It wasn’t the national championship defense Durango resident Cole Paton had envisioned. After winning the 2023 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championship, Paton had a disastrous race last Saturday in the 2024 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championship in Chewacla State Park in Auburn, Alabama.
After starting in the lead group for the first 30 minutes of the race, disaster struck when Paton’s spoke on his wheel broke and caused a flat. He rode a flat for about nine miles in the race. Paton finished 10th in the men’s elite race.
The 27-year-old called it a “fluke mechanical” incident and said it was caused by a rock that flew into his rear wheel and snapped one of the spokes in half.
Paton crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 47 minutes and 2 seconds after finishing the 47-mile race. Riders did the first lap around the 6.6-mile start loop and then two laps around the 19.9-mile course.
Carson Beckett won the race with a time of 3:24:58.
“So it was kind of a disaster,” Paton said. “I did my best to do my best on the day, given the circumstances. That was my main goal, even before the race, was to put my best foot forward, regardless of what happens. Going into defending a title, there's always a lot of pressure. So that was my mantra on the day and when things went real south, I stuck to it.”
Paton described it as a technical course with not a lot of climbing, but a lot of cornering and flat speed. He said it was very demanding mentally because of the amount of corners.
“The biggest challenge of the day actually was the heat and humidity,” Paton said. “A lot of riders ran out of fluids and it was just super hot. I think we finished and it was around 95 degrees. I'm not sure what percent humanity, but very humid.”
Even though the course doesn’t play to Paton’s strengths, he trained hard outside of Girona, Spain, to prepare to defend his title. He also competed in the Nové Město World Cup marathon race to help prepare for nationals.
Paton said a big part of mountain biking these days is adapting to the different styles of courses to compete well at all of them.
Next up for Paton is the Crusher in the Tushar in Beaver, Utah on July 13. This is the third round of the Lifetime Grand Prix series and is a 69-mile gravel race.
Paton thinks the Crusher in the Tushar course suits him well because he’s a smaller guy, he likes to climb and the four-hour duration is in his sweet spot.
Since gravel racing is not an Olympic discipline, the season doesn’t have an Olympic break. Therefore, Paton won’t be able to go to Paris to support his fiancee Savilia Blunk in the Olympics.
Blunk wants him to stay and focus on his calendar while she goes for gold.
“We've both decided that it's most important we stay focused on our big goals and support each other when we really can,” Paton said.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
