October 4/06 2:28 am - Whitmore Super Cross Cup Weekend: Day 2 Report & Results

Posted by Editoress on 10/4/06
 

Whitmore Landscaping Super Cross Cup Weekend Southampton NY

Organizer Myles Romanow, Hampton Velo Club

Sunday October 1st

A family affair: Bessette and Johnson take day 2 on Long Island
by Alan Atwood

The south fork of Long Island has always been known for its vacationing tourists, so the first family of cyclocross ended their weekend excursion to Southampton, New York on a winning note, taking day 2 of the Whitmore's Super Cross Cup.

Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com) was the overwhelming favourite after drubbing the field on day 1, but she had a new face to deal with and a challenging one in 2006 NORBA National Champion and 2005 Mid-Atlantic series winner Georgia Gould (Luna), who was taking her first UCI cyclocross start of the young season. The start was all Bessette once again, but unlike Saturday she had company for the first lap in the form of Gould, who was out to prove that she could not only hang with Bessette but take her down. But alas it only lasted one lap, as Bessette just powered away from Gould and took an advantage that was never to be breached. Bessette is starting the season off in fine form, not showing any affects from a long layoff from top competition after her retirement from the road 7 months ago. Gould held on easily for second and showed that she will be a force this year in the elite levels of cyclo-cross. Defending Masters national champion Mo Bruno-Roy (Independent Fabrications) took home 3rd spot and completed the weekend with 2 podium showings.

The men's race was all about chasing right from the gun, as Barry Wicks (Kona) got an gap after the Red Bull barrier prime on lap one and left the elite members of the peloton to chase. At first only Jesse Anthony (Clif Bar) seemed to have the ability to reach Wicks, but the others were keeping things close and making sure Wicks didn't get too far ahead. This strategy paid off as Wicks eventually faded and left the lead in the hands of Tim Johnson (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com), who had a bad start and worked his way from 12th spot early to get to the front. Johnson took advantage of the technical nature of the course and its short length to stay off the front, despite the efforts of Clif Bar's Mark McCormack and Anthony, and Saturday's winner Ryan Trebon (Kona) to bring things back together. By halfway into the race, it was apparent that Johnson had great legs, as his margin was increasing while the main chase group was losing steam as McCormack uncharacteristically was fading leaving Anthony isolated with the stronger Trebon. Trebon eventually dropped Anthony and went after Johnson alone, but ran out of time as Johnson was not to be denied for his second win of the season. Trebon had to settle for a hard-fought second while Anthony held off a late-charging McCormack for third and the final spot on the podium.