Utahns Keegan Swenson Wins, Evelyn Dong Second at MTB National Championships

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(July 28, 2019 – WINTER PARK, Colorado) – Saturday saw the Pro Cross-Country titles contested at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships. For the first year since 2017 we saw two new Elite National Champions crowned with Chloe Woodruff (Prescott, Ariz.; Stans NoTubes-Pivot) and Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah; Stans NoTubes-Pivot) taking the titles.

Evelyn Dong (Stan’s NoTubes) finishes second behind Chloe Woodruff (Stan’s NoTubes-Pivot) in the Cross Country event. Photo courtesy USA Cycling.

In the Women’s Race, Woodruff immediately went off the front joined by an unexpected competitor in U.S. Pro National Road Race Champion, Ruth Winder (Boulder, Colo.; Trek-Segafredo) quickly gaining a 35 second gap on the field through the first lap. A crash in the middle of the second lap caused Winder to withdraw from the race but Woodruff pushed on. She crossed the line at 1:47.01, one minute and 16 seconds faster than silver medalist Evelyn Dong (Heber City, Utah; Stan’s NoTubes). Two-Time Olympian Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt.; Sho-Air TWENTY20) rounded out the podium to take the bronze medal.

Keegan Swenson (Stan’s NoTubes-Pivot) wins his first Elite National Championship in the Cross Country race. Photo courtesy USA Cycling.

“I went to the front and just set a sustained pace. There was kind of a big group there, and I wanted to break it up a little bit, and whittle it down to just myself and someone else if possible, or hopefully just myself. I just didn’t want that big of a group going into the last lap,” Swenson said about the big move he and Howard Grotts (Durango, Colo.; Specialized) made with two laps to go, pulling away from a group of six. Swenson would finish in a time of 1:50:26, and Grotts would finish 29-seconds behind him to take the second step of the podium. In third was Russell Finterwald (Colorado Springs, Colo.; Clif Pro Team) who finished in a time of 1:52:08.

Complete Results for the day’s races can be found here: https://legacy.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2019&id=21

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