U.S. MTB Cross-Country National Championships Preview

It’s national championship week for cross-country mountain biking, and U.S. athletes are back at Bear Creek Mountain Resort to compete for Stars and Stripes jerseys. The UCI cross-country races happen on Saturday, July 20, followed by the short track events on Sunday.

Results and live timing are here.

XCO Course

This is the fourth time nationals have been at Bear Creek, and the course has changed from the first two years, 2012 and 2013, and even from what we saw last year in 2023. The most significant changes are the start, the finish and the reduced rock garden sections.

In 2023, the start ran in the opposite direction. A few hundred meters were on a gravel road before the field entered a single-track climb. This meant a decent-sized bottleneck two minutes into the race for most fields. To combat that, the course now starts in the opposite direction and goes straight up the ski slope before slaloming down for a bit and then climbing again.

The new start. It’s much steeper than what comes across in this photo. That’s a ski lift on the left. This is a climb. The start line is at the gravel road at the bottom of the hill where those riders are.

The 2023 finish was an uphill drag that made a long sprint seem even longer. The play in 2023 was to get through the rocks and woody descent in the lead and build enough of a gap, so a sprint wasn’t necessary. If you came through the tech zone, right before the finish, with anyone else, you were going to have to work out the best way to win a sprint.

For 2024, the finishing stretch is around 100 meters and slightly downhill. Before that 100 meters it’s significantly downhill. There is a short single-track section about halfway up the ski hill. If you are first to that section, you have a decent chance of winning. After the singletrack, there are three or four high-speed switchbacks on the grass before you hit the finish line.

The win may not be guaranteed for the first person to hit the grass, but passing on this section will require some high-risk maneuvering. If it comes down to a sprint, elbows will be out.

Start at the finish and move your eyes up and to the right. That white tape is the lead into the finish. It may get rowdy.

Bear Creek and Pennsylvania mountain biking are known for rocks. The folks around here take great pride in riding and racing through the rockiest of rock gardens. In 2023, that was on full display, with a good portion of the final descent winding through rocky patches that demanded a high degree of technical skills.

About half of that rocky goodness has been removed for 2024. The heckle pit still exists, and it provides the most difficult features in the rock garden, but the switchbacks have been swapped out for a straight shot back to the grass.

The most sessioned section in practice has been the descent into the heckle pit and the climb out the pit. The descent ends in a sharp right-hand turn that many riders have gotten wrong. The exit hill demands the right amount of power and pressure to maintain traction and balance. Get it slightly wrong, and you’re off the bike and running. As is everyone behind you.

The turn at the bottom of the heckle pit.

The climb out of the pit.

For the elite fields, the start and the rock sections shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, mainly because the fields are significantly smaller than in the past, with less than 20 riders in the men’s and women’s fields. For the 120-strong junior men’s field, the rock garden will include some glorious chaos.

The Fields

With this being an Olympics year and the Games happening so close to Nationals, all four Olympians will not be racing. Last year, Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) won the women’s elite title. With Blunk and Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) in France, the competition should come down to three riders: Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team) and Kelsey Urban (Team 31). All three have fared well in this year’s World Cup.

Picking a favorite for this race is tough. Gibson had a strong 2023 and came into 2024 looking to build on that momentum. But a crash in Brazil had her sitting out several World Cup rounds, and she’s still building back from that downtime. Courtney has steadily improved in her World Cup outings as she looks to recapture her World Championship form from 2018. Urban, who struggled with health issues all last season, has had a spectacular year with a top-10 World Cup finish in Brazil and solid outings for the rest of the season.

But picking a winner? Your guess is as good as mine. At the Les Gets World Cup on July 8, Courtney finished 15th, Gibson finished 16th, and Urban finished 18th. If pressed, I’m going with Gibson.

Here are those three and the rest of the contenders who are looking to be dark horses among the three World Cup riders.

Women’s Elite

In the men’s field, picking a favorite is a little easier. With last year’s champ, Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) and last year’s runner-up, Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), in France for the Olympics, the smart pick for the win is Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing), who is racing elite despite still being a U23 racer.

Comparing U23 to elite fields may be a tough comparison when picking Olympians (for a deeper discussion on this, check out my recent podcast conversation with USA Cycling Mountain Bike Director Alec Pasqualina), but I'm comfortable comparing a World Cup U23 field to a domestic national championship elite field.

Riley has only been off the U23 XCO World Cup podium once this season, and he recently won the Les Gets World Cup. Performing at that high a level on the world stage, even in the U23 field, gives him the edge in the men’s race with no other World Cup racers competing. Riley also has unfinished business after a DNF in last year’s U23 National Championship race at this venue.

Even though I’ve made my pick, we still have to race the race, and there are plenty of strong riders looking to be world-beaters. Who’s your podium?

Men’s Elite

If you’re looking for favorites for the remaining fields, here are mine:

U23 Women: Madigan Munro

U23 Men: Carson Beard or Brayden Johnson. It's too close to call. If pressed, I’m always going with the tall guy: Beard.

Jr. Women: Vida Lopez de San Roman

Jr. Men: Nicholas Konecny

I know I’m not going out on any limbs here, but favorites are favorites for a reason. Who’s scoring the upset?

We will find out soon enough. I’ll be back with photos and a race recap for the elites, after the racing is done.

Here are the rest of your start lists.

U23 Women

U23 Men

Jr. Women

Jr. Men