West Dover, VT

The U.S. Mountain Bike National Championships opened with Tad Elliott (Durango, CO) and Chloe Forsman (Boulder, CO) riding to respective victories in the U23 men’s and women’s cross-country contests. With the win, Forsman successfully defended her Stars-and-Stripes from a year ago at Southern Vermont’s Mount Snow Resort while the 20-year-old Elliott earned his first national title. 
 
Elliott stepped up to take advantage of a wide open men’s race after an early crash by defending National Champion and heavy pre-race favorite, Sam Jurekovic (Colorado Springs, CO). Elliott rode a strong fourth and final lap to take the title with a winning time of 1:48:57, while Mitchell Peterson (Sandy, UT) took the silver and last year’s third place finisher Colin Cares (Boulder, CO) repeated his bronze-medal performance.
 
“I’ve never been a national champion in anything before, so this is huge for me,” said Elliott, an accomplished Nordic ski racer. “I was really nervous, so I was just trying to keep it smooth.”
 
Jurekovic pushed the 32-rider men’s field up the first climb, but suffered from an unfortunate crash halfway down the initial descent. After attempting to re-enter the race, the defending National Champion was forced to drop out due to injuries suffered in the devastating crash.
 
“I hit a water bar and went down so fast,” explained Jurekovic. “I’m pretty banged up and going to be really sore, but racing on Sunday is still a possibility,”
 
With the 20+ mile race only just underway, the road to the Stars-and-Stripes was wide open for the deep field. By the second lap several riders had set themselves apart, including Peterson and Elliott.  It wasn’t until the fourth lap on the fast, dry course that Elliott surged to overtake Peterson and earn the national title.
 
Faced with three laps on the five-mile circuit, the women’s race played out quite differently with the lead pair of Forsman and Jamie Dinkins (Powell, TN) taking off from the start and never looking back. The small, but talented field didn’t let the pair get too far away however with most riders finishing within 20 minutes of Forsman’s mark of 1:41:02.
 
“It’s a bit of a relief to defend the title,” said Forsman. “There was definitely strong competition this year, so that makes it special.”
 
Fresh off a trip to the Mountain Bike World Championships, Dinkins improved upon last year’s fourth-place national championship finish, around a minute behind Forsman, while 2007 U.S. Collegiate Mountain Bike Cross-Country Champion Kylie Krauss (Asheville, NC) crossed the line in third.

U23 U.S. NATION CHAMP'S RESULTS
1. Tad Elliott...U23 National...1:48:57.32
2. Mitchell Peterson...Monavie-Cannondale...1:50:59.48
3. Colin Cares...U23 National...1:52:43.33
4. Travis Livermon...Kobold...1:53:07.62
5. Tim Allen...Voodoo...1:54:45.85
6. James Driscoll...Floridifru...1:54:57.63
7. Stephen Ettinger...Black Diam...1:56:56.93
8. Greg Carpenter...Devo...1:57:21.14
9. Mitchell Hoke...Tokyo Joes...1:58:12.08
10. McConnell Franklin...Devo...1:58:18.77
WOMEN
1. Chloe Forsman...Luna CHIX...1:41:02.42
2. Jamie Dinkins...Devo-Vanta...1:42:37.19
3. Kylie Krauss...Pro Bikes...1:50:27.01
4. Lydia Tanner...Tokyo Joes...1:50:33.27
5. Amanda Miller...Vanderkitt...1:55:30.67
6. Kay Sherwood...1:59:23.42
7. Rose Long...UVM Cycling...2:03:43.59
8. Rachel Throop...Devo...2:12:33.37