In dominate fashion too. . . it wasn't even close. I was a bit bummed. I've gotten use to some amazing women's races this year and wanted to see her trade blows with Noble, Keough, and several other riders capable of fighting for the podium. It was all about the conditions since the rain started coming down at noon on Friday. I noticed they didn't bother to include any of the UCI add-ons that were planned and taped earlier this week, I think they realized it was already hard enough and they even gave them some fresh grass on that up-hill and that off camber after the plunge that I would have really appreciated myself on Friday :)

Totally awesome. My feeling was that she was going to pull it out, but that it would be tight. She's amazing. I'm in break mode so I haven't watched the races yet, will wait until I'm back on the trainer for that.

A year from now nationals are 'home' for me, I can't wait!

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

 starts at about 37 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzed9JCx1pM

Oh yeah! Just a 3 hour drive up on I5 for me!

Awesome win for sure! She’s had a tough year. I moved Ellen into my pre race favorite spot, but after the first lap it wasn’t even close.

Great to see someone “new” on the podium as well.

For the first time in a long time the men’s race was more exciting.

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Home for you but terrible for just about everyone else. :) It'll be interesting to see what the attendance looks like. I don't mind a good road trip. . . but Seattle. . .too far.

And a triathlete gets second! Ok she was a runner, but then she was a triathlete!

Oh come on. Those of us on the west coast have to deal with that almost every year. You gotta throw us a bone every once in a while.

I'm just hoping for some mud. I did 15 CX races this year and only cleaned my bike after two of them. Sad.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

KFC... I thought this was going to be another thread about "Colonel" Sanders...

Oh man, just looking through the gallery on VN. That race must have been fun.

https://www.velonews.com/2018/12/cyclocross/cx-nats-gallery-mastering-the-mud-in-louisville_482277

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

Did you race?

I think my Friday (Morning) race was the best conditions of the weekend. Slick enough to be a bit technical, but not to the point where sections were unrideable. Although, ripping around during the relay Thursday night was a hoot; so tacky and fast.

We knew Saturday evening that the course would not use the UCI sections and that sections would be widened to give fresh-grass options. The officials were certainly thinking about ways to improve the "rideable" to "slog through the mud" ratio. In my opinion, they really didn't add much to the party as they were not technical enough to make a difference in standings nor long enough to make a difference in lap times. I'm surprised they even existed in the first place as Keegan usually designs more significant pro-only sections. On Sunday they just would have been another section to run.

Sunday was in many ways worse than Saturday because it stopped raining. Most mud on Saturday was very wet and didn't stick much. Many riders were opting not to pit regularly. Bikes were quick to wash. On Sunday the mud was more similar to pudding. Not the peanut butter that we get here in Colorado, but with all the water content bikes were very heavy. Pitting every half-lap was mandatory and the run up the hillside to pit 2 was with very heavy bikes. One issue though was that the pit-lane was significantly slower than the race-lane. We were handing bikes directly to the shoulder to help keep them clean a bit longer and save energy.

This course, especially in the mud, reminded me a lot of the Valkenburg course. Lots of elevation change, lots of running through mud. Some people were grumpy as this course favored a certain type of rider and most races were blow-outs because of that.

As for Katie winning; it was very uncertain prior to the race, but given the conditions there is no one in US Cyclocross with as much experience in those conditions.

Personally I was happy to see JPows in 5th for a course that historically does not favor him. Climbing + Mud is a double dose of kryptonite added on top of being sick, one of the best rides of the day.

In my opinion, best ride of the day status goes to one of our junior female riders whom in her year racing CX was 4th in U23 race at 16 years old (17-18 females race in the greater U23 category with a seperate podium) .

Ironically, the sun came out when we were packing after the Men's elite race on Sunday...

Now I need to watch the streaming video as I have no clue what happened despite being there all week...

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Attendance will be just fine. Total registrants for Nats this year numbered 1,653. The average for the larger of the two weekly race series' we have in the Seattle area is right around 1k. The Portland area series is about the same.

If no one came from anywhere but the PNW, it would likely be a larger event than it was this year.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
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also, hats off to Hyde. he has won 3 straight on totally different courses and conditions (snow/ice, loose dirt/fast and now mud/running)

yes - both champions are remarkable in ability to repeat

Yeah, I was in the 40-45 race. . . the changing forecast made it look like we'd be dry so of course it started raining 10 minutes before the start. The first lap wasn't too bad but by the second lap, it was very greasy and by the last lap it was sloppy. The rain helped clear the mud so as you said, pitting wasn't completely needed to get clean tires/bike but rather to have the crew dial back the pressure in the tires as it got muddier. I'm so tired of mud at this point. We had so much mud this year in our area.

I do think they made some really good decisions Saturday and Sunday and one bad. The cut through they made for the 11-12 and 13-14 races was brilliant. As a dad of a 11 year junior. . . I was super happy. If they would have stuck to the original plan it would have been a bad experience for a lot of those juniors. However, going back to the standard lap for the 15-16 race I thought was a mistake. They needed to do something for the Sunday races. . . and I thought what they did made a lot of sense. That off camber right after the plunge was way better after they moved it down into fresh grass. Fresh grass on that run up to the pit 2 was great as well. If only they could have moved the pit. . . that thing was a train wreck when I was in it Saturday mid-day. I can only imagine was it looked like Sunday. . . the pit crew probably needed toe spikes. :) I saw that they started doing shoulder hand-ups of the bikes. . .that's insane.

Yeah - The last time I handed a bike directly to a shoulder was Austin Nats.
We were in boxes 14 and 15, which were at the end of pit 1 and the beginning of pit 2. Elite Men were riding 3/4 of the way down pit 1 and then dismounting to run to the rest. Being unable to pedal on flat ground is just bananas.

Fortunately the prime pit locations also corresponded to the side of the pit with the washers. In years past I've had to run signficantly more. The pit was a junkshow on Saturday and the 17-18 junior race on Sunday morning with people taking too long to wash. It calmed down quite a bit during U23 and Elites.

In my friday morning race (35-39) I took a bike in pit 2 each lap to get clean tires for the upper section. I didn't on the last lap and overcooked the turn under the fly-over, washing out my front and doing an excellent tri-pod drift into the fencing.

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I talk a lot - Give it a listen: http://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/fast-talk
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My wife called it for Sunny G on the podium: 800 champion; long legs. I'm half surprised that KFC beat her. Must be that 12 psi she rode.

He raced single speed.