12th Out of 13: How Carlos Cruz Finished a National Mountain Bike Championship Nobody Thought He Could

Before the race started, plenty of people told Carlos Cruz not to enter. The route was too hard, they said. He wouldn't finish. It was too dangerous for someone who wasn't a full-time professional.

Cruz, an X-Team Web Developer and passionate mountain biker, entered anyway. In 2021, he competed in the MTB National Championship of the Dominican Republic — and crossed the finish line. In this story, Cruz explains how he trained for the race with help from a national champion, what happened to his body when the course turned flat and what he carries with him on every ride since.

2 Months of Training With a National Champion

Cruz didn't walk into the national championship underprepared. He trained for two months straight with a coach who had competed at the Pan American Games — a national champion who built a program that went well beyond casual riding.

The workouts were structured around heart rate, not just effort. A jog, for example, wasn't just a jog: it meant one hour held within a specific heart rate range — 100-130 bpm. "I had to practice in a very specific way, mostly to control my heart rate during the competition," Cruz says. The discipline paid off in measurable ways. His heart could push to 200 bpm without immediately exhausting him. His gym sessions built the leg strength needed to manage over 2,000 meters of elevation gain.

He also spent time learning to descend. Going downhill on a technical mountain trail is its own skill, and he practiced it until it no longer felt like the most dangerous part of the course.

The route he trained for is on Strava.

The Race, a Muscle Spasm and Finishing Anyway

The championship demanded everything Cruz had. For much of it, the course ran uphill — over thirty kilometers of climbing without flat ground. When the terrain finally leveled off, his thigh muscle seized up. He had to stop and get off the bike.

"I didn't let that stop me either, because I was near the end," he says. He remounted and kept going.

He finished 12th out of 13 finishers. Many others who had started didn't finish at all — the route, as the doubters had warned, was simply too demanding. Cruz finished. After the race, he couldn't take ten steps without his legs giving out. There was barbecue, burgers and dominoes to decompress.

The finish line didn't quiet his ambition. It amplified it. "Finishing the race demonstrated that I could set a serious goal and achieve it too," he says. He kept racing — entering informal events called Fogueos that helped him sharpen his technique on trails and improve his downhill performance. He is also planning to travel to Puerto Rico to ride La Palguera, a 100-kilometer race with high heat and significant climbing.

How to Ride Smarter, Not Just Harder

Cruz's advice for anyone getting into mountain biking comes down to one principle: train with a plan.

"Don't work out without a plan," he says. "Ride with daily goals and use the right devices to keep track of your stats." If professional coaching isn't available, he suggests starting with a Garmin Connect setup and a predefined training program — something that gives structure and accountability to the work.

Equipment matters too, and fitting it properly can prevent injury. He recommends having a bike's geometry and saddle height set up professionally. Getting the right seat, shoes, cleats and handlebars is not cosmetic — it's protective. Cruz rides a full-suspension bike because it keeps his back healthy on the mountain and trail routes he prefers.

Beyond training and gear, he returns to something simpler. The beauty of the mountains — the views, the riders you meet, the stories you trade — is genuinely part of what he loves about the sport. He hasn't won a race yet, and that's fine. His goals include winning eventually, but sharing the experience with other riders and absorbing their knowledge is its own reward. "Have fun while riding," he says. "It's a great sport and it shows you areas of the world that you'd never see otherwise."

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