Nats Part 2

Hey Everyone,

First of all, I apologize for our lack of blogs over the weekend! I know that I said that we would be blogging every day, but it turn out that when you go to Nats you tend to be pretty busy and not have a huge amount of down time...

So here are some quick results/general highlights from the weekend. Look forward to some posts from the other Nats riders over the next week!

SATURDAY (Crit)

• We got to sleep in! Wahooooo! Women didn't start until noon!
• Women's field was 39 deep - this is about 30 more riders than our women's NWCCC pack is used to. 
• Mackinzie went down in a last lap crash but Ash (her bike) was ok and she was just a bit scraped up
• Rachel: 20th, Molly: 24th, Mackinzie: 25th
• The men's field was a field of 74 riders. 
• Luke got caught up in a crash, but miraculously jumped off his bike and landed on his feet. Maya (his bike) was ok as well. Both were a bit frustrated though.
• Alberto:  23rd (top 25! Woohoo!), Luke: 50th
• BANQUET: This included pasta buffet, speakers, awards, and our men's team wearing short running shorts with blazers. 
• The women got their silver medals for the TTT!
• Dave Tupper gave us wonderful massages

SUNDAY (Road Race)

• Women were off at 8:25am
• Molly didn't start due to a migrane and slept for most of the day
• Rachel moved Mackinzie through the peloton, set pace on the front, and was a wonderfully spectacular teammate all day
• Luke dragged Molly out of the suburban in a delirious state to make sure she got to see the finish - good call, guys
• Mackinzie went in a two-woman break at the base of the final climb and dropped the rider later into the climb. She ended up winning the road race with a 24 second gap!!!
• Rachel came in 26th after an amazing ride
• WHITMAN HAS A NATIONAL CHAMPION AGAIN!
• I would like to reiterate... WE HAVE A NATIONAL CHAMPION!
• The boys were so excited about Mackinzie's win that they didn't really warm up
• Men's field started with 85 riders.
• Luke spent roughly 9 miles off the front of the peloton. What a beast. 
• Luke: 37th, Alberto: 41st
• Whitman held on to 5th in the Team Omnium! Podium!!!
• After awards we headed back to Walla Walla

SUNDAY NIGHT/EARLY MONDAY MORNING (driving home)

• We put our conference director, Miles, on speaker phone for a while
• Western Washington kept us entertained multiple times throughout the drive (they passed us two different times, Twitter, text). Thanks for keeping us awake, guys!
• We arrived safely in Walla Walla at 4am, which really felt like 5am since we were still on Utah time

A special thanks to Dave and LeAnn Tupper for being the best Nationals chaperones ever! We appreciate everything that you do for us! Another thanks to Roxy for coming to help us all weekend as well as the parents for all of the love and support they give us, as well as all the dinner prep for Friday. 

Also CONGRATULATIONS to all of our other fellow NWCCC riders! You guys all did great and it was so much fun to hang out with some of you. Thanks for all of the support and Whitman will see you on the road next year! Don't be strangers - let us know if you are ever around Walla Walla :)

Thanks for keeping track of us all season and reading this last collegiate race results report for the year! We will see you again next year for the collegiate season and again at nationals which will be held in Richmond, VA on the courses for the 2015 UCI World Road Championships!!!!! The team is already super pumped for next year and we can't wait to share another season with everyone.