U.S. Cyclocross National Championships

Ah! The U.S. Cyclocross national championships week is always the pinnacle race of the season. This was the last race weekend on the U.S. ‘cross calendar for 2021. This year, the National Champs was held in Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. If you are not familiar with the Chicago area… it can be COLD during the winter. Chicago winter did not disappoint for us. The early week amateur races were fast and dry. In true cyclocross fashion, we received some rain as the weekend approached and the course began to change quickly! On Friday night, a massive wind storm rolled through with 60mph winds that ended up causing carnage in the cyclocross team parking and expo areas destroying tents, and causing delays to the Saturday race schedule.

Saturday was scheduled to be the main pre-ride day for the Elite athletes, and the schedule delay shifted the Elite Only course inspection to 4:00pm for only 15 minutes. Everyone seemed to have the same idea to hop on the course earlier in the day which caused chaos and made it difficult to get a proper lap on the course. This did not seem to matter though as the course conditions were changing from moment to moment. The course was a good one - it had a bit of everything. A very long paved start straight that weaved right then left onto a long grass straight. The course boasted a sand pit towards the start of the lap, barriers, a lot of off camber sweeping turns with steep punchy hills, and a really muddy downhill that had a 180 degree turn that went directly back up with some wooden plank-ed stairs.

Sunday morning rolled around, and the race morning buzz was in full-effect. Stephen and I hopped on the course for a pre-ride Sunday morning, and the muddy ruts seemed to be frozen, but as the sun rose higher in the sky and temps rose ever so slightly, the ruts were thawing and the course was getting slick.
At 1220 CST the lights turned green, and the Women Elite race was off. Clara seemed to jump the gun quickly as she headed into the sand pit first which was only 3 turns after the start, and I rode in about 5th wheel. The sand got jammed up, as Clara rode through and I had to hop off and run to get through the jumble of women. I was relentless to gain my possession quickly after the barriers as I stayed heads up to try and chase Clara, who was blasting off in first place.
The course conditions seemed to change from lap to lap! One lap I was able to ride mostly everything, and the next needed to run. Some laps one line would be good and the next lap it was the weaker line.

Images: Kenza Barton Schlee

The race roared on and I remained in 2nd place. The course was muddy enough that I was entering the pits every half lap in exchange for a clean bike. I’m really fortunate to have a good team of mechanics so I wanted to utilize that to my advantage as well. I did not want to risk dropping a chain because of the amount of mud and grass accumulating on my drivetrain. My main goal was to just stay as smooth as possible to maintain my position. There was a chasing Sunny Gilbert and Hannah Arensman as they were battling hard for that final step on the podium so I had to make sure that I kept it together to keep my 2nd place. I was so happy to finish in 2nd behind our U.S. superstar, Clara Honsinger, and get my best Nationals result to date.

The conditions were still changing to also keep the men on their toes as well. Their race launched at 1420 CST. Tobin Ortenblad blasted off with a blistering first lap taking the hole shot. Both Stephen Hyde and Joseph Schmalz stood their ground during the first two laps. The men’s race broke up after a few laps as Eric Brunner would rip away with a significant gap as Curtis White and Gage Hecht would chase. Stephen rode around in the mix of guys battling it out from 6th-10th place.
The best thing about Hyde’s race was when the bell lap went off, and Stephen started the final lap with a smile… enjoying every moment of that last lap as he did the entire race. His goal was to give it his all, and have a genuine good time while doing so. So much of Stephen exudes everything that Steve Tilford stood for. Stephen is such a great mentor not only to me, but to everyone at the race. He’s always so willing to give advice to anyone and everyone. We were all so proud of Stephen’s top 10 finish at Nationals.

On Wednesday, Joe Schmalz grabbed the 30-35 men’s age group title. Steve Tilford did much of that his final years racing as an Elite. He would race the Master’s race during the week and then line up for the Elite race on Sunday. It was cool to see Joe mimic that. You can read Steve’s story here as he talks about his Rhode Island Master’s Race, and Elite race to follow. He lined up on Sunday as well fighting for every minute of that race. It was so great to see our guys putting so much passion into that race.

Overall it was such a great weekend in Chicago. It was nice to have the founder of the Steve Tilford Foundation, Matt Gilhousen, in attendance to witness the team in action along with Trudi who is the heart and soul of the Foundation on site to talk about the mission, and sell Foundation merchandise.

As if the weekend couldn’t have gotten any better, we brought in California based photographer, Christopher Stricklen, to shoot for us alongside Kenza. I really wanted to have Christopher as a part of this weekend because he had never shot a cyclocross race before. He’s got such a great eye, and loves to shoot street photography, so I thought it would be a fun touch to have him shoot Nationals. He also had some phenomenal content that he shot at the Legion race, “Into the Lion’s Den” back in October. The guy is talented, and the sport of ‘cross needs people like him to keep the sport fresh! Check out some of his shots from the weekend below.