Auburn, AL.– Durango’s Cole Paton finished 17 seconds ahead of his nearest opponent to take the 2023 USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championship on Saturday, Sept. 23.
Paton finished the race in two hours, 46 minutes and 43 seconds. The elite open men’s division did 2.5 laps around the 19.8-mile course in Chewacla State Park.
“The result was really indicative of how I really shifted my focus and leaned into these longer races,” Paton said. “I'm racing primarily focused on the lifetime Grand Prix now and that's marathon mountain bike races and gravel. And so yeah, I was I was really happy to win marathon nationals and be able to now wear the jersey in all the mountain bike races like 10 Grand Prix and marathon races in the future.”
Five and six-hour-long training rides were key to Paton’s success as well as training in Spain in the winter. The warmer weather helped with the motivation to train, according to Paton.
The former Fort Lewis cyclist also said fueling his body was key to his success. Paton said he burns 120 grams of carbohydrates an hour during a race so training his gut to absorb the amount of food he needs to compete took work.
Paton had a mixed review of the course. He said the course was challenging with the constant hairpins and the condensed space the course was set up in.
“That made it really hard because there was never a time on the course where you could just really open it up and hammer,” Paton said. “You had to always be super cognitive. It was a very mental race, in that you could never lose focus because you had to anticipate the next corner and the speed you are taking into the corner and the amount of power you're putting down on the pedals out of that corner.”
But confusion ensued after the start as the course wasn’t marked correctly. Paton also said he wasn’t sure when the race was finished because the first lap was shortened.
“It was really challenging to know how to gauge the effort of the race, and ultimately, it just came down to I'm just gonna go as hard as I can until someone tells me to stop,” Paton said.
The lack of USA Cycling officials and racing all age groups at the same time were Paton’s biggest critiques of the event.
“That was another unexpected challenge in the race, passing lap traffic through what was almost an unpassable course,” Paton said. “It didn't only interfere with the pro race, but it interfered with all the age groups race because it was a constant distraction for both riders. Us trying to get around them but them having to pull off the trail and lose all their momentum and focus. It's a little bit of a disservice to the athletes that worked so hard to get there and are racing for a championship.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
