Englewood Open Continental Series:
Last month, Samuel and Jeremy popped out to Wisconsin for the Englewood Open just northeast of Madison. This year, Englewood Open garnered status as a Continental Series offering deeper cash, deeper points, and attracting some of the big dogs looking for a boost to their World Cup starting position. The boys headed out for a shot at a World Cup golden ticket offered to the top three finishers of a Continental Series and some more UCI points to buffer their starting position at later races.
Jeremy coming out of a rock section on the XCO course.
Friday XCC:
The short track race at Englewood Grass Farms is a grass criterium with high speeds and tight pack racing. The combined u23 and Elite field made for a ~60 rider field on the tight, twisty course. The boys settled into the lead group off the start, fighting for every position through every corner. Eventually, groups started to separate with Samuel in the lead group and Jeremy working his way through a chase group behind.
Jeremy’s group caught up to Samuel and collected several other riders just before the last lap. Attacks flew soon after the grou came together and Jeremy got caugh ton the wrong side of traffic. Samuel finished 21st and Jeremy 26th.
After opening up the legs in short track, the HART boys got out for one last preview lap with the Accel riders before XCO the following day.
Samuel at the head of a group in Friday’s XCC.
Saturday XCO:
The XCO course at the Grass Farms is unique with climbs clocking in right around 30s and a mix of wide open, flat out single track and tight midwest trail in the woods. Unlike many MTB races which rip your legs off over long climbs and challenge your skills on technical descents, Englewood is all about precision, efficiency, and repeatable full gas power intervals.
With UCI points in the Continental Series going 25 places deep, Samuel and Jeremy were in a good spot to improve their ranking.
Again, the boys got off to a great start, sticking themselves in the lead group and trading punches on the first lap. Jeremy was the first to fall off, struggling with the back to back to back sprints, he settled in with a strong chase group and kept Samuel in his sights.
Jeremy eventually got away from his group to try and bridge a growing gap to Samuel and the boys’ coach, Brian Matter. The wind was starting to play a part on the wide open track and gaps between riders started growing rapidly. He made it to interminable no-mans land and finished 13th, 2.5min behind Samuel in 12th.
Jeremy digging to find every last watt.
Thank you, Brandt!
We could not have made this race trip happen without the selfless and generous support of Team Dad, Brandt Elson! There for every feed and driving the boys to and from course every day!
Debrief with the boys!
Odin and Jackson raced in the UCI u23 race at Englewood! The consensus was “that was hard.”
Sponsor Highlight:
Like you saw in our Sea Otter report, our good friends at Lake Cycling helped us design these incredible custom MX333 with their own HART Cycling flavor. On these white MX333 shoes is the topography of the Zen Trail in St. George, UT where HART Cycling likes to spend winter training camps. On the black pair is the topography of Horsetooth Mountain in Fort Collins, CO where the team was founded! With these shoes, the HART Cycling athletes get to carry their roots, their training grounds, and their adventure frontiers with them onto every race course. All this in a light, stiff, comfortable race shoe optimized for foot health and top performance!
Reach out if you want your own pair of Zen or Horsetooth shoes or any of Lake Cycling’s incredible footwear! HART loves connecting riders with shoes!
Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed these awesome photos from our good friend Emma Schwab!
Until the next one,
-Jeremy Norris
