were over the top. There was a bunch on the first climb, and then it was Adam Craig's race to lose.

"I had a five second or so lead at the top," stated Adam, " and then I just opened it up on the descents."

With the hammer held firmly down aboard his 35-tooth single-chain-ringed and chain-guided Giant Anthem (selected by team Giant using a sophisticated algorithm--mainly it felt like the most fun), the race was clearly a race for second place. Initially, that place was held by Jeremiah Bishop; followed closely by Ryan Trebon, JHK, and Todd Wells. But then attrition set in. On lap 3 of the 4-lap race JB was suddenly missing due to a flat that eventually relegated him back to 7th. Then at the top of that lap's climb, Wells took a rear wheel flat that eventually had him finishing in 6th. Meaning that JHK--who had moved up on Trebon--had a slim grasp on second, with Trebon close on his rear wheel, followed by Giant's Carl Decker and then Sam Schultz. With the exception of Ryan's sudden power move into second place on the first steep climb of lap 4, that would be the finishing order: AC in charge with a 1:37 lead over Trebon, and then JHK another 30 seconds back, and then Carl Decker almost 2 minutes back from there with Sam Shultz another minute in arrears.

For a complete gallery of images from this event go HERE.

Georgia Gould working to fend off a charging Mary McConnelog on lap 3's climb. Colin Meagher