The 2023 USA Cycling Amateur Road National Championships in Roanoke, VA were a blast! There were three events in total, the time trial, road race, and crit. I came home with two bronze medals, one gold medal, a National Championship jersey, and a wonderful experience!
Time Trial
The event began with a very hilly 10 km time trial. I started off strong but the hills slowly killed me. I ended coming in third place! I was a bit bummed out by the result but my dad told me “snap out of it. Think about the next race.”
Road Race
The road race course intimidated me as it had technical turns and huge hills. We had to go three laps for a total of 23 km. The steepest hill was before the finish line and it required about 65 meters of climbing over a 550 meter distance (roughly an 11% gradient). I knew that all the action would happen here.
The first lap of the race was very slow and we were even chatting and having fun. But things heated up at the end of the second lap when Devin from Verge attached on the big hill. I imminently jumped on it and it took me about a minute to chase him down. Devin and I exchanged a few times until the final corner of the last lap where he attacked again. I was chasing really hard and caught up to Devin with roughly 300 meters to go. At the 100 meter mark I started the sprint of my life and took the win.
Crit
The Crit was interesting. The whistle blew and Devin attacked from behind. I couldn’t bridge and Devin got away. From there on, the race was pretty frustrating. When trying to close the gap on Devin, no one wanted to take any pulls and I mostly had several riders on my back which I couldn’t shack. On the final lap I was in good positioning for the sprint until one rider forced me into the gates and I had to hit the brakes. I passed a few riders but ended up at 4th place.
Best Domestique Ever
I couldn’t have achieved all this without my brother Max. He did everything he could so that I could arrive to the start like fit and ready to race. When we forgot our gel gummies for the time trial, he rode his heart out to get them to me on time. The distance from where we parked to the start was a hilly 2km and Max had to go back and fourth two times (as he didn’t have the car keys the first time).
After helping me out for road and track nationals for two years, Max will be able to officially race at nationals next year (in 2022 he was able to snuck in for the time trial but got relegated) and then I’ll be able to give him back some!
