Cyclocross Nationals 2018 Reno Nevada

Heather, Kelton, Brian

You gain a unique perspective on bicycle racing, especially cyclocross, when you see it in person and an altogether different perspective when you watch video coverage. Watching a race in person, you get a sense of the topography and scale, but you cannot be everywhere on the course at once. Good quality video with expert commentary provides the immediacy of seeing every moment of the race, but the perspective is lost. The camera flattens even the steepest climbs and descents. We watched five championship races on Sunday (Men's 17-18, Women's U-23, Men's U-23, Elite Women, and Elite Men). Sunday night and Monday morning in the hotel, I also watched the video of the Women's and Men's Elite races. I am planning to watch the video of Kelton's race, the 17-18 as well.

The cycling press, particularly Cyclocross Magazine, www.cxmagazine.com has done a great job of covering Nationals. You can find a link to all of the video coverage at the CX magazine website. I would strongly recommend watching the two Elite races for even the most casual cycling fan. Both races had plenty of dramatic moments and both came down to a clash of titans: Katie Compton vs Ellen Noble and Stephen Hyde vs Jeremy Powers.

Massive Rancho San Rafael Regional Park provided a fine venue for Cyclocross Nationals. Katie Compton described the first half of the course as power/time trail and the second half as mountain bike. In spite of what it looks like on film, almost no part of the course was completely flat. Most recreational cyclocross racers have never even seen a course as big and challenging as a championship level cross course. Brian feels like even the toughest courses in the US still fall short of the difficulty of European Courses, but the 2018 National course was formidable.

Conditions were generally dry on Sunday with isolated muddy sections and slick corners where morning frost had melted. The so-called power section, the south and west parts of the park, contained a significant number of features and obstacles—cement steps, a steep-sided ditch, deep sand pit, "Belgian Stairs", and tall barriers coming off a hard 180 degree turn.

The mountain bike portion featured the longest steepest run-up I have ever seen and steep, terrifying off-camber descents. As I commented earlier, the flattening of the vertical perspective is the greatest loss in the video coverage. I saw more than a few nose wheelies with a rear wheel pivot to get around the sharpest downhill corners among the elite men.

The level of talent was very deep across the board and the Men's 17-18 race was no exception. A number of the junior men already have experience racing cyclocross in Europe. Kelton was one of the youngest in the field and started from the fourth of six rows due to a scarcity of sanctioned races in the region. Undeterred by his starting position, Kelton made quick work of a substantial part of the field, riding Nationals with confidence and maturity to a very solid 11^th place finish.

The run-up from the Men's U-23 Race