Push your weight through, Don. Push it through.

Julien’s bio from Wikipedia:

Julien Absalon (born August 16, 1980 in Remiremont) is a French mountain biker. In both 2004 and 2008 he won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He rides for the Spanish mountain bike team Orbea. Absalon has 17 World Cup wins.

Absalon won four consecutive Mountain Bike World Championships (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007).

Hero.

So what happened at the 1987 cyclocross nationals? Clark Natwick, coming out of a decade long purple patch, won his final of five national elite titles. A pioneer of cyclocross in the US, Natwick was on the line at the first ever nationals at Tilden Park in Berkeley, California. In later years he would win national titles in 1976 as a junior, and in 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987 as an elite. He podiumed a total of eleven times at nationals. Natwick later went on to race for the Ritchey pro mountain bike team and retired from racing to become an elite level cycling coach.

Want to win five national cross titles? Try follow Natwick’s cyclocross specific training plan. You should have already finished your muscle building weight training and big ring hill climbs. Right now it’s time for high volume, low intensity riding, mixing in some light running or plyometrics.

To keep yourself sane while jogging, try hitting the local MTB trails instead of on the sidewalk around the neighborhood. Remember, trail running is to road running as cyclocross is to road racing.

Clark at left bunny hoping to the 1976 junior national title. Photo by David Reuter.