THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Compton, Trebon on top in Tacoma
It takes a lot to keep Kona’s Ryan Trebon from winning a cyclo-cross race in the U.S in 2006. Thus far it’s happened twice this season: at the UCI-sanctioned Whitmore's Super Cross Cup in Southampton, New York, on October 1, when a week spent at Interbike and a hard-charging Tim Johnson got the better of him; and at the November 5 Boulder Cup, round four of the 2006 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, when mechanical problems sent Trebon into the pits five times.
The latest attempt to derail Trebon’s nearly spotless domestic ’cross campaign was a bad sushi roll eaten for dinner Thursday that kept the 6-foot-5-inch Kona rider awake and vomiting throughout the night. But if Trebon was still feeling the effects at Saturday’s fifth round of the USGP, the Rad Racing Cup of Cyclocross in Tacoma, Washington, it didn’t show — he crossed the line alone, as he has in all four of his USGP wins this year.
"I had ’cross gut after the race, but that was about it, and that’s normal after every race," Trebon said. "But I wasn’t feeling any nausea during the race."
Trebon, a graduate of nearby Steilacoom High School, hadn’t yet won on the Fort Steilacoom course, which hugs up against the Puget Sound and is renowned for its steep and rocky 80-meter, UCI-limit "Knapp Time" run-up, followed by a fast descent to the flat start/finish area. With few barriers or other technical sections, the course demanded fitness above leg speed or handling skills.
"That is an epic run-up," said spectator Mike Fusaro, who conceded that he was watching rather than racing due to missing out on registration. "I’m glad I’m not doing it."
At the outset of the race, Trebon found himself part of a nine-man group including teammate Barry Wicks, national champ Todd Wells (GT), Geoff Kabush (Maxxis), Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com), Mark McCormack (Clif Bar), Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Cyclocrossworld.com) and Jonathan Baker (Harshman Wealth Management-Primus Mootry).
"I tried to make a couple of hard digs, but it was a hard race to control," Trebon said. "After a few laps we had that group of [nine], and I thought, ‘I’m not really comfortable racing with that many people in the group.’"
Through a series of accelerations, Trebon trimmed the lead group to himself, Wicks, Johnson and Wells, with Jacques-Maynes and Kabush chasing together. Wicks was next to drop off the front of the race, and when Wells broke a chain with two laps remaining and had to run his bike to the pit, it was suddenly a two-man race.
"It’s too bad, nothing ever breaks when you’re riding badly and you wish it would break," a disappointed Wells joked. "Ryan was riding really well, but Tim and I were taking turns covering his moves."
"I was bummed to hear Todd’s chain break and see that he was gone," Johnson said. "The odds would have been in our favor, rather than watching Ryan ride away for the win."
Trebon acknowledged that Wells was the rider that had him most concerned. "I think Todd was riding better than Tim was," he said. "I made a few efforts to get away from Todd and I couldn’t. He was the guy I was marking."
Behind, Kabush attempted to bridge across but couldn’t. The Canadian was soon was joined by Jacques-Maynes, with Wicks, Wells and Baker trailing further back.
Trebon passed Johnson over the run-up for the final time, and although both men had trouble getting back into their pedals, the lanky Kona rider clipped in first. Trebon opened a gap and held it, crossing the line with enough of a margin to celebrate in front of his second family, the Tchobanoffs, whom he lived with during his senior year at Steilacoom High while his father was stationed at an Air Force base in Panama.
"I wanted to do well," Trebon said. "I’ve never won this race, and I was hoping to put on a good show. I grew up racing in the Northwest, and all these people here know from me when I was 15. So it’s sort of a local boy done well. There were people here I was riding with and looked up to when I was a teenager."
Kabush out-sprinted Jacques-Maynes for third, while Baker out-kicked Wicks and Wells for fifth.
In the women's race, U.S. national champion Katie Compton (Spike-Primus Mootry) and Canadian champ Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com) continued their battle of the North American national champions. Kona’s Wendy Simms rode with Bessette and Compton on the first of five trips up the run-up, trailed by USGP series leader Georgia Gould (Luna), Katerina Nash (Luna), Rhonda Mazza (S&M-Vanilla) and Kerry Barnholt (Tokyo Joe’s).
But Simms soon dropped off the pace while Compton and Bessette stayed off the front, never more than 10 feet apart throughout the entire race. Behind them Gould caught Simms, while Barnholt passed Mazza and paired up with Nash.
In the finale, Bessette jumped first, but Compton overhauled her for the win, conceding afterward that had the finish line been five feet closer, the outcome might have been different. Simms out-sprinted Gould for the final podium spot, while Barnholt pipped Nash for fifth.
"I think Lyne was riding better than me today," Compton said, admitting that Bessette had given her the toughest battle of the season. "That run-up put me in the hurt locker. She was running better than I was today. I think it worked well for both us, because I think having somebody to push you on every turn and every piece of the course, you just ride faster. If you are off the front by yourself, you kind of slow to a comfortable pace, whereas now, we’re pretty much racing head to head every race, we’re never in a comfortable zone. It’s always trying to go hard out of every turn, trying to keep the pace up."
With her second-place finish and Gould’s fourth-place finish, Bessette regained the USGP leader’s jersey she relinquished to Gould after Gould’s victory in Gloucester. (Compton missed the opening weekend of USGP racing and is not in contention for the USGP title.) Bessette now leads Gould by six points.
Asked what she might have done differently, Bessette said the course was the only thing that she would have liked to change. "It was just the course," she said. "It was easy to follow people, and on the run-up, even if I got a gap on her it was too far from the finish to do anything, and all the rest of the sections were good for her. I started my sprint early and tried to hold it to the finish. But I’m happy with what I did. I had good legs today. I got the jersey back, and that was a goal."
USGP racing continues Sunday at the Scion Stumptown Cup in Lakewood near Portland, Oregon. Rain is expected.
"It’s not super difficult, there are no big climbs," race director Brad Ross said. "But it’s going to be very muddy out there. There is lots of pavement, I’d say about half the course, so there’s time to shake the mud off your bike. There’s a good run-up on a stairway, but other than that it’s a fairly flat course with some big knolls to run up and down. It would be a fast course except for that that when you’re not on pavement it’s going to be pretty gooey."
Race notes
Hot Tubes rider Alex Coelho, the national junior 15-16 champion and leader in the USGP junior series after four races, did not race in Tacoma due to a reported reoccurring knee injury. Coelho held a nine-point lead over national junior champion Danny Summerhill (TIAA-CREF-Clif Bar), who won Saturday and appears poised to win the junior series for a second consecutive year.
After an admittedly poor start to the season, six-time national cyclo-cross champion Jesse Anthony (Clif Bar) won the under-23 race ahead of Troy Wells (TIAA-CREF-Clif Bar) and Morgan Schmitt (Hagens-Berman LLP Cycling). Fiordifruitta rider Jamie Driscoll maintains his lead in the U23 series.
One racer missing from Saturday’s event was local Josie Beggs, who suffered a crash at the USGP Boulder event. Beggs (California Giant Strawberries- Specialized) suffered a mechanical at the start of the November 5 USGP race, and by the time she left the start/finish straight onto the course, fans had mistakenly begun crossing the course tape. Beggs was knocked over by a spectator during the first lap and suffered skull fractures near her eye, cheek and jaw that required outpatient surgery on November 10 to have her cheekbone pushed back into place.
Beggs said she left the hospital within an hour of the surgical procedure. And though she said the injuries sound worse than they were, Beggs, who hails from the Seattle area, stayed in her adopted hometown of Capitola, California, for the weekend.
"I have had a fast recovery," Beggs said. "I was torn about coming to the race this weekend. It’s on my home turf and my family and friends will be there, and the [Tacoma] course is fun and I wanted to go support the team. But then I thought, ‘That’s stupid, I don’t need to be running around, I should just stay home and recover.’"
Beggs said she hopes to return to racing at the December 15-17 national championship in Providence, Rhode Island, where she finished 10th last year. "My plan is to get back for nationals," Beggs said. "I want to go and race and call it good. Cal Giant is my main sponsor, so I really feel like I should go and race."
Maxxis cross-country ace Geoff Kabush, who placed third, confirmed that he will split his 2007 season riding for the Canadian Symmetrics road squad. Kabush, a former national cross-country and cyclo-cross champion, has experience racing several top-level road events before, including the Tour de Georgia, where he finished 31st, as well as international races like the Tour of Langkawi and the USPRO Championships. Kabush will ride for the team in select road events that complement his mountain bike schedule with the Maxxis squad. As part of Kabush's arrival, Symmetrics will ride Maxxis tires in 2007.
"I am looking forward to the challenge of racing on the road again," Kabush said. "I really want to help out the squad in whatever capacity I can. I know most of the guys pretty well. Andrew Pinfold was my best man at my wedding."
Rad Racing Cup of Cyclocross
Lakewood, WA. Nov. 18
Men
1. Ryan Trebon, Kona
2. Tim Johnson, Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com
3. Geoff Kabush, Maxxis
4. Ben Jacques-Maynes, Cyclocrossworld.com
5. Jonathan Baker, Harshman Wealth Management-Primus Mootry
Women
1. Katie Compton, Spike-Primus Mootry
2. Lyne Bessette, Cyclocrossworld.com
3. Wendy Simms, Kona
4. Georgia Gould, Luna
5. Kerry Barnholt, Tokyo Joe's-Gary Fisher
Under-23
1. Jesse Anthony, Clif Bar
2. Morgan Schmitt, Hagens-Berman LLP Cycling
3. Chance Noble, California Giant Strawberries-Specialized
4. Nicholas Weighall, Alan Factory Cyclocross Team
5. Jamey Driscoll, FiordiFrutta
Juniors
1. Danny Summerhill, TIAA-CREF-Clif Bar
2. Sean Worsech, Rad Racing
3. Steve Fisher, Rad Racing NW
4. Nicholas Keough CL Noonan-Coast to Coast
5. Jim Lennon, TIAA-CREF-Clif Bar
