2025 National Championships
Hello from HART Cycling!
July 14-20th brought USA Endurance MTB National Championships to Roanoke, Virginia. Built around coal and steel industries back in the day, the city straddles the Roanoke river and a tangle of railroad tracks hemmed in by thick forests, rolling mountains, and hills pocked with quarries and mines. Roanoke is a rapidly growing mountain bike mecca with old style, gnarly, steep trail and new style, built, flowy trail popping up all over the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. As we learned during the week, Roanoke, Virginia is not the ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke, which lies on an Island off the coast of North Carolina, although the two are often confused.
Previewing the XCC course in downtown Roanoke.
Throughout the week, thousands of athletes competed across age groups and skill categories in Marathon, Short Track, and Cross Country for the chance to wear the Stars and Stripes as 2025 USA National Champion. The HART athletes competed in Short Track(XCC) and Cross Country(XCO) prioritizing the lengths of races we thrive in over the longer format Marathon event. Roanoke took a bold approach to hosting with three separate venues for the three disciplines. The Marathon race took place at Carvins Cove early in the week on the varied trails in that trail system. XCC took place in downtown Roanoke in an incredible urban course around the public library at Elmwood Park. XCO took place at Explore Park just south of town along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway.
HART Cycling arrived as their peers wrapped up the Marathon race on Monday. Thanks to local racer and mountain bike ambassador Abigail Snyder, HART was connected with incredible hosts, Paul and Becky! Paul and Becky are local riders, trail work volunteers, passionate about the local trail systems and getting outside on the bike. The team is extremely grateful for their generosity and openness this past week! HART got straight out to the XC course at Explore Park, riding laps with juniors and friends, testing out the drop features, scoping out the fast lines through the roots, and starting to build race strategy. Tuesday night, HART had a great dinner with Accel Cycling at their team house, speculated on trail conditions, tire and tire pressure choice, talked through some plans and generally had an awesome night. Thanks for all the pasta, Accel!
Two plates of pasta in, Samuel regales Accel with the lore of pro MTB in the US.
The first day of racing came Thursday at the urban Short Track venue in downtown Roanoke. HART rode the course the morning of the race with a few friends, went home for a nap, then came back out for the Elite races in the evening. The course featured a brick road start into a maneuver to get up over a sidewalk into the grass, around a grass turn, down a steep hill and under a wing of the public library, then straight up the other side, a tight corner into a burly rock feature, down and up the hill again before diving down a high speed grass shoot down to a tight dirt switchback before the sprint for the start finish. Lap times hovered just under 2min for the elite Men making for a whole lot of sprinting up and down those grass hills! Temperatures got down to the mid 80s with high humidity making for a hard 20 minutes of full gas racing.
Urban XCC preview with friends!
Isabella lined up first in an Elite Women’s field headed up by four of the fastest ladies in the world fresh off their World Cup campaign. She got off to a strong start, following the brutal attack of the World Cup girls. As the race strung out and eventually exploded, Isabella hung strong to finish 8th in the Elite Women’s field, a strong ride in an evening short track.
Through the cheer tunnel and Isabella battling with local Roanoke MTB ambassador, Abi Snyder, through the start-finish!
Full focus as Jeremy and Samuel tackle pace setting in XCC. Photo by Hannah Norris.
Without XCC World Champion, Christopher Blevins at the start of National Championships this year, the Elite Men’s field was filled with riders hungry for the title of 2025 XCC National Champion. Our Samuel got off to a great start on the wheels of World Cup winners Bjorn and Reily. He held in the front group for a lap before getting spat out in an attack. Jeremy eventually found him and they worked together to break the riders around them and claw their way back up the field. In the end, Samuel landed in 15th with Jeremy a yard behind in 17th.
Expressions after the race show that Jeremy and Samuel emptied the tank in their XCC race!
This year’s Short Track course in Downtown Roanoke was an awesome experience with great fans. HART enjoyed the urban track and all the fans who came out to cheer! We’re already looking forward to racing through the crowds next year.
Friday was a day off for the HART squad. At the recommendation of our hosts, the team headed out to the Marathon venue from earlier in the week at Carvin’s Cove. The team greatly enjoyed a varied loop of trails including some old style trail rich with roots and rocks and some really cool rock features. This was a great opportunity to get support crew Brandt, Ben, and Hannah to get out and ride with the team and enjoy the forest and lake along the trails.
Shoutout to our hosts, Paul and Becky, for great trail recommendations and for volunteering their time and energy to keep the trails riding well!
Some locals enjoying the trail at Carvin’s Cove.
Saturday’s XCO course was very different than previous years’ courses. Whereas last year had some taxing 5-8min climbs, the longest climb at Roanoke only took about 3min at race pace. The undulating terrain made for very high speeds slowed only by the East’s signature wet roots, mostly single track with a nice man-made drop and a long, paved road climb. Every race course in MTB is different and plays into different strengths and weaknesses. This course was all about efficiency. Choosing the quickest line over roots, staying off the brakes, taking the best line through corners, and using momentum to your advantage. Rain on and off throughout the week meant conditions and traction were changing hourly.
Isabella lined up in a small, impossibly fast Elite Women’s field. Isabella is in what she calls a “foundation year” after being throw headlong into international Elite racing, she took a step back from the international scene to train, gain valuable race experience, and figure out the hardest part of bike racing; life. Jumping straight back into racing the best of the best is daunting and the logistics and pressure of national championships are exhausting. Still, Isabella put in a great ride to finish 12th as the fastest women in the world tore the field apart.
In the Elite Mens race, Jeremy and Samuel faced a similar distilled field of incredible talent. The full gas pace from the gun reflected this as the race launched toward the key bottleneck into the single track. Jeremy got a great start, sticking himself to the wheels of the World Cup podium boys up the start climb. He struggled to find speed on the fast, off camber roots and lost the lead group. Minnesota native, Samuel, soon blasted around in pursuit and lost the Colorado boy on the midwest trail. Samuel put together an incredible race finishing 10th in a field full of talent. Jeremy wrapped it up in a strong 15th with the best wheelie he’s done all year!
Jeremy’s finish line wheelie captured by Steve the Photographer
National Championships was the last major target race for HART Cycling for 2025. The team decided to take a break from North American World Cups as we find the support -and speed- we need to really compete at that level. We have some very exciting momentum in that direction and some announcements that will come soon! Changes to the UCI rules and new additions to the international calendar also open doors for opportunities in 2026. Stay tuned for those!
Samuel through the finish in 10th place in Elite Men! Photo by Hannah Norris
A huge thank you to all our sponsors, partners, family, friends, and you, the reader of this blog, for making this bike racing dream possible. We couldn’t do it without you and you make our journey better and more worth the effort just by being a part of it! A special thanks to our National Championship hosts, Paul and Becky, for making us at home in their lovely home in Roanoke.
Lot’s of dreaming yet to do! Lot’s of pedaling to arrive at those dreams! Thank you for dreaming with us!
A job well done for Samuel, 15th and 10th at USA Cycling Endurance MTB National Championships. Isabella signing swag for fans post race.
Unless otherwise noted, all these great photos are taken by our very own Benjamin Robles of BR Films.
Please reach out if you would like any for your business or media!
Check out more samples of Ben’s incredible photography and videography on his Instagram here: BR Films
Next for HART, one last team race at the UCI C2 race at ORA Trails Fest in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Like Englewood in May, this race is part of the lively Wisconsin Off Road Series but this one is new to the UCI scene. HART is excited to explore this new venue and throw down at one more UCI race for 2025!
As HART moves toward 2026, keep an eye on our social media and on this blog for our vision of next year and the future. Also keep watch for a new format of HART Cycling story on YouTube! If you haven’t already, subscribe to our newsletter to get this blog straight to your inbox in a timely manner!
As always, thank you for following along and we look forward to sharing our experience at ORA Trails Fest with you shortly.
Until then,
-Jeremy Norris - Owner/Racer - HART Cycling
