THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Johnson gets his, Compton repeats at USGP
Stu Thorne couldn’t call the weekend anything but a success, with Tim Johnson taking the second race of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross to make it a sweep for Thorne’s Cyclocrossworld.com team. And Katie Compton showed she needed no team to complete her one-woman domination of the races in Louisville, Kentucky, although Georgia Gould gave her a run for her money, finishing 26 seconds back despite a third-row start.
Following Saturday’s two-on-two duel between Kona and Cyclocrossworld.com in wet, slippery conditions, Sunday’s men’s pro race was mano a mano under sunny skies between Johnson and Kona’s Ryan Trebon.
Johnson went off the front early, and only Trebon was able to follow. Trebon’s ongoing issues with leg and back pain again resurfaced towards the end of the race, causing him to fade off Johnson’s wheel, but the two were so far ahead of everyone else Trebon still easily finished second. Saturday’s winner Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) held off a fast-closing Barry Wicks (Kona) for third.
In the opening seconds, it again looked like a four-man race would develop with Wicks, Trebon, Powers and Johnson. Wicks took the hole shot with Powers on his wheel, and their teammates just behind. But coming into a turn, Wicks wiped out, and Powers piled in on top of him.
“I tried to mount Barry,” Powers joked after the race. “Really though, I felt bad. I rammed straight into him.”
Wicks said a rut threw his wheel left when he was going right, he clipped a fence and found himself laying face down on the ground, with Powers on top of him. Johnson and Trebon kept motoring.
“I stayed with Ryan waiting for Jeremy to try and get back up,” Johnson said. “The gaps were really big and they were getting bigger, so it was just hit the gas and go.”
Soon Johnson and Trebon were clear, with the nearest chasers being ’cross rookie Chris Jones (Nerac), Jesse Anthony (Jamis), Powers and Matt White (Fiordfrutta).
“Ryan was going really well for a solid three laps,” Johnson said. “We were switching off [pulls] pretty good. I passed Ryan on the backside of the course, and I saw that there was a little bit of the gas, and I had to drill it after that and see what would happen. I had all the turns dialed, and I was going almost as fast as him on the straightaways, so I knew that if I was in front of him, he would have to go faster to keep up with me.”
After dangling a few seconds behind Johnson for a while, Trebon cracked with two laps to go.
“I could barely lift my bike on the last three laps to get over the barriers and the stairs; my back is screwed,” Trebon said. “I could barely pedal. I’m in bad shape. It’s frustrating, because I was feeling good today.”
Naturally, Johnson was psyched with his win; more so because it came outside his strong suit of technical, muddy conditions.
“This is my first dry win in forever,” he said.
In the under-23 race, run within the pro men’s race, Danny Summerhill (Clif Bar) again took the win in a sprint, this time ahead of Chance Noble (California Giant Berry Farms) and Nick Weighall (Rad Racing NW).
“Chance wouldn’t let up as far as attacking,” Summerhill said. “He was putting the hurt on my legs. If I had been behind him I don’t think I would have been able to come around him. I made sure to strategically place myself before the sprint and be able to take it that way.
“I’ve got to give it to Chance and Nick, and Bjorne [Selander], too. It was a good, hard race. A lot harder than yesterday. My back doesn’t hurt as much as yesterday, but my legs certainly do.”
Stompin’ Compton
In the women’s race, the front group was a rerun of Saturday’s contenders. Compton charged off alone, with Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com), Alison Sydor (Rocky Mountain) and Wendy Simms (Kona) taking up the chase. On Sunday, Rachel Lloyd (Proman-Paradigm) also joined the bunch. As with Saturday, Gould (Luna) fought her way up from a third-row start to join the chase.
“Yesterday we weren’t really working together, we were just basically racing for second place,” said Simms. “So today I was a little frustrated and I decided to keep the pace up high for a few laps, which kind of killed me in the end. When Georgia went by, she upped the pace again, and I had a hard time staying on.”
With Bessette feeling under the weather, and Lloyd also falling off the chase, soon it was just Gould and Sydor in pursuit of Compton.
Gould had the benefit of a personal cheering section – four guys with their stomachs painted, football-fan style, to spell out “Georgia!”
“Those guys were awesome,” Gould said. “Yesterday they had the orange jockstraps and they were cheering for Barry. So I was like, ‘Where were you guys during my race?’ I told them, ‘First of all, you guys are wearing way too many clothes.’ So today before the race they were like, ‘We’ll have a surprise for you out there.’ I said, ‘All right, I can’t wait to see it. If it involves nudity, I’m in.”
After the race Gould and Sydor complimented each other on fluidity through the running sections. Sydor said some of the other women would hit the running sections too hard, then blow up a little on the following riding parts.
“When I start getting [too frantic], I start making mistakes, like hitting my bike on the barriers,” said Gould, explaining her steady approach. “Smoother can be faster.”
“Smoother is always faster,” Sydor agreed.
Riders also agreed that the sun-dried course was much faster than the day before. Race officials removed a few tight corners and longer straightaways.
“It was fun today, you were never like, ‘Oh, God!’ in any corner,” Gould said. For Compton’s part, the USGP leader said she felt the effects of Saturday’s race.
“I definitely felt better yesterday. Today I really had to work for it,” Compton said. “I was tired, and I was starting to cramp up on the last lap. I was just trying not to get caught by Georgia. I worked hard. Gave it everything I could. But the turns were really fun, you could hit them pretty hard without sliding at all.”
With Gould finishing just 26 seconds back, Compton looked almost human this time.
“There’s still a possibility that someone can beat her if we just step it up a little bit,” Simms said.
Simms and many of the racers will get another chance at Compton this coming weekend during a pair of UCI races in Boulder, Colorado.
U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross No. 2
Louisville, KY. Oct. 28
Men
1. Tim Johnson, Cannondale-Leer-Cyclocrossworld.com, 57:33
2. Ryan Trebon, Kona-Yourkey.com, at 0:35
3. Jeremy Powers, Cyclocrossworld.com, at 1:00
4. Barry Wicks, Kona-Yourkey.com, at 1:17
5. Adam Craig, Giant, at 1:27
6. Christopher Jones, Nerac, at 1:29
7. Jesse Anthony, Jamis , at 2:22
8. Matt White, Fiordifrutta, at 2:25
9. Chris Sheppard (Can), Santa Cruz-CMG Mortgage, at 2:31
10. Matt Shriver, Jittery Joe's-Sonic, 2:44
Women
1. Katie Compton, Spike Shooter, 39:51
2. Georgia Gould, Luna, 40:17
3. Alison Sydor (Can), Rocky Mountain, 40:34
4. Wendy Simms (Can), Kona-Yourkey.com, 40:58
5. Rachel Lloyd, Proman-Paradigm, 41:23
6. Kerry Barnholt, Tokyo Joe’s-Van Dessel, 41:42
7. Wendy Williams, River City Bicycles, 41:44
8. Sue Butler, River City Bicycles, 41:47
9. Lyne Bessette, Cyclocrossworld.com, 42:38
10. Kelli Emmett, Team Giant, 42:46
