Between the Tape: McFadden Recaps US CX Nationals
Between the Tape: McFadden Recaps US CX Nationals
Words: Courtenay McFadden
Photos: Bruce Buckley
When I first learned Nationals would basically be in my backyard (2.5 hours South of where I live), I made it a goal to have the best race possible, with eyes on a podium finish. After finishing up 4th at Pan Am's in November I put full focus on Nationals. It was time to dial in my nutrition (sometimes during the season with travel and racing your routine really gets thrown off), dial in my focus, my sleep, and my training. From the time I arrived home after the Pan Am block and until Nationals I had 4 weeks. My eyes were on the podium, to make my home community proud, and show what I know I'm capable of accomplishing.
Last year at Nationals, I was extremely disappointed with my performance, but I also learned a lot from my poor performance and the lead up to it. I believe a lot went wrong in my lead up to the race, and I swore this time I wouldn't make the same mistakes.
First off, I stayed at home and slept in my bed for as long as I could. Having the ability to drive to Nationals was huge and allowed me to show up on Friday afternoon (more quality sleep at home). On Friday I did 1 lap on the course to get the lay of the land. It's really easy to do too many laps and fatigue yourself before the race comes! Saturday I did one more lap of the course and worked on line selection for the steep drop/downhill sections. Now I was feeling pretty confident on the course and was ready for Sunday.
One more lap on Sunday to dial in tire pressure and check course conditions and I was ready to rock. I had a race plan and was ready to put it in action. During my warm-up I visualized my start and how I wanted to the race to go. With a run up coming after the first turn I knew having a good start was going to be key, but also I knew I didn't want the hole shot due to the long nature of the start. When the whistle blew, we took off and I slotted my self 2nd wheel before we hit the dirt, exactly where I wanted to be.
I hit the run up behind Katie Compton and found myself running right past her as the crowd roared me on. I had told myself on Saturday that I would sprint every run up, that I wouldn't take them as a jog and I wouldn't hold anything back. So much self talk leading up to the race and all of the sudden it was happening IN REAL LIFE!
I ran up that hill so fast that I found myself leading the race with a small unintentional gap. Katie Compton caught up to me and passed on the downhill, and at the bottom I hopped right on her wheel. By the time we hit the second run up we were joined by the eventual 1st and 2nd place racers.
I ended up slipping back to 4th place after we caught by the 2 gals, but I was calculating my efforts and knew I could catch 3rd place. On the second last lap I did it. I found myself catching 3rd, and making the pass to put myself right where I wanted to be. With the hometown crowds going absolutely INSANE I had to work hard to stay extra focused and driven.
Unfortunately the minute I lost my focus on one of the UCI-only technical lines I bobbled and found myself heading straight for a course stake and the snow fencing. Hitting the ground was not what I envisioned while working to finish on the podium - I hadn't shown up to finish 4th but when I picked myself up off the ground, I found my saddle was 45 degrees to the left and I could barely sit on it to pedal properly. I'd lost my 3rd place position.
Finishing in 4th had me filled with mixed emotions. I knew that I'd left everything out there and I'd tried insanely hard, but I was also so upset to be off that podium because of one slip of focus and one mistake cost me 3rd place. But that's the funny thing about bike racing though, you have to stay on your bike to have the result you want!
Reflecting back, I had so much focus in this race, stayed the course and focused on my actions and my race and didn't worry about anything else that was going on. The roars of the crowd screaming my name powered me every time I had to run the ups and left me with a big smile on the downs. The amount of community support I felt out there was all I needed to be reminded that the Seattle Cyclocross community is the best CX community out there.
Word on the street is everyone had a great time and said it was the best nationals that they can remember. I'm so proud to say I'm from Seattle and that those rowdy crowds are what the PNW CX scene is all about.
Words: Courtenay McFadden
Photos: Bruce Buckley
When I first learned Nationals would basically be in my backyard (2.5 hours South of where I live), I made it a goal to have the best race possible, with eyes on a podium finish. After finishing up 4th at Pan Am's in November I put full focus on Nationals. It was time to dial in my nutrition (sometimes during the season with travel and racing your routine really gets thrown off), dial in my focus, my sleep, and my training. From the time I arrived home after the Pan Am block and until Nationals I had 4 weeks. My eyes were on the podium, to make my home community proud, and show what I know I'm capable of accomplishing.
Last year at Nationals, I was extremely disappointed with my performance, but I also learned a lot from my poor performance and the lead up to it. I believe a lot went wrong in my lead up to the race, and I swore this time I wouldn't make the same mistakes.
First off, I stayed at home and slept in my bed for as long as I could. Having the ability to drive to Nationals was huge and allowed me to show up on Friday afternoon (more quality sleep at home). On Friday I did 1 lap on the course to get the lay of the land. It's really easy to do too many laps and fatigue yourself before the race comes! Saturday I did one more lap of the course and worked on line selection for the steep drop/downhill sections. Now I was feeling pretty confident on the course and was ready for Sunday.
One more lap on Sunday to dial in tire pressure and check course conditions and I was ready to rock. I had a race plan and was ready to put it in action. During my warm-up I visualized my start and how I wanted to the race to go. With a run up coming after the first turn I knew having a good start was going to be key, but also I knew I didn't want the hole shot due to the long nature of the start. When the whistle blew, we took off and I slotted my self 2nd wheel before we hit the dirt, exactly where I wanted to be.
I hit the run up behind Katie Compton and found myself running right past her as the crowd roared me on. I had told myself on Saturday that I would sprint every run up, that I wouldn't take them as a jog and I wouldn't hold anything back. So much self talk leading up to the race and all of the sudden it was happening IN REAL LIFE!
I ran up that hill so fast that I found myself leading the race with a small unintentional gap. Katie Compton caught up to me and passed on the downhill, and at the bottom I hopped right on her wheel. By the time we hit the second run up we were joined by the eventual 1st and 2nd place racers.
I ended up slipping back to 4th place after we caught by the 2 gals, but I was calculating my efforts and knew I could catch 3rd place. On the second last lap I did it. I found myself catching 3rd, and making the pass to put myself right where I wanted to be. With the hometown crowds going absolutely INSANE I had to work hard to stay extra focused and driven.
Unfortunately the minute I lost my focus on one of the UCI-only technical lines I bobbled and found myself heading straight for a course stake and the snow fencing. Hitting the ground was not what I envisioned while working to finish on the podium - I hadn't shown up to finish 4th but when I picked myself up off the ground, I found my saddle was 45 degrees to the left and I could barely sit on it to pedal properly. I'd lost my 3rd place position.
Finishing in 4th had me filled with mixed emotions. I knew that I'd left everything out there and I'd tried insanely hard, but I was also so upset to be off that podium because of one slip of focus and one mistake cost me 3rd place. But that's the funny thing about bike racing though, you have to stay on your bike to have the result you want!
Reflecting back, I had so much focus in this race, stayed the course and focused on my actions and my race and didn't worry about anything else that was going on. The roars of the crowd screaming my name powered me every time I had to run the ups and left me with a big smile on the downs. The amount of community support I felt out there was all I needed to be reminded that the Seattle Cyclocross community is the best CX community out there.
Word on the street is everyone had a great time and said it was the best nationals that they can remember. I'm so proud to say I'm from Seattle and that those rowdy crowds are what the PNW CX scene is all about.