Ama Nsek - Life on the Road
Posted by vreaburn@twiobrand.com BigCommerce on 11th May 2023


My first national title and it took a lot of support from my team to get me to that line first, an unbelievable day.
It was the best way to end my last race of the season. After winning a ton that year in the Cat 1/2s, it was the biggest highlight to be center stage at the final USA Crit of the year and get the win without any support in my first D1 race. I’d been fighting so hard that entire year to prove myself and it came to fruition in a marvelous fashion.
The course didn’t suit me at all. Almost 9000ft of climbing over 110 miles. I spent all day doing everything I could to support the team and cover attacks, hoping and praying they could get in a break so I could finally relax, but it all came back together at the final climb and I knew it was coming to a reduced field sprint. Crossing that finish line, I was still in heavy disbelief until our team director, Craven, came over and said, “WTF. Where’d that come from?”
I was so let down from thinking I lost my chance for Team USA in the road race the day prior. A big crash happened that was pretty gnarly and I stopped to help people off the road and bridged back to the group after 40 miles, then cramped out in the finishing sprint. I was talking to my brother the night before, telling him how pointless it would be to race tomorrow when a storm is rolling in and I would rather train for the San Dimas Stage Race for another shot at the national team. He told me to stop being a little bitch and to go race my bike haha. For the final sprint, I got caught in a bad swarm on the backstretch and came into the final corner 10th and gave the sprint of my life to pass everyone before the line. Then Billy Innes talked to me afterwards to ask me how I would feel to represent the US at Roubaix. Turns out, he was the commissaire who followed my bridge attempt for almost 2 hours and saw my grit. Whole weekend came full circle and showed me how tumultuous cycling can be.
