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Trebon, Bessette make opening statements at USGP of Cyclocross
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One winner of the opening round of the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross was last year’s defending series champion; the other was the only competitor, man or woman, to have won a World Cup cyclo-cross event. So when Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Canadian Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) took convincing solo victories at the Cannondale Stumptown Classic in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise — except that both brought to the start line extenuating circumstances that led many to question whether either rider could dominate a national-level field as they have in years past.
For Bessette, a near three-year absence from the autumnal discipline raised doubts as to whether the two-time Olympic road racer could return to the form that brought her a win at the Grand Prix of France World Cup in January 2002, in just her first season of ‘cross racing.
Bessette, who is married to 2000 U.S. national ‘cross champion Tim Johnson — who is also returning to cyclo-cross this season — decided to take a break from full-time road racing after the 2004 Olympic year left her feeling fatigued. Instead, she spent the 2005 season trading off between road and mountain-bike events and preparing for cyclo-cross. A win last weekend at the Star Crossed cyclo-cross season opener in Seattle, Washington, proved that, when racing, she is one the premier women competing in North America, and her win in Portland Saturday confirmed that she should be considered the woman to beat for the 2005-06 season.
Though she started without a call-up, due to a lack of UCI points, Bessette quickly took the front, largely benefited by crash on the second turn of the race that took out Canadian national champion Wendy Simms, among others.
“I made my start the best I could,” Bessette said. “I knew that last corner would be slick because it was wet, and with the mud, I know what roads are like when they are slick. I left a gap, because I knew it would be sketchy, and they did crash and I just went away with Ann. Ann took the lead for the first lap, but she went down and I established a gap and just kept going.”
Knapp finished alone in second, while Californian Barbara Howe (Velo Bella) rounded out the podium.
Though Bessette has largely been off the radar this year, that didn’t mean she wasn’t prepared. Far from it, she explained.
“I felt comfortable with my lines and I never questioned it,” she said. “The mountain biking I did this year really helped. A little bit of time on the dirt helped me stay up. People don’t really know that I rode more dirt than usual this year. I started running in August, doing stairs up and down, and people forget that I was a runner for 12 years before cycling.”
ORANGE CRUSH
Trebon came to Portland a bit of an unknown quantity. The most consistent American racing in North America last season, the lanky six-foot-five Kona cross-country rider took two of six event wins on the way to the USGP series overall victory last season, and finished an inspired second place at nationals behind three-time defending champion Jonathan Page. Trebon had already mapped out a 2005-06 ‘cross season designed around racing in Europe when he broke his wrist at the International Tour de ‘Toona stage race in late July. His return to racing at the Star Crossed event last Friday yielded a sixth-place finish, well behind the lead group of four riders, leading some, including his teammate Barry Wicks, to question his viability coming into the series opener.
“Ryan’s not riding as well right now because of his arm,” Wicks said in the days leading into the Portland race, “so I have a little more responsibility this year.”
Wicks, who also stands at six-foot-five, proved he was up to his end of the responsibility, taking the hole shot at the start and leading the first lap. Trebon quickly bridged up, and it from then on it was a Kona-led race for the remainder of the day.
Over the past two years, Portland’s Cross Crusade series has hosted four UCI events — two Stumptown Classics and two national championships — and each and every event has been marked by wet and muddy conditions that left racers scrambling into the pits for a new bike each lap.
But mother nature had something different in mind this year, and though intermittent rains and heavy fog in the days leading up to the race left the course wet, an absence of rain on race day meant that instead of slick, sloppy conditions, racers were faced with sticky mud the consistency of peanut-butter over a technical, winding course that incorporated sections of the Alpenrose Dairy Velodrome and its infield each lap preceded by a 20-meter run-up. While grassy, off-camber sections remained slick and treacherous, the near 700 competitors that raced before the elite men churned thick lines through the flatter sections, creating and ever-evolving brand of dense Portland mud that clogged drivetrains, brakes and pedals alike. Some racers actually suggested they would have preferred rainfall, to give the course’s dirt sections some much-needed viscosity.
But if the mud presented a problem for Wicks and Trebon, it didn’t show as the pair — who train together in nearby Corvallis and are sometimes referred to as “The Twin Towers” — distanced themselves from the rest of the field almost immediately. New Englander Mark McCormack (Felt-Clif Bar) was first to take Wicks’s wheel, but it was a short-lived stay.
“I was sort of following Wicks,” McCormack said. “He was like 10 bike lengths ahead of me for the whole first lap. I don’t know, every corner he was picking up half a second on me. And finally Ryan was able to get up to me and get up to Barry, and those two were just flying. It seemed like those two were riding on pavement and the rest of us were riding on mud.”
Wicks said he usually likes to take the lead early on, and once he and Trebon connected it was game on.
“Ryan and I like to start pretty hard, because we don’t like other people making the race,” Wicks said. “Even today I kind of missed the start, and guys got a little jump on me, but the first 10 pedal strokes I think I’m faster than just about anybody. That’s kind of been my M.O. in mountain biking, and usually I blow up, but in ‘cross I can usually hold it for most of the race.”
Asked if he took to the front to give Trebon a free ride, Wicks answered, “At the start it’s sort of every man for himself, everything’s getting sorted out. I know Ryan can usually start pretty well too, and once we got away I could tell that Ryan was riding way stronger than me. He was riding really well, this is his kind of course. I was having to slow down and speed up out of the turns, and on courses when you can maintain your speed Ryan usually does really well.”
Behind Wicks and Trebon, Adam Craig (Giant) and McCormack chased to no avail while Johnson chased alone in fifth place. Canadian national champion Geoff Kabush led a larger chase group in sixth place until he rolled a tubular tire off its rim far from the mechanical pit area, forcing him to run his bike and lose upwards of 25 positions.
By the second lap, Craig had distanced himself from McCormack. “Adam and I were riding around together for a while,” McCormack said, “but Adam’s mountain-bike skills were just crazy. There was no way I could follow it. He was just flying through some of the corners, and before I knew it he was gone too and I was riding around in fourth place. I looked back and saw Tim [Johnson] coming up by himself, and behind him the gap was just huge. I thought I’d rather ride with someone and work on my skills, so I kind of waited back and we rode together the rest of the race.”
Midway through the race, as light rain slowly turned into a downpour, Trebon’s pace became too much for Wicks, and after a series of bobbles on the velodrome’s infield separated the two, Trebon rode alone the rest of the day, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Wicks. Craig finished alone for to take third, while behind, an anticipated sprint between Johnson and McCormack never materialized when Johnson slid out entering the painted velodrome surface, allowing McCormack to cruise in for fourth.
“I wanted to lead into the run up so I could be first onto the track,” Johnson said, “and hopefully I would have held him off, but I crashed in the corner. Ten raindrops fell and all of a sudden it was like ice.”
Overall, Craig was pleased with his performance. “McCormack wasn’t riding too fast in the corners, so I figured it was better to ride by myself,” Craig said. “I was riding corners well, but the straightaways were hard by yourself. And my running was God-awful. I passed a lapped rider on the run-up, and of course he passed me back.”
In second was Wicks, who couldn’t be disappointed with his friend and teammate on the top podium step. “I was just trying to stay on Ryan’s wheel,” Wicks said. “I was hoping to hang on to the finish, but I ended up having to take a bike change and got the gap. I tried to catch back up, but I started going too fast and was bobbling and decided to ride my own pace. I was pretty punched trying to keep up with Ryan. He was riding a good tempo, so I figured he should keep doing it and I’ll just ride my own tempo. We had enough of a gap that it wasn’t a big deal.”
As for Trebon, who at only 24 has become one of the top American cyclo-cross racers, he was satisfied with his day at the races. “It was pretty sweet that no one else but Kona saw the front of the race today,” he smiled. Later, he commented on those who may have discounted his chances based on the Star Crossed results.
“I don’t like losing races at all, especially ‘cross races,” he said. “I’ve been feeling pretty good riding, and last weekend wasn’t a good indication of how I was feeling. The course was pretty slow and turny and not really the stlye that I like racing.
This is pretty close to perfect for me, really hard and deep mud-pedaling sections. I felt good. I’ve only been riding for three-and-a-half weeks since I got my cast off and I think my fitness is pretty good. Everybody was saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know if Ryan’s going to be there,’ and I was like, ‘I’ll show you not going to be there.’ People counting me out before I even start, that really pisses me off. It caused me to ride even harder. I always feel like I have to go out there and show myself. I don’t feel like I’m guaranteed anything.”
RACE NOTES:• Six-time U.S. national champion Jesse Anthony (Clif Bar) proved whyhe so often wears the stars-and-stripes. The defending under-23 nationalchampion finished eighth overall and top U23, ahead of Troy Wells (TIAA-CREF).• TIAA-CREF teammates Alex Howes and Danny Summerhill proved a potentcombo in the junior men’s race, vanquishing defending national champ BjornSelander (Alan) to third after an untimely puncture. Howes coasted in forthe win with a comfortable margin while Summerhill outsprinted Selanderfor second.• In the masters 35+ race, Dale Knapp (Kona) showed some of the samespeed that kept him at the top of the elite division for so many years.Knapp dominated the masters field, with Richard Feldman and John Gallaghertaking second and third, respectively.• All three riders on the elite men’s podium were born in 1981, andall are Oregon residents. Trebon lives in Corvallis, 60 miles south ofPortland. Wicks, also from Corvallis, recently moved to Santa Cruz, California,to live with his girlfriend, while Craig, a Maine native, recently purchaseda home in Bend, Oregon.• Kabush told VeloNews that he recently heard that fellow CanadiansRyder Hesjedal (Discovery Channel) and Seamus McGrath (Haro) were injuredlast week in an as-of-yet unreported automobile accident. While Kabushhasn’t spoken directly with either rider, he was told that both were temporarilyhospitalized but that neither are in serious condition. Initial reportsspoke of Hesjedal’s automobile striking a telephone pole, ejecting bothhe and McGrath through the windshield and far from their vehicle. Kabushwas told that McGrath may have suffered a fractured vertebra, but Hesjedalappeared to be the less injured of the pair. More news on this story asit develops.
The US Gran Prix of Cyclocross continues on Sunday with the Rad Racing Gran Prix of Cyclocross at Fort Steilacoom Park in Tacoma, Washington
Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross
Cannondale Stumptown Classic
Portland, Oregon. October 8Elite Men
1. Ryan Trebon (Kona Les Gets)
2. Barry Wicks (Kona Les Gets)
3. Adam Craig (Giant Bicycle)
4. Mark McCormack (Team Clif Bar)
5. Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld-Louis Garneau)Elite Women
1. Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld-Louis Garneau)
2. Ann Knapp (Kona)
3. Barbara Howe (Velo Bella)Under-23 Men
1. Jesse Anthony (Team Clif Bar)
2. Troy Wells (TIAA-CREF)
3. Tommy McGrathJunior Men
1. Alex Howes (TIAA-CREF)
2. Danny Summerhill (TIAA-CREF)
3. Bjorn Selander (Alan Factory)Masters 35+
1. Dale Knapp (Kona)
2. Richard Feldman
3. John Gallagher
