Durangoan Ainsley Haggart had a strong season racing enduro on her mountain bike. In Italy on Oct. 2, she joined forces with two girls she has competed against and together they put an exclamation point at the end of the year.
Haggart, along with Lauren Bingham and Erin Bixler, won the Trophy of Nations U21 world championships for Team USA, beating France by just five seconds after four tough stages of racing.
“I feel I had an amazing season, and I’m really happy how it turned out,” Haggart said. “For me, it was my first time riding a bike in Europe. We all thought there was a chance (we could win), and when we saw (we won), I was in awe. It was really cool to share that moment with a team.”
The competition was essentially a team enduro. The teams each got a start time, and the three bikers had to drop within one minute of one another. Their times were then all added together, and the team with the fastest time at the end of the four stages was crowned the champion.
Haggart’s team won their title in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 55.41 seconds. France finished second in 2:12:00.59.
The teams were chosen based on Enduro World Series points the riders had accumulated. “It was pretty awesome to be on a team with them,” Haggart said. “We’re all pretty similar level riders, and have all beat each other at least once.”
Bingham had raced in the 2019 Trophy of Nations, and Haggart said that was helpful because she knew what had worked well. It was the first time Haggart and Bixler had raced in the format.
The first two stages were the longest, taking about 17 minutes each to finish. The third stage was the shortest, taking about three minutes, and the fourth took Haggart’s team about six minutes each.
“They were really fun,” Haggart said about the stages.
After three stages, however, Bingham’s times weren’t registering, and the officials told Haggart they were in fifth place. “That had us confused because we were riding good,” Haggart said.
When they got to the top of the trail, they got cell service and saw they actually had a few-second lead over France.
Once they saw they were in the lead, Haggart said they wanted to give it everything they had, but also keep it together.
“I think the thing what benefited us is we kept it clean all day and had no bad crashes,” Haggart said.
After the final stage, the riders had one more 30-minute transition to get back to the center.
“When we rolled up on stage, we found out we won,” she said. “It was pretty wild.”
Team USA also won the U21 men’s title. France won the women’s championship, and New Zealand claimed the men’s crown.
Haggart graduated from Animas High School in 2021 and currently attends Quest University in Canada. Because of the school’s block schedule, she had to take a month off to travel to Italy for the championships. Haggart, however, was able to work with a guide service in Italy to design a class and get some credit while in Europe.
Next year, Haggart said she would “love to” race in more EWS events.
