The weather was bad, the courses were extremely difficult but in the end, he pulled of wins in cross country and downhill. We had been hearing about some kids from Idaho and Texas that had been training hard so we took the race very seriously.
His two races were less than 20 minutes apart so we decided to transition "triathlon" style between the two. Immediately after his downhill run, we stripped off all his safety gear, got in his cross country uniform and off he went to join the starting line of 9 competitors (10 and under) for his 6 mile cross country race. Most of the Jr. riders were called to the front of the starting line and last they called up Troy as one of the best riders in the country. He got front row-center and 57 minutes later came across the finish line in first place. The announcer spent a few minutes talking about Troy and his magazine article and about the long endurance race he completed earlier in the year. We waited for Troy's competitors to finish the race and they all hung out for a bit, shook hands and then waited for the awards.
We weren't sure of the Championship jerseys Troy would get this year. Beginners don't get red white and blue national championship jerseys. Troy competes in the open 10 and under class but they have always included him in the beginner class and his jerseys are the beginner red/white or blue/white. This year however, they got it right and for downhill they draped a huge long sleeve American flag style jersey over him as the crowd cheered. A little later they called him up again for his short sleeve red white and blue cross country jersey. The announcer talked about Troy winning the downhill race also and about how he changed clothes and got ready so quickly for the next event. Again, he got loud cheers and applause and lots of people congratulating him afterwards.
The rest of the day, kids were riding Troy's bikes, talking with us about the magazines that they have seen him in and some kids wanted Troy to show them some tricks. One mother told me that her daughter was so inspired that she wants to compete next year for the same title!!! Troy also received congrats from the Pro XC winner Adam Craig, the Expert XC champion Johnny O'Mara and Jr. Expert National Champion JD Swangun. All of them were super cool.
Troy is done training on mountain bikes for the year. We'll ride for fun in Whistler and Colorado where he really wants to compete in dual slalom. Troy starts soccer in the fall and we will start running, swimming and road riding to compete in the IronKids national championship in Temp AZ this Nov.
