October 11/10 9:29 am - Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede International Cyclo-cross: Day 3, Harbin Park

Posted by Editoress on 10/11/10
 

Powers gets a Double and Compton scores a Triple at Harbin Park

October 10th at Harbin Park in Fairfield, Ohio

Photos

"I don't have much drama available when there's two-thousand dollars on the line," said Katie Compton following her third dominating performance in as many days at Cincinnati's UCI3 Cyclocross Festival.  On the men's side, Jeremy Powers and Ryan Trebon took each other to the limit with Powers squeezing out a narrow win in the C1 after sustaining a 3 second advantage for half of the race.

It was the third consecutive blisteringly hot day for cyclocross, with near-record temperatures approaching 90 degrees (F). And racers were concerned about how the temperature would affect the race.  "It's really hot and these are really hard courses," said Laura Van Gilder.  "Some of the girls like Natasha (Elliott) only got here today and are fresh, but the rest of us have been racing hard for two days.  We were wondering if we were going to get schooled."  In the end, it turned out that the extra day of racing wasn't a handicap after all and may even have been a benefit for some.

The course at Harbin Park is hilly, though not as brutal as Friday's side-of-a-mountain race at Covington's Devou Park.  It also has a small sand pit at the central viewing area that riders pass through twice a lap, one with an uphill approach just past the finish line and then about 2 minutes later with a downhill approach.  Even though the two passes combined totaled only about 60 meters, the sand played a pivotal role in both the Men's and Women's UCI races.

The women were racing for an exceedingly large purse.  All three races on the weekend paid equal prize money to the top five men and women.  With Harbin Park being a C1, first place alone in the women's (and men's) race paid $2,351 to win - over 25% more than the UCI mandated minimum purse for the entire women's field.  Over 30 Elite Women took to the start line.  But, within two minutes, the race, for all practical purposes, was over as Compton (Planet Bike – Stevens Bikes) rode cleanly through the first sandpit with the uphill approach and gapped the rest of the field, who with one exception were all running.  Mo Bruno Roy (Bob's Red Mill/Seven Cycles) also rode through, but didn't have as clean of approach as Compton and so lost time.  "I wanted to run my lines," said Compton after the race. "I knew I wanted to be first to the sand because I knew I could ride it and figured most of the other women wouldn't."  Compton never looked back and time-trialed the entire 40 minute race to take the big money, the UCI Points, and her 45th career UCI victory.  It was a good weekend for the U.S. Champion as husband Mark swept the three Elite Masters races at the Festival to bring the family win total to six for the weekend.  She also had the rare chance to spend time with her parents, who had driven from the east coast to watch her.

If the race for the lead of the Women's race was a foregone conclusion, the battle for second was anything but.  In the best women's racing of the weekend, Sue Butler, Laura Van Gilder, Mo Bruno Roy, Katie Antonneau and Ashley James had what will be remembered as one of the best pack races of the year.  It was a classic battle between pursuiters and sprinters, and Sue Butler (Hudz Subaru) was on the front most of the time driving the pace and trying to lose some of her pursuers.  Bruno Roy was the first to drop off, but the others rode like they were tied together.  The surprise of the group was Ashley James.  The Wisconsin native recently transferred to Appalachian State University in North Carolina and is one of several American women having a breakout year in 2010.

With a perfectly straight, 400 meter uphill finish, everybody in the group knew that they had to try to lose Van Gilder (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes), but they couldn't shake her.  Sue Butler said, "I even started taking crazy lines to see if she would follow me."  The group's biggest opportunity came as they went down the hill approaching the bell lap.  "I washed out my front wheel," said Van Gilder, "and I wasn't sure if they knew they had gapped me."  Van Gilder put in the effort to close the gap.  "When I closed the gap, I went to the front because I wanted to be in front through the sand so they wouldn't gap me again and I used that last lap as a recovery lap."  James was gapped slightly on the last lap, just enough to not play a major role in the sprint.  "It's a tricky sprint here," said Van Gilder.  "It's misleading and it leans way up right at the end."  Butler led out the sprint, Antonneau (Cannondale/CyclocrossWorld.com) made the first move to the left and briefly took the front position.  In classic sprint style, both Butler and Van Gilder reacted instantly.  But as soon as Butler stood to sprint, her chain jammed between her two chainrings.  Van Gilder powered by Antonneau and the stricken Butler to claim the $1,176 second place.  It was an expensive mechanical failure for Butler, as the difference between last place in the four-up sprint and her eventual finishing position was over $500 when Dee Dee Winfield (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes), who had been trying to bridge across for most of the race, rode past the running Butler just meters from the finish line.  The heat and intensity of effort showed on Van Gilder, who was unable to talk for several minutes following the race.

After the entertaining Women's race, the large field of Elite Men began their hour of racing.  At first the entire field stayed together as Ryan Trebon (Kona/FSA) and Jeremy Powers (Cannondale/CyclocrossWorld.com) traded the lead several times.  The first selection saw Trebon, Powers, Geoff Kabush (Team Maxxis/Rocky Mountain) and Chris Jones separate themselves with Barry Wicks (Kona/FSA) and leading the chase group and Troy Wells (Team Clif Bar) trying to bridge between the two groups.  Two-and-a-half laps into the race, Trebon and Powers gapped the other two riders and began an exquisite man-on-man battle that lasted the entire race as neither rider was ever more than 4 seconds away from the other.  Almost halfway through the race, the defining moment of the race occurred directly in front of the announcers and most of the spectators on the sand pit with the downhill approach.  Leading into the sweeping right hand approach to the sand pit, Trebon, who was second at the time, made a huge acceleration to try to pass Powers on the outside and hit the sand pit first.  Powers matched the acceleration like a track sprinter, maintained the inside line and hit the sand square.  Trebon hit it at the slightest of angles, but it was enough for him to wiggle momentarily, dab his foot and lose contact.  "I knew anyone doing that must be a little bit desperate and hurting some," said Powers after the race.  "I already had the inside line, so I used it."

"It was good," said Trebon.  "He wasn't giving me anything and I wasn't giving him anything."  Though Trebon made contact several times, he would never lead the race again.  "I could catch him on some of the power sections," he said, "but as soon as I did, we would hit a technical section and he'd ride away from me again.  I was sliding a lot today, I think the rear tire pressure was one or two pounds too low.  I was drifting all over the place."

Tires played a role for Powers also.  "I had only ever used this tire combination one time before, and I hated it," explained the winner.  "But Tim (Johnson) uses it a lot and the gamble paid off."  Of his battle with Trebon, "Parts of the course favored me and parts favored Ryan.  I just took advantage of the parts that suited me and it worked out in the end."

With the scintillating battle for the lead, Chris Jones (Rapha/Focus) rode almost unnoticed to a solo third place, his best result so far this year.  When asked what people should know about his performance, he replied, "Tell them how great the kit looks!" as he stood up to model it.  Jones has had a slow start to the season, and the team added the UCI3 Festival to its program after difficulties at the Planet Bike Cup USGP weekend.  "I'm just getting used to it," said Jones of cyclocross.  "We had our road nationals on Sunday and Wednesday I was racing Cross Vegas.  I'm fit from the road, but I'm just not used to cyclocross yet, I hadn't even practiced any dismounts.  It just takes some time.  I wanted to improve my results."  Then, smiling broadly, he said, "I'm happy to get a podium position."

Elite Women 
1 Katherine Compton (Planet Bike)
2 Laura Van Gilder (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes)
3 Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld.com)
4 Ashley James (Team Kenda)
5 Deidre Winfield (C3 - Athletes Serving Athletes)
6 Maureen Bruno Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles)
7 Susan Butler (Hudz Subaru)
8 Kristin Gavin (Team CF-Elite)
9 Barbara Howe (Ibis and the Danger Twins)
10 Arley Kemmerer (C3 - Athletes Serving Athletes)
11 Kari Studley (Team Redline)
12 Linda Sone (Planet Bike)
13 AnnaJean Dallaire (Alderfer Bergen)
14 Lenore Pipes (Fruit 66/Artemis)
15 Jennifer Maxwell (Van Dessel Sterke Meiden)
16 Meghan Korol (Mafia Racing)
17 Kimberly Flynn (Grace Law-Trek p/b Vantaggio)
18 Anne Schwartz (Flying Rhino Cycling Club)
19 Geraldine Schulze (Bio Wheels Racing)
20 Bridget Donovan (Trek Store Cincinnati/ Seven Cycles)
21 Katherine Shields (Carolina Masters Cycling Team)
22 Emily Shields (Carolina Masters Cycling Team)
23 Marne Smiley (Scott/ Ollett Coaching)
24 Tammy Wallace (ThinkCash Racing)
25 Rebecca Finley (Marian University)
26 Nicole Borem (DRT Racing)
27 Natasha Elliot (Garneau Club Chaussure-Ogilvy)
28 Deb Sweeney Whitmore (Performance Bicycle Racing Team)
29 Christy Blakely (CYCLE-SMART)
30 Courtney Patton (Trek of Pittsburgh/ National Velo)
31 Emily Benson (Velo Bella)

Elite Men
1 Jeremy Powers (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com)
2 Ryan Trebon (Kona)
3 Christopher Jones (Rapha-Focus Cyclocross Team)
4 Geoff Kabush (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain)
5 Brian Matter (Gear Grinder)
6 Barry Wicks (Kona)
7 Tristan Schouten (ISCorp Cycling Team)
8 Jake Wells (Hudz-Subaru)
9 Troy Wells (Team Clif Bar)
10 Mike Sherer (Verizon U25 Team p/b ABD)
11 Bryan Fawley (Park Place Dealerships)
12 Derrick St John (Garneau Club Chaussure-Ogilvy)
13 Andrew Wulfkuhle (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes)
14 Mitchell Kersting (Fetzer Cycling Team)
15 Weston Schempf (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes)
16 Joachim Parbo (CCV Leopard Cycles)
17 Stephen Cummings (Indiana Regional Medical Center)
18 Paul Martin (Panther pb Competitive Cyclist)
19 Eric Wondergem (Hup United)
20 Nathanael Wyatt (Carolina Fatz pb Santa Cruz Bicycles)
21 Dave Weaver (ALAN N. America Cycling Team)
22 Michael Mihalik (Freddie Fu Cycling Team)
23 Ryan Knapp (BikeReg.com)
24 John Minturn (AXA Equitable - CRCA)
25 Mitchell Hoke (Clif Bar Development Cyclo-Cross Team)
26 Erik Hamilton (NUVO Cultural Trail)
27 Christopher Nevitt (Fetzer Cycling Team)
28 Matthew Weeks (Team Lake Effect)
29 Andrew Reardon (Van Dessel / Real Design)
30 Michael Anderson (North Country Cycle Sport)
31 Scott Mclaughlin (SRAM Factory)
32 Paul Mesi (French Meadow Bakery / Fortistar)
33 Mark Broadwater (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes)
34 Jason Karew (Bishops Bicycles)
35 Robert Kendall (Bob's Red Mill)
37 William Street (Sisu custom cycles)
38 Jacob Virostko (Shamrock Cycles)
39 Andrew Raab (Carolina Cyclones Development Team)
40 Ryan Gamm (KENDA Pro Cycling p/b GEARGRINDER)
41 Johnathan Freter (Alan North America)
42 Joshua Johnson (DRT Racing)
43 Zachary Edwards (DRT Racing)
44 Michael Kennedy (Fetzer Cycling Team)
45 Noah Metzler (Team Globalbike)