2012 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships

What a trip, what a killer location and what a race course!!  Team Grassroots racing sent three riders to the 2012 USA Cycling MTB Nationals held in Sun Valley ID.  Aaron Obelleiro in the Cat 2 35-39 category, Richard Nagel in the Cat 3 19-29 category, and Brandy Kilkenny in the Cat 3 40-49 category.  Sun Valley quite possible could be the perfect mountain biking town.  It is so pretty, the weather is wonderful and the atmosphere is fantastic!  If you get a chance to go visit Sun Valley, we suggest you do!!  You will not regret it.

So what about the course....well, a brutal 7 mile climb to start the race, then some fast and flowy sections on wonderful single track, and then of course some more climbing thrown in for more pain....and then a ton of switchbacks to finish us off.  Wow!!!  Our legs were toast when the race was done.

Brandy & Richard launched @ 8:00am and after a small delay, Aaron launched around 11:00am.  We all raced on Thursday July 5th.

Let's start with some action photos:

Aaron picking up the pace on the start lap

Richard coming around the final bend to the finish

Brandy coming through the start/finish area on the start lap

yeah....see that mountain in the background??  Yeah, we climbed it. 

oh don't let the beauty fool you...there is some painful climbing in that mountain!

So how did Team GRR do??       AWESOME!!!

Richard on the Podium!!

Aaron on the Podium!!

Aaron and Richard with their Nationals Medals!

Brandy finished strong but just off the podium in 6th.

We all had a blast in Sun Valley.  We want to thank all of our sponsors who make our season possible, Velo Wrench Bike Shop, Rotor USA, Smith Optics, Honeystinger, Crankbrothers, Handlebar Mustache, Kenda tires, Stan's No Tubes, Brubar, Giro, and Integrate Performance Fitness.  

thank you Lindy for taking the pictures.