MTB Nationals 2019
Motto from the week: “Observe, listen, learn”
In 2018, I took Fred and Finley out to Snowshoe, West Virginia for MTB Nationals. In 2019, I took 12 athletes to Trestle, CO for Nationals and met up with 4 of our Outlaw Tribe members. To say these two experiences were different is an understatement.
Last year, United Airlines sent most of our luggage and bikes to a different airport and made zero effort to get them to us. If you’ve ever been to Snowshoe, you know it’s in the middle of nowhere, so driving or delivering anything is nearly impossible. Luckily, Fred and Fin had their DH bikes so they could still race, but they were on borrowed/rental gear and wore the same clothes for a week. In the end, it was a memorable experience and we had a lot of fun and brought home a 1st and 2nd place!
This year, the logistics of taking 12 athletes 1 state away to ride and race bikes for a week is just as incomprehensible as losing a few bikes flying across the country. Everything and everyone made it to Colorado, so eat it United.
The Athletes:
Dillon Flinders (didn’t end up racing due to recovery from his broken leg)
Justin Goodey (DH, Dual, Enduro)
Drake Parker (DH, Dual)
Carter Jefferies (DH, Dual)
Vann Pollard (DH, Dual)
Thatcher Gledhill (DH, Dual)
Finley Kirschenmann (DH, Dual)
Luke Mallen (DH, Dual)
Alex Mallen (DH, Dual)
Fred LaRiviere (DH, Dual)
Syd Hyldahl (DH)
Boone Wheeler (DH)
Boston Bryant (DH Duals)
Finn McDermott (DH, Dual)
Brodey McDermott (DH, Dual)
Cohen Bundy (DH)
Eli Bundy (got back from BMX Worlds after his races were complete)
Results can be found here: https://legacy.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2019&id=21
Before anything else, I want to say a huge thank you to Dillon Flinders for helping keep the kids in line, coaching, packing and unpacking a million times, cooking, cleaning, and helping with bike work. I know you’d rather be racing and riding your bike, and it was a hard choice not to. It’s also very hard to not get depressed, negative, and angry when you can’t ride. Thank you for keeping it positive and helpful!
Prep Stages
When they announced that Nationals would be at Trestle, I knew we had some work to do on our fitness levels. The amateur course was over 8 minutes long! Most of it very mellow and flat with lots of pedaling. To do well in this course, you had to be strong and nimble for 8+ minutes. If you’re gassed half-way through the course, you’re going to make mistakes, not be able to pull up over obstacles, or float through the rough stuff as smoothly or as quickly as you could if you’re feeling strong and durable.
We’ve been preparing for Nationals with our conditioning work all spring and summer. I feel like it paid off with the results and really helped some of our weaker pedalers finish stronger than they would have otherwise, if not from a muscular endurance standpoint, then from a mental perspective.
However, I’m not happy that I took nearly 4 weeks off prior to Nationals for the Andorra World Cup, and a ski camp at Mt. Hood. That was poor planning on my part and will not happen next year. I don’t regret the trips, just could have planned it better so that our athletes could be 100% prepped for this event.
Nationals will be at Trestle again in 2020 and we have a big advantage being so close. Our Fall training will consist of a lot more conditioning and gym work. If you just sighed and slouched, then you know you need it.
Nutrition:
I believe proper nutrition can account for 70-80% of an athletes performance. However, I try not to make a huge deal out of it. Why? I’m playing the long game here people.
Even though it’s a massive amount of work (15 hours of prep prior to leaving, then 3-4 hours per day during events), I prefer to be in charge of the food. After hosting ski camps and now bike camps/races/trips for kids for the past 8 years, I’ve become pretty good at figuring out what they eat and sneaking in healthy doses of veggies that they otherwise may not get.
Each meal has protein, carbs, fats, and veggies/fruits. My approach to nutrition for athletes is one of sustainability and enjoyment. I love good, healthy food. I also love Oreos, and home baked desserts, and doughnuts. There’s a time and a place for each in order to have a healthy relationship with food.
Athletes, if you haven’t caught on already, my continual questions about what you’re eating means something! I want you to think about it and take ownership. If you call yourself a competitive athlete, then eating lots of healthy, natural food is just part of your lifestyle. The more you consistently eat something that either grew out of the ground or ate something that grew out of the ground then the more results you’ll see.
And remember, you’re not concerned about a diet to lose weight like what you hear 99% about nutrition. Please make that shift in your brain when you think about nutrition. You are an athlete and you eat for performance. That means you need A LOT of protein, healthy carbs, fat, and veggies/fruits for the micronutrients and fiber. The more good stuff you eat, the less and less you’ll want of the processed foods that you’re currently addicted to. I say that in a matter of fact way and not an attack on you personally. It’s just one of the few unfortunate effects of living in America, but it is relatively easy to counteract and the sooner you start, the better.
In a nutshell, I’m saying that I’m not expecting anyone to stop eating all candy and sugar, just consider adding in healthy, natural food more often, then think about how you feel. The trick is to be consistent. One day won’t do much, but 3+ days, now we’re talkin’! Do you get less moody? Do you have more energy? Are you able to focus and concentrate on things longer? Do you get less restless and irritable? Try it out!
Checkout these short videos to learn more!
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-the-food-you-eat-affects-your-brain-mia-nacamulli
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-sugar-affects-the-brain-nicole-avena
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/sugar-hiding-in-plain-sight-robert-lustig
The Adventure
J-Quelin (the team van) made it up and over the Rockies in 90+ heat. We almost didn’t make it the last steep bit between Vail and Copper due to an Amazon semi going 10mph, which killed our momentum and cut our power down to lower the engine temp. The final 20 miles took over an hour!
We finally made it to the Frisco Adventure park and unloaded all the dirt jumpers. This was a great stop and the kids had a blast. This is one of the best bike parks we’ve been to and is worth a weekend trip. There are lines for all levels. The pro line is massive! Their new concrete bowl park is also very fun with lots of lines to figure out.
We loaded up the bikes in the dark and made our way to Winter Park. Our new friends, the Bundy’s let us use their condo for the week, but it wasn’t available until Monday night, so we got two hotel rooms for Sunday night. Only two? Yes, to save money since it was only one night, figured it wouldn’t be too bad and most the kids had sleeping bags and pads. Don’t tell the hotel.
The first two days were all about the non-championship events. At Nationals, they have two categories for most all ages and levels. They offer a non-championship event for those not wanting to compete for the stars and stripes national title, and for those Cat ⅔ riders that want a shot at a podium.
Non-Championship Competitors:
Thatcher Gledhill (DH, Duals)
Justin Goodey (DH, Duals)
Vann Pollard (Duals)
Bos Bryant (Duals, DH)
Brodey McDermott (Duals, DH)
Tyson (Duals)
These kids crushed it and rode hard. It worked out great to split up the crew and work closely with this group for the first half of the week. The rest of the team rode the rest of the resort on some freeride laps.
I’m especially stoked on Thatcher and Boone. Thatcher joined late last year, and Boone is a new addition this year. For all new athletes, there is a period I call the Crash-A-Lot-And-Get-Frustrated-Stage. It’s normal. This is the first race that Thatcher has not crashed in, and he is improving in his technical skills and gaining a ton of confidence. Same thing with Boone. He worked hard on the course to learn it, and took a lot of training laps to prep for race day. Boone raced both non-champ and Championship DH and improved his time by over 18 seconds!
Vann and Justin were ripping in the Duals! They were fun to watch and you could see their bike handling skills improve each run. Same thing with Brodey! I hadn’t seen Brodey ride since Mountain Creek in April and he was a totally different rider on his home turf in Colorado. Boston just dominated and went home with a 1st in both DH and Duals!
Tyson won the world championship in duals. That’s all you need to know.
Championship Races
There’s so much here! First off, the track wasn’t really anything to write home about. It was fun, but no real challenge for our athletes. In order to win, you had to have a clean run, and pedal harder than anyone else. There was only 1 rock garden with a faster line through it, everything else was just let go and pedal.
That’s no excuse, and something I think our athletes can work on is to see their advantages on any track. I prefer not to talk about any track in a way that could negatively affect our athletes. i.e. “That one section is scary” “This is too easy” etc. It is what it is and you’re here to race and do well, so take advantage of every opportunity.
As a side note for myself, I want to spend more time on bike setup for each track. Tire choice, suspension, clips vs. no clips, and make sure there is no drag/friction in the system.
Championship Duals
This was by far the best Dual Slalom course we’ve ever raced on. Duals is one of my favorites for many reasons:
It’s exciting to watch
You can get a lot of laps on it
It teaches bike handling skills
The competitive side by side aspect will always push your limits
Results/feedback are immediate
It’s easy to film and coach :)
I don’t think I could accurately describe in words the battle that went down in the 11-12 category. Next time you’ll just have to be there! All I can say is that our athletes handled themselves very well and pushed their riding to another level to try and take home the championship. Drake, I’m still giddy about your comeback from a crash and very low confidence in training to taking home 4th and battling against Evan who went on to win. You rode out of your mind!
We had 7 in the final 16!