The first Stars-and-Stripes jerseys of the 2019 Mountain Bike National Championships were awarded yesterday in the Dual Slalom with five new National Champions being crowned. The day began with the Non-Championship Cross-Country races and continued in the afternoon with the Junior and Master Dual Slalom Championship races.
Among the newly crowned National Champions, was first-time winner Elle Runyan out of Sammamish, Wash. who won the Junior Women 11+ Category.
“It’s really crazy,” Runyan said of her win, “I went up after having the lead after the first of the final runs and I was already kind of imagining it happening and freaking out. Then when I got to the bottom my whole body was shaking, it was really exciting.”
In the Men’s 40+ Cat 1 race, local rider Petr Hanak, who lives in neighboring town Fraser, Colo., took the jersey.
“It was awesome to be at home. It always feels good to be at home and be number one,” said Hanak. When asked about the track compared to previous versions at Trestle Bike park he said, “This track is definitely different, this year’s track is a little bit faster and is maybe good for a hard tail, most tracks feel good on a full suspension but this one is great on a hard tail.”
Other National Champions of the day were Adam Durbin (Poway, Calif.) in the 19-29 Cat 1 race, Evan Medcalf (Albequerque, N.M.) in the 11-14 Category, and Ashton Smith (Cupertino, Calif.) in the Men’s 30-39 Cat 1 race.
Full Results for the day’s races can be found here: https://legacy.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2019&id=21
Start lists for USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships are available at https://www.usacycling.org/article/2019-mtb-nat-champ-start-lists
Schedule of events for #MTBNats is available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/Nat-Champ-Docs/2019/2019MTBScheduleFINAL.pdf
Daily highlights will be posted on YouTube and Facebook
Photo galleries will be posted daily on Facebook and Instagram
Follow racing action on Twitter on the @USACyclingLive handle, @USACycling on Instagram or with the hashtag #MTBNats
Event webpage: https://www.usacycling.org/events/national-championships/2019-mtb-nat-champs
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