From Funston:
Lost and found was very front loaded with its climbing so I figured the opening 30 minutes would really thin out the field. I felt comfortable in the lead group on the initial pavement climb up to Davis lake and was able to be 2nd wheel into the gravel. The racing really kicked off with the 5 minute punch up Crocker mt. Road. It was intense but I made the lead group of ten over the top and picked up a few positions on the decent. When we hit the pavement the pace came out for the group and a few chase groups joined us. At this point I wasn’t sure how best to play my cards since I didn’t know what the next 80 miles looked like but I figured following previous winners Carl Decker and Tobin Ortenblad wouldn’t be a bad idea. When they hit the front in a double track section I moved into the top 5 and all the sudden the race was on. The undelating double track was so dusty I had maybe 5 ft of visability but decided to blindly send because the race was shattering into smaller groups. Slightly panicked to not lose contact with the front group I was following the rider infront of me very closely when he got cross rutted and crashed. I didn’t have enough space to slow down or swerve around him so I hit his bike and went OTB. I immediately knew my race for the win or podium was over. The worst of my injuries was a large abrasion on my palm making it hard to correctly grip the bars. After gathering myself I rolled a mile to the WTB aid station where they were able to help me bandage my hand. I cruised a few miles to where the 60 and 100 mile courses split where I decided to make my way back to camp not feeling the need to continue with my hand being so beat up.
It was great to go to a race with the team and hang out around the camp site for the weekend. We made some plans for the coming cross season and just generally had a fun time. I’ll be racing the next two weekends at Big Horn Gravel and Robidoux Rendezvous.
From Sid:
Canadian Gravel Nationals was a bit wild. It was very cold for the first few hours and my legs were frozen, I couldn’t feel them. The attack went at around 40km where the group got a bit of space, but I closed it back down on the descent. As soon as I made it back they went again and I couldn’t follow. At that point I was so cold and legs were really struggling. Rode the rest of the race basically solo. I was passing the men who started ahead but never got a wheel to draft. The roads were super wet, muddy, and slow moving on all of the steep climbs. It was a tough race, just tired and cold all day. | Although, on Wednesday and Friday Sid raced the Canmore Canada MTB cup, and won both the XCO race and the XCC race. Shredding on the MTB where she first started, a full circle moment.
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