National Championships was a Blast and I am very happy with my results !  I did  three events Cross country, super-d, and Short track!  Cross Country was the first event and for the first time it was dry at Mt. Snow.  They changed the course a little this year and I wasn't trilled to say the least.  It was made less technical in the begining and favored the really stong climbers.  I am a good climber but am a really capable rider and the tech stuff helps me out at this venue.  The start was really fast and the pace was brutal but after the first lap I was sitting in the top ten and was feelling really strong.  I really thought I could hold the pace but the heat and the pace was starting to wear on me by the third lap and I had to really back it down to recover.  Dave started to pull away from me I had him in my sights the entire race till then then Ben passed me like I was standing still!  He was looking really strong and ended up in the top ten.  In the last lap I got some pop back but it was to late to get back in it and ended up 23 out of almost 70 semi-pro's not to shabby.

 

Next up was Super-D!  I was really excited for this race and was riding a really cool Trance X0 5 inches, front and back.  I didn't get to practice prior to the race so I woke up early and got up there to geet in a run to pick some good lines and only made it  like a quater mile and pinch flatted!  Should of been tubeless but it's a demo bike from the shop.  I ran the bike to the top and no one had a tube so back down to the bottom on the lift to fix my broken bike.  By the time I got back to the top they were waiting for me and I got stuck in the second row with a lemans style start that wasn't good.  Off we go running with our bikes up a hill and I feel something rubbing my back It's Adam Craigs front tire!  He had his bike on his shoulder giving it hell so I figured what a great idea.  He jumps on his bike just ahead of me and took off like a dirt bike I slammed into  my pedals and followed but had no chance Matching the Olympians insane power!  I got stuck in the back pack entering the first section of singletrack and Adam managed to get onto the lead group.  We came out of the singltrack onto a doubletrack climb and I watched Adam pass the rest of the field like he had a motor on his bike and i managed to get around a few more but the lead pack was to far ahead to bridge to.  I ended up 14th in the Pro Super-D not to bad for having a bad start!  I really wish I would have put my Garmin on the bike for this event I think I achieved speeds in excess of 50 mph!  In one section coming off the double track into singletrack I bottom the 5 inch fork multiple times trying to slow down for the woods!  Next time I think a 6 inch Moto will be in order!!  At only 28 Pound I think it will be a great Super-D machine.

 

The last event was Short Track and I was really Hoping for a good result.  It is quite a chore just to sty on the lead lap and not get pulled in this event and I managed to stay on and ended up in 18th place and not far of the leaders at all it was really hard and I am pretty confident if I had been better rested for the event I might have had a podium in me I was about 10 beats of my max and 162 bpm versus 175 in the XC race.  But I was just happy to stay on the lead lap and beat a bunch of really fast guys that got me in the XC race