Urban and Riley Win US XCO Elite National Championships
Munro and Hampton earn U23 titles, Lopez de San Roman and Konecny are Junior champs
The finishing order was set before the end of lap one in the women’s and men’s elite U.S. cross-country national championship races at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, Pennsylvania. What the elite races may have lacked in drama, they made up for in feel-good stories.
Women’s Elite XCO
Kelsey Urban (Team 31) spent the past year dealing with health issues that hampered her ability to perform at the highest level. “I have an impaired cortisol response, which means that when my body is under stress … everything kind of escalates, and I don't recover the way a normal person might,” Urban explained post-race.
After finishing 11 minutes off the pace in last year’s national championship, Urban put aside racing and dedicated her time to figuring out what wasn’t right.
I had no business racing, and it was the last race of the year, and I went home and spent the rest of the summer and the fall and the winter working on my health, talking to doctors. I didn't know if I was going to be able to keep racing.
Urban raced 16 out of 18 weekends last year and suffered from exhaustion.
My body was done. I think the lesson I've been learning for a long time, but finally has solidified is not to force it to, you know, sit back and relax and accept my own timeline, I guess. It’s a lot more fun and the results are coming, too.
Coming into nationals, Urban consistently finished in the top 20 of World Cup events, including an eighth place at the Mairiporã, Brazil, World Cup.
The race played out as expected, with Urban, Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM MTB Team) and Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) forming a significant lead over the rest of the small field of 15 racers. As the trio made it to Bear Creek’s infamous heckle pit, about two-thirds through the lap, for the first time, Urban held around a five-second lead over Courtney with Gibson in third.
From there, the gap only grew, with Urban adding to her lead each lap. “I was supposed to be more patient, but then I threw that out the window,” Urban said about her fast start.
I knew I could climb pretty good and that the descents here suited me pretty well. And so I just, you know, led into the first downhill, got a little gap and then just slowly built it through the race. I had no idea where I was. I looked over my shoulder, I think, more than once.
By the time she crossed the finish line, Urban led by nearly a minute over Courtney. Gibson finished another minute down to take third.
It's been a while since I wore a national champion jersey. Coming from last year with all the doubt and uncertainty, I think it kind of solidifies for all the people who have believed in me and supported me through some really low points that it's been worth it, and I hope that [winning the jersey] means something to them too.
Men’s Elite XCO
Much like Urban in her race, Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) did not sit back and assess the situation before taking control. Riley rode away from the field of 20 on the first lap and never looked back.
Riley entered last year’s U23 national championship at Bear Creek as a favorite but could not race. Still a U23 racer, Riley petitioned to race in the elite race this year. And with good reason. Along with Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), who was not at nationals to prepare for the Olympics1, Bjorn Riley has been consistently collecting podium spots in the U23 World Cup events. He comes to nationals after winning the XCO and XCC events at the Les Gets World Cup in France.
With no Olympic selection, Riley’s primary objective for the rest of the season is the World Championships. He sees winning an elite national championship as almost a bonus.
I think last year I just noticed I could be really fast, but I got in my head a lot about it and this year, what I changed is just being really chill, ride, and have fun. I think the podiums and positions will come if you're just shredding and kind of staying relaxed.
So yeah coming into this I kind of just put it off and just did my training to focus on Worlds and if it was a win here it was a win here, but if it was 10th place it was 10th place.
Coming from World Cup to domestic competition didn’t mean that winning Nationals was going to be a cakewalk. “I don't race many people that were at this race, so I think strategy-wise it's super different, it's a whole different race from World Cups,” Riley explained.
I felt like my main competitor was Robbie Day (Bear National Team) and it proved so. I noticed there was another guy [Devon Feehan] that was in between Robbie and I and when I noticed that gap was already there I felt I should probably push a little harder on the first lap to get a little gap so if he started closing I could recover a little more and once he caught up I would just gun it again.
Riley never had to worry about the chasers catching up. After the first lap he had already distanced himself from the field.
I just kept my pace and there were a few sections I knew if I just pushed to threshold and then just went over VO2 max for those 30 seconds on those sections I would gain a lot more time than if I did it somewhere else so I just kind of focused on those four sections and really gunned it as hard as I could there out of the saddle. Everywhere else, I just kind of stayed threshold.
Riley took the win with a three-minute gap over Day. Feenan came in another three minutes back.
U23 and Juniors
Madigan Munro (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) won her third straight U23 XCO national championship, pulling away from the field early and winning by 1:23 over Sofia Waite (BH Coloma). Makena Kellerman (Bear National Team) finished third.
Carson Hampton (Bear National Team) came through lap one in sixth place but steadily made his way to the front to chase down the leaders. Brayden Johnson (Santa Cruz Rock Shox) looked destined to repeat as U23 national champ, but flat tires forced him to chase from the mid-race point. Hampton put in the fastest lap of the day on lap two and didn’t look back once he went to the front. Lasse Konecny finished second. Brayden Johnson fought back to finish third.
Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear National Team) won the junior women’s championship over Alice Hoskins (The Gravity Collective) and Ingrid McElroy (Bear National Team). In the men’s junior race, Nicholas Konecny dedicated his race to the memory of Magnus White, holding a photo of Magnus over the finish line. Ezra Caudell (Gravity Collective) finished second, and River Valdez (Bear National Team) finished third.
RESULTS
Women Elite
Men Elite
Women U23
Men U23
Junior Women
Junior Men
Amos, Christopher Blevins, Savilia Blunk and Haley Batten all missed the national championship to stay in Europe and prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games.
Did USAC give any thought to changing the dates for nationals so Blevins and Batten etc could be there?