Day four of the 2019 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships saw champions named in amateur cross-country and pro dual slalom events. Overcast skies would turn into run showers as the day progressed, changing the dynamics of both the cross-country and dual slalom courses.
“The rain came for a little bit, so it was slippery for the first couple of rounds. It was gnarly, everyone went so fast,” said Mitch Ropelato (Ogden, Utah), winner of the Pro Men’s Dual Slalom, about the course conditions. Ropelato would beat out Kyle Strait (Alpine, Calif.) in a close final that was decided by less than a second. Capturing the bronze was Tommy Zula (New Carlisle, Ohio).
Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash.) would add her seventh consecutive dual slalom national title, giving her a grand total of eight dual slalom titles.
“The course was really fun, technical, and took quite a bit of skill, which is nice to see,” said Kintner. “With the speeds [on this course], you had to use braking control, which is what makes slalom good and challenging, and sets people apart.”
She would beat out Kialani Hines (Auburn, Wash.) in the final, but not without Hines putting up a fight. In their first run Hines would come within .1 seconds Kintner. Clare Hamilton (Boulder, Colo.), the 2017 Collegiate Dual Slalom champion, would round out the podium.
On the cross-country side, juniors, singlespeed, and the younger masters competed for their national titles. In all there were 21-titles awarded for cross-country. Among those field, thee were record setting attendance numbers, with the 15-16 Junior Men’s event seeing 137 starters on the line. Ultimately Ryan Campbell (Lakewood, Colo.; Bear Development Team) would come out victorious in that massive field.
Marjie Bemis (Corona, Calif.) would take home her first ever Stars-and-Stripes jersey at her first national championship ever. “It feels pretty surreal, because I only started talking cycling seriously about a year and a half ago,” said Bemis about winning the 19-24 Senior Women Cross-Country title. “I felt extremely strong at the beginning, and just kept building the gap from there,” she said about how she won the race.
Racing continues Saturday with the UCI-classes for cross-country, the amateur downhill finals, seeding for the UCI downhill races, and the team relay.
Complete Results for the day’s races can be found here: https://legacy.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2019&id=21
Start lists for USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships are available at https://www.usacycling.org/article/2019-mtb-nat-champ-start-lists
Schedule of events for #MTBNats is available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/Nat-Champ-Docs/2019/2019MTBScheduleFINAL.pdf
Daily highlights will be posted on YouTube and Facebook
Photo galleries will be posted daily on Facebook and Instagram
Follow racing action on Twitter on the @USACyclingLive handle, @USACycling on Instagram or with the hashtag #MTBNats
Event webpage: https://www.usacycling.org/events/national-championships/2019-mtb-nat-champs
Visit USACycling.org for more information on the athletes, events and membership programs.
