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Katie Sodergren had a couple tough breaks at the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championship at Angel Fire, N.M., on Saturday.
The Summit High graduate, who now rides for the University of Colorado, was in second place, about 30 seconds back from the leader, when she lost a contact. She wound up in seventh.
Racing in her senior year, Sodergren was coming off her strongest season yet and was shooting for a podium finish in her final year of collegiate racing.
Fellow Summit County native Kevin Kane has been battling late-season injuries and schoolwork, but managed 17th in the cross county and 16th in the short track. The two riders helped the Buffs to a second-place overall, coed team finish.
“It was one of those situations where everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Sodergren said. “I lost my contact, then crashed into a tree and rotated my handlebars about 40 degrees. Then on the second climb, the mud was so thick. I got terrible chain-suck and had to run almost half of the climb.”
Sodergren has previously finished as high as fourth place at the event and was hoping for a podium finish this year.
“I was feeling great, so I was really hopeful that I was going to be able to get closer to (the leader), but unfortunately that did not work out,” Sodergren said. “It was like I was in a fish bowl when I had both eyes open. I had to basically finish the race with one eye closed.”
Sodergren said she's planning on getting her pro racing card and seeing where it takes her after she graduates.
Kane, who rides as a professional at the international level, has been focusing on his studies — not riding — this fall so he wasn't expecting much, but he said it was fun.
By both riders' accounts, the conditions were brutal with roughly a foot of fresh snow, which melted into a muddy, soupy mess by race day.
“I haven't been on my bike too much since school started. But I actually rode pretty well considering,” Kane said. “We were really gunning for the win this year. Fort Lewis has won it the last several years. So second-place overall is great.”
The Summit High graduate, who now rides for the University of Colorado, was in second place, about 30 seconds back from the leader, when she lost a contact. She wound up in seventh.
Racing in her senior year, Sodergren was coming off her strongest season yet and was shooting for a podium finish in her final year of collegiate racing.
Fellow Summit County native Kevin Kane has been battling late-season injuries and schoolwork, but managed 17th in the cross county and 16th in the short track. The two riders helped the Buffs to a second-place overall, coed team finish.
“It was one of those situations where everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Sodergren said. “I lost my contact, then crashed into a tree and rotated my handlebars about 40 degrees. Then on the second climb, the mud was so thick. I got terrible chain-suck and had to run almost half of the climb.”
Sodergren has previously finished as high as fourth place at the event and was hoping for a podium finish this year.
“I was feeling great, so I was really hopeful that I was going to be able to get closer to (the leader), but unfortunately that did not work out,” Sodergren said. “It was like I was in a fish bowl when I had both eyes open. I had to basically finish the race with one eye closed.”
Sodergren said she's planning on getting her pro racing card and seeing where it takes her after she graduates.
Kane, who rides as a professional at the international level, has been focusing on his studies — not riding — this fall so he wasn't expecting much, but he said it was fun.
By both riders' accounts, the conditions were brutal with roughly a foot of fresh snow, which melted into a muddy, soupy mess by race day.
“I haven't been on my bike too much since school started. But I actually rode pretty well considering,” Kane said. “We were really gunning for the win this year. Fort Lewis has won it the last several years. So second-place overall is great.”
