Our new Pan American Champion, Raylyn Nuss!

The team landed in Dallas, Texas on Thursday. Our rockstar staff - Chris McGovern, Charlie Backus, and Drew Esherick, headed over to the race venue on Friday morning to set up for the race weekend.

Raylyn arrived for pre-ride. After rolling around on the road to warm up she headed out on to the somewhat changed Resolution Cross Cup Course. We say, “somewhat changed” as Raylyn has raced here in years past. The newest addition to the course was a long paved start that made a hard right/left into a parking lot before dipping down an off-camber hill to begin the start of the course.

“I use pre-ride day to find my flow” says Nuss. Unfortunately, she was unable to find that during the pre-ride. The iconic wooded section on the Resolution Cross Course is the ultimate, run or ride / pick your poison dirt walls, and it was getting to her. “I watched several other women ride the ‘dirt walls’ pretty cleanly, and I just couldn’t manage to get it right. I crashed almost every single lap of my pre-ride, and started to get in my own head. I could never find that flow that I try to find during pre-ride” Raylyn states.

“But I woke up on race morning deciding to make it my day.” - Raylyn

And make it her day is exactly what she did! She stuck to her guns knowing she would run the woods, and not take the risk of crashing. She knew that any bobble would be huge in trying to win this race.

The race started out fast, and Nuss headed out with a good start sticking about 5th wheel or so. She was patient the first lap in the woods so she wouldn’t get caught up in any early crashes. On the first lap over the barriers, Raylyn made several passes and nuzzled herself third wheel paying very close attention to any attacks that may happen.

On the start of lap 2, the group stayed together, and Raylyn bobbled in the sand trying to ride the entire way, and a gap formed on her. Ruby West (former U23 Pan American Champion, and strong Canadian athlete) took advantage of the gap and put in a hard attack. Raylyn was patient and didn’t over-cook herself trying to catch back on, and by the time the barriers came around again she was back in place.

Lap 3 - Raylyn takes the lead through the start/finish straight, and puts in a bit of a push to attempt to break up the group. A gap formed through the sand and Raylyn took advantage of the gap continuing to push through the woods. A chasing Ruby West was pushing hard, and by the time the barriers rolled around again (after pit 2) Ruby had closed about an 8-second gap down to 2 seconds.

Lap 4 - Raylyn still in the lead, but Ruby had attached herself back to Nuss. Again through the sand, Raylyn opted to hop off and run 3/4 of the way through to keep momentum. Tackling the woods and staying clean the gap began to grow. Raylyn exited the woods into the more fitness section of the course and continued to ride hard, but focusing on not riding too hard just yet.

Lap 5 - Raylyn and Ruby are still attached going into the start of the race. Again, Raylyn running the last bit of the sand to keep momentum, West had opted to ride and ended up having to put a foot down, and a gap had formed. As soon as Raylyn realized this, she put in a major attack the remainder of the lap extending her lead.

Lap 6 - Raylyn rides solo and remains calm and continues to ride as smooth as possible. Taking the win, and gaining herself the title as your new Women’s Pan American Champion.

“I honestly am pinching myself… I have never won an elite race before so I was so laser focused on going as hard as I could those final two laps while also trying to channel my inner teammate - Stephen. I could hear him telling me to breathe… just breathe through your nose and exhale. Stay calm. Stay smooth. And that’s exactly what I did. As I came out of the woods on Lap 5 and noticed the gap growing - that just made me ride even harder. I knew I needed to capitalize on that moment.”

An emotional win for Nuss as she takes her first ever UCI Elite victory at the Pan American Championships.

“To do this while representing the foundation just brings me so much joy. For everyone who has believed in me, and to the people who have given me the opportunity to race my bike at this level - I just feel so incredibly happy to make everyone proud.” - Raylyn Nuss

You can watch the the recap of the race by clicking the button below. This was shot by the CX Hairs Bulletin.

Race Recap Video