Rachael Archer shares her thoughts on racing 2023 GNCC WXC Round 9 at Snowshoe before summer break. Holding a comfortable points lead in the Championship, Rachael has gained all credence defending her first Title victory in 2022, to take 5 wins and 3 seconds this season heading into Round 9 of 12 this weekend.
Breaking down the stats even further, analysis provides insight on how the 21 year old has achieved success racing in America’s most prestigous Grand National Cross Country Series. From first 2 races in GNCC WXC class in 2018, to gaining full season ride with Am Pro Yamaha in 2019 to present day, Rachael has combined total of 9 podiums in 2019, 9 podiums in 2020 including 5 wins, 12 podiums in 2021 including 6 wins, and 11 podiums in 2022 including 6 wins and overall WXC Championship.
Archer’s consistency of results and sheer brutal mind-set to deliver best performance on track each and every Round has to be key factors for her success. As Rachael states, learning curves over the past 4 seasons have proved to be invaluable for feeling super confident competing against equally competitive rider’s, along with navigating the important aspects of producing top results, consistently from February through to Final Round in October.
Rachael comments ahead of GNCC WXC Round 9 at Snowshoe: ‘I feel good about this race, I have good stats in the past so I’m feeling confident about a win! Now I have a really good base with everything. I have my bike dialed in from past experiences and me and Derek my mechanic make a really good team’.
Linking all important physical, mental, and technical aspects of racing has been part of the process to dial in performance on race weekends. As Rachael has learnt, training on and off the bike has been part of her DNA growing up on family farm in NZ – working within Team environment has been essential to realize goals on track.
Race strategy, line choice, and overcoming lappers has proved deal-breaker when maintaining position/passing/or sustaining gap to female competitors who have raced home tracks for greater length of time than their Kiwi counterpart.
Rachael: ‘I know all the tracks now and what to expect which makes race prep easier! Biggest learning curves have definitely been race craft and dealing with lap traffic. I’ve got that down to a fine art now!’
GNCC WXC Round 9 at Snowshoe remains firm favourite on the calendar, and surprise visit by Dad – Kevin, and Mum – Lynn at Round last year will no doubt cross Rachael’s mind. Uppermost, will be focus on gaining desired result to add to overall points standings which are 225 points ahead of 2nd place Korie Steede on 195 and Rachel Gutish on 171.
Header photo: Rachael Archer winning GNCC WXC John Penton Image: @kenhill127
Words: Sharon Cox.
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