Amateurs kick off racing at US Mountain Bike Nationals

The first three national championships were awarded Thursday, the first day of the 2012 USA Cycling Cross Country National Championships at Sun Valley in Ketchum, Idaho. National titles were awarded in short track cross country after category 2 and 3 riders contested the cross country race in non-national championship races under cloudy skies and cooler than usual temperatures.

Short track

Helene Drumm (Whole Athlete-Specialized), Chris Jackson (California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo) and Ty Kady (Team Sho-Air) earned Stars-and-Stripes jerseys after winning their respective short track races.

Drumm's race opened the short track cross country competition just as the sun began to peek through the clouds. With the race scheduled for three laps after 20 minutes, the riders were forced to be aggressive from the start. Grace Alexander (BYRDS (Boise Young Riders Dev Squad)) got the hole shot and set an early pace, working with Drumm. That duo opened a lead on the field before Drumm attacked with four laps remaining in the race. Alexander was unable to counter, allowing the 42-year-old Drumm to ride away with the gold medal. The 18-year-old Alexander finished second and Brianne Marshall (NoTubes Endurance Racing) took the bronze medal.

"I know she's (Alexander) a good junior rider, she's fast and young, so I just stayed with her," Drumm said. "We took turns pulling through. I gauged where I my strengths were, which would be that little uphill rise on the back side with the loose dirt. I knew that I could take her on the uphills. She's technically a little more savvy than me, I think. I just took the opportunity later in the race when I knew that I still had a little bit and she could possibly be tired. It was a little earlier than I thought, but it worked out."

In the senior men 19-29 short track race, Chris Jackson (California Polytechnic Institute-San Luis Obispo) surged late in the race to pull away from Brandon Cross (Cole Sport) to collect the first national championship of his cycling career.

"It's a big deal for me," Jackson said. "I've trained real hard. I started late in the season. I went out, started in the third row and just worked my way up. Once I saw that I was in contention, I attacked on the climb. Another guy (Cross) and I got a little gap. We started working together. Unfortunately, he went down behind me. At that point, I just attacked and just kept the pressure on."

In the masters men 30-and-up short track, Ty Kady (Team Sho-Air), who won the masters men 30-34 race as well as the cross country contest in 2011, took care of the first half of repeating in 2012. Kady overcame a late mechanical issue with his bicycle to win the men's 30-and-up short track by three seconds over the silver medalist, Marco Arocha (RNR-B4B) and 21 seconds faster than Kyle Dixon (Velo Reno p/b Tamarack Junction).

"These guys are fantastic," Kady said. "This was one of the strongest fields. Guys like Marco (Arocha), (Brandon) Gritters and Kyle Ashton are unbelievable. I was just super fortunate to win this. I can't thank the team enough. I'm just super excited. That one I had to dig for. It's really sweet to back up the title two years in a row."

Cross country

Category 2

In the category 2 men's 15-18 race, Dean Haas (Team Specialized Racing) rode away from the other 49 riders in his field to earn a win.

"It's awesome," Haas said. I've never medaled at nationals or won anything. It's not the category 1 race, but it's still a win. The track was good. I rode well and was strong. I was able to pull off the 'W.'"

Other category 2 winners were: Miles Fink-DeBray won the seniors men 19-29, Brad Walker won the masters men 30-34, Luke Wynen (Eastside Velo) won the masters men 35-39, Christopher Jenkins won the masters men 40-44, Mark Avery won the masters men 45-49 and John Higgins won the masters men 50-54.

Haas' time of 1:39:39 was just one second faster than Walker's mark for the fastest among category 2 men.

Avery Morin (Victory Velo Racing) won the juniors women 15-18, Ivy Pedersen (Team Rockford-Clif) won the seniors women 19-29, Brett Stevenson won the masters women 30-39 and Sarah Halvorson (MBW Racing-Team Stampede) won the masters women 40-49 with the fastest time among category 2 women, 2:03:38.

Category 3

The category 3 cross country winners were: Daniel Riley in the men's 15-18, whose time of 1:46:16 was the fastest among category 3 men, Ryan Bibko (JL Velo Racing Team/Northwest Velo) in the seniors men 19-29, Dustin Harder (Harder Cycling) in the masters men 30-39, Steve Price in the masters men 40-49 and Timothy Harmon won the masters men 50-54.

In the category 3 women's races, Mercedes Drummond (Bell & Company Mountain Biking) won the juniors women 15-18 with the fastest time among category 3 women, 2:18:11, Sierra Reid was victorious in the seniors women 19-29, Andrea Fox (512-Racing p/b AJ's Cyclery) won the masters women 30-39 and Heather Youngwerth (Boise VeloWomen) topped the masters women's 40-49.

In a pair of non-national championship paracycling short track races, David Poole won the handcycling race with a time of 21:37 while William Simmel won the two-wheel race with a time of 18:00.

Full Results