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Weekend 'CrossWrap: Bessette doubles in MAC series; Trebon, Wicks collect wins

By race promoters' press releases
Published: Oct. 24, 2005

Lynn Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) and Ryan Trebon (Kona) won the Wooden Wheels Cyclo-cross on Saturday.

The race at A.I. DuPont’s Granougue estate near Wilmington, Delaware, part of the Verge Mid-Atlantic Cyclocross Series, was a slippery, muddy mess.

Bessette took the lead by the end of the first lap, accompanied only by Maureen Bruno-Roy (Independent Fabrications). Idaho’s Georgia Gould (Kona Bikes) got a slow start, but made steady progress through the field, working her way into second place and then setting off after Bessette.

As the last lap began, the light rain that had come and gone all morning turned into a downpour. Gould appeared to be the faster rider at the end of the race, but Bessette had already established a huge margin that couldn’t be erased.

"I liked the course," said Bessette. "It was fun, but not at first. In training, I just didn’t like it. But in my mind, when you’re racing and the whistle blows to start the race, I can just feel how the course flows."

In the men’s race, Trebon and teammate Barry Wicks controlled the field with Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) in their wake. But the race soon boiled down to a battle between the 6-foot-5-inch Trebon and the 5-foot-9-inch Johnson. Trebon’s size made negotiating the grease-like mud awkward, while Johnson’s low center of gravity and years of experience let him maintain his momentum in places where other riders were coming to a near halt.

Trebon tripped over the hurdles with just over two laps to go and went from leading the race to falling almost 200 yards behind Johnson. But on the long, straight asphalt hill that formed the course’s start/finish straight, Trebon closed most of the gap before heading back into the mud. And so it went, Johnson the technician versus Trebon the powerhouse - in one half-mile stretch of serpentine turns, they swapped the lead four times before Trebon finally collected the win.

"It was slick," said Trebon. "It would look like it was solid but it wasn’t. I crashed there, I crashed over there, I tripped on the barricade. But it was really fun."

Added Johnson: "That was so much fun. That was a blast. That’s why I love ‘cross."

Bessette, Wicks win Wissahickon
Lynn Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) did it again on Sunday while Oregon’s Barry Wicks (Kona) rode to a win at the Wissahickon Cyclocross in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania.

The Verge Mid-Atlantic Cyclocross Series contest showcased a new venue, the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show and Country Fair Grounds about 45 minutes northwest of Philadelphia. Completely open, with a long, paved start/finish straight and a short run-up, the twisting, turning course looked like a grass criterium. But that didn’t mean it was easy. As Bessette noted, "The course is much harder than it looks - there’s no place to rest."

Georgia Gould (Kona), ordinarily a slow starter, took the holeshot and led the field into the first section of turns. "I’ve been trying to improve my starts," she said. "That was one of my goals for this race."

Once Bessette took the lead, however, it was clear who was the strongest rider in the race. The Velo Bella duo of Barbara Howe and Christine Vardaros worked together in an effort to keep Bessette in sight, but to no avail. Bessette won handily, with Howe and Vardaros second and third.

In the men’s race, the usual suspects – Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks (Kona), Mark McCormack (Clif Shot), and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada), joined by Jonathan Baker (Primus Mootry Racing) – took the first-lap lead. On the next go-round, Trebon, Wicks and McCormack rode away from the other two as Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) began working his way through the field.

McCormack sat on the two Kona riders as Johnson rodeinto fourth place on the twisty circuit, 23 seconds behind the leaders.

"Ryan, Mark and I were up front, but McCormack wouldn’t work," said Wicks. "We couldn’t just wait for Johnson to catch up, so we had to keep it going."

Wicks eventually surged ahead on an uphill grassy section to establish a lead, and Trebon soon followed to wrap up Kona’s two-week Eastern road trip with a one-two finish. McCormack hung on for third.

"I got lucky," Wicks said. "One of us was going to drop McCormack, and it just happened to be me. It’s always better to go with three laps to go instead of five laps to go, but it worked out in the end."