Specialized rider Todd Wells closed out the 2010 US National Cyclo-cross events in Bend, Oregon today to take his third national title, just after Katie Compton's dominant performance in women's race earned her a seventh stars and stripes jersey. Both elite titles were fought out under muddy conditions over the nearly two-mile course.
The men's race saw Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) finish the first lap with a handful of seconds over a group of five that included Wells, with the latter catching him on the second lap. However they tangled, with Powers crashing and suffering mechanical issues. He was delayed enough to cost him his chance of taking a long overdue win.
Wells pushed onwards, while behind hometown favorite Ryan Trebon (Kona) slotted into second and chased hard. He appeared to be closing in on the penultimate lap, his tall, lanky figure contrasting with the more compact Wells as he narrowed the gap to ten seconds, but the leader pulled further ahead towards the end and hit the line well ahead. He came in 25 seconds ahead of his rival, having time to celebrate and really savour the victory.
“In the beginning I was maybe around 10th place. There were some crashes I avoided and made it up to maybe the top five,” he stated afterwards. “Then Trebon crashed and that left Powers and I off the front together. And then he crashed a few laps later and I was by myself for the last four or five laps, able to hold off Trebon. One lap he took like five seconds out of me, but luckily I was able to get it together and just hold the gap.”
It’s been a great year for Wells, who added his third career cross-country title yesterday to the victories in mountain bike cross country and short track championships. “It’s pretty big for me. I’d never won the cross country title before, so I got it this year, the short track, and now the cyclo-cross [titles]. It’s the perfect season,” he said.
Powers battled onwards and took third, one minute and 27 seconds off Wells’ time.
There was also a clear-cut performance in the women’s race, where Katie Compton shrugged off a bad start to dominate the event. She and Georgia Gould (Fort Collins, Colo./Luna Pro Team) pushed ahead of the other riders after the first lap, and while the latter was able to gain a slight lead when Compton changed her bike, she was caught and passed by the Planet Bike biker before the end of lap two.
From that point on she pulled further and further ahead, eventually finishing 31 seconds ahead of her rival. Meredith Miller (California Giant-Specialized) was three minutes 19 seconds back in third.
Seven-time champion Compton said she enjoyed the race, due partly to the design of the circuit. “It was a great venue — a great course. It had everything you'd want: stair run-up, power sections, technical sections, mud. It was a great field of women today," the Bike Pure advocate said. "It's awesome to know that I can race here and really get pushed.”
The under 23 women also set off at the same time and battled it out between themselves for gold. Antonneau (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) showed great recovery after nabbing silver in the D1 women’s collegiate race, netting tenth overall in the women’s contest and winning the national U23 title. She came in ahead of Coryn Rivera (Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty12) and Ashley James (Team Kenda p/b Geargrinder), beating them by one minute 31 seconds and three minutes three seconds respectively.
----
USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships 2010 (Bend, OR):
Elite Men
1, Todd Wells (Durango, Colo./Specialized Factory Racing) 1:00:49
2, Ryan Trebon (Bend, Ore./Kona) 1:01:14
3, Jeremy Powers (East Hampton, Mass./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) 1:02:16
4, Jamey Driscoll (Winooski, Vt./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) 1:02:52
5, Tim Johnson (Beverly, Mass./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) 1:02:52
Elite Women:
1, Katherine Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Planet Bike) 0:43:48
2, Georgia Gould (Fort Collins, Colo./Luna Pro Team) 0:44:19
3, Meredith Miller (Fort Collins, Colo./California Giant-Specialized) 0:47:07
4, Katherine Sherwin (Heber City, UT/Hudz-Subaru) 0:47:25
5, Susan Butler (Portland, OR/Hudz-Subaru) 0:47:26
U23 Women
1, Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wisc./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) 0:48:21
2, Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif./Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12) 0:49:52
3, Ashley James (Delafield, Wisc./Team Kenda p/b GEARGRINDER) 0:51:24
4, Emily Shields (Salisbury, N.C./Carolina Masters Cycling Club) -2 laps
5, Alexis Ryan (Ventura, Calif./TEAM SoCalCross) -2 laps
D1 Collegiate Women
1, Ashley James (Dousman, Wis./Appalachian State University) 0:39:10
2, Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wis./Marian University) 0:40:14
3, Carla Swart (Banner Elk, NC/Lees-McRae College) 0:40:43
4, Erica Zaveta (Erwinna, Penn./Lees-McRae College) 0:40:48
5, Sarah Sturm (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis College) 0:43:44
D2 Collegiate Women
1, Kimberly Flynn (Hixson, Tenn./UT-Chattanooga) 0:43:34
2, Laura Ralston (Cambridge, Mass./MIT) 0:44:21
3, Courtenay McFadden Bellingham, Wash./Western Washington University) 0:44:54
4, Arielle Filiberti (Worcester, Mass./Dartmouth) 0:45:49
5, Lindsy Campbell (Missoula, Mont./University of Montana) 0:46:10
D1 Collegiate Men
1, Zach McDonald (Bainbridge Island, Wash./University of Washington-Seattle) 0:41:30
2, Chris Hurst (Lake Geneva, Wisc./University of Colorado-Boulder) 0:41:38
3, Bradford Perley (Banner Elk, N.C./Lees-McRae College) 0:41:43
4, Braden Kappius (Littleton, Colo./University of Colorado-Boulder) 0:42:14
5, Eric Thompson (Banner Elk, N.C./Lees-McRae College) 0:42:19
D2 Collegiate Men
1, Steve Fisher (Bellingham, Wash./Western Washington University) 0:42:56
2, Logan Wetzel (Renton, Wash./Western Washington University) 0:42:58
3, Ryan Leech (Savannah, Ga./Savannah College of Art & Design) 0:43:55
4, Conor Mullervy (Boise , Idaho/Mesa State College) 0:44:26
5, Kevin Mullervy (Littleton, Colo./Mesa State College) 0:44:44
DI Team Omnium
1, Lees-McRae College, 188
2, Fort Lewis College, 156
3, Marian University, 129
4, Appalachian State University, 113
5, University of Washington-Seattle, 107
DII Team Omnium
1, Western Washington University, 188
2, Mars Hill College, 146
3, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 121
4, Mesa State College, 121
5, Central Oregon Community College, 95