USA Cycling National Championships in Augusta, GA by Cinthia Lehner

What a weekend. First up was the crit Friday night. I felt great and I had a good starting position. Unfortunately right as the women line up, nasty clouds rolled up above us and the wind picked up. Rain was only minutes away- crap. Quickly it seemed like every woman let out a little air of her tire, and thanks to some mechanic, I was able to get some air out of my tubulars right before the start. Before I knew it, we were off. For some odd reason, I simply could not settle down. There was constant reshuffling in the back side of the course and it was hard to hold a good position. Just after 20 minutes of racing, when I finally got a feel of the race, the announcers called 5 laps to go (due to the weather). At that point, the race simply turned into a crash fest. For the first time, I was horrified and did not even bother trying to fight with anyone for position, I just wanted to cross the finish line alive. Somehow, with 2 laps to go I moved into the top 10. Just hold it, just hold it! But on the backstretch everything was reshuffled again, and I got pushed back. Then in the last lap unfortunately a crash happened on my left and on my right and I lost connection to the leaders. I was still able to roll through the finish in 15th/3rd U23 and most importantly, all in one piece!

On Sunday, the road race was up. The course had a few rollers, but luckily no climbs. I figured the distance/heat is what would narrow the field down. The first 3 laps were slow. Unfortunately in the 3rd lap there was a huge crash that took a lot of riders out. In the last 2 laps there were constant attacks going on. This fast-slow-fast pace ended up causing a few more wrecks and narrowing down the field even more. In the last lap a group of 6 women got a good gap on the rest of the field and I was just hanging on the single-file line of chasers. Going into the last Kilometer (which was mostly uphill) my legs were hurting pretty bad. I gave it my all to the finish. Turns out I finished 30th among the elite women and once again 3rd in the U23 division. Kinda cool, turns out, for the first time I beat my friend Coryn Rivera, a 33 time national champion! It’s just very sad that USA Cycling does not do a U23 women’s podium, even though there is a U23 Men’s. Would have been very cool to get 2 bronze medals....

I was so glad to have Linz and Giselle with me at the starting lines. It makes such a huge difference starting such big races with a teammate, it is definitely very comforting!

Next, I will be traveling to France with the USA National Development Program. There, I will be competing in two 4-day stage races. I’m so thankful for this opportunity! Good things like these definitely make up for all the hurdles and bad luck I had to overcome in the last two years of racing.