The 2A Girls race went through a few lead changes, but when things came down to last chances at the end, nobody wanted it nearly as badly as Chloe Veilleux.
Veilleux's final margin had her up on second-place Annie Hughes by nine seconds. And the margin was growing at the end. When you saw Veilleux hit her stride inside the stadium you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt nobody would be catching her from behind.
In tow were two prior race leaders, both from Buena Vista, in Annie Hughes and Whitney White. Hughes was still leading at the creek crossing and hung on until very late in the race, but when legs grew heavy it was Veilleux who could coax more out of them. Veilleux stopped coaxing at 19:47.
The top individuals in 2A Girls had a distinctly Western Slope flavor, with five on the top seven hailing from west of the Continental Divide, plus Hughes and White who live almost within shouting distance of the Continental Divide.
The pitched team battle that was expected between Telluride and Lyons never materialized. Telluride jumped out to a massive early lead and, despite a very conservative start, Lyons' efforts at closing the gap were too little and too late. Lyons' top finisher CeAnn Udovich was clearly feeling the heat and strain of the race when she rounded the bend into the stadium. Udovich was utterly unable to respond to a challenge delivered in the final 50 meters and dropped from 12th to 13th. It was that kind of day for Lyons.
For Telluride, is was not the stunning blow they delivered last year, but it was a second consecutive team title nevertheless and entirely effective just the same.
Soleil Gaylord watched the lead change in front of her several times but could never bring the race under her own control. There would be no individual title for Gaylord, but there would be a fifth-place finish and three team points--the same sum she contributed to Telluride's winning effort in 2015. Maya Ordonez finished in seventh, adding four team points.
And then the waiting began.
A dazzling array of singlets crossed the finish line over the next 90 seconds, but no team could put three of a kind together before Alyssa Pack closed Telluride's scoring at 21st place.
Second-place Lyons would not get their second runner in ahead of Pack, and so the team scoring matter was settled rather quickly. Telluride 21, Lyons 39. And, honestly, it didn't seem that close. Nederland edged Buena Vista for third with 56 points.
And, it may behoove us all to get accustomed to watching powerful finishes from Chloe Veilleux. It would appear we're in for two more years of them.