THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
'Cross nats: Compton crushes despite back-of-the-pack start; Wells whips 'em in Liberty Cup
You just can't keep Katie Compton in the back of the bus.
The reigning national elite women’s cyclo-cross champion - who started in 41st position after being denied a call-up at Sunday's race during the Liberty Mutual U.S. Cyclo-cross National Championships due to her lack of UCI points - tore straight through the field on the first lap, seized the lead and never let it go.
As the sighted pilot of a Paralympic tandem team, Compton, 27, is not allowed to carry UCI points under Paralympics rules. It’s a rule intended to keep professional riders out of the Paralympics. However, it couldn’t keep the Redline rider from a second consecutive national title.
Just as she did last year, Compton spent her fall racing the Category 3 men at American Cycling Association events in Colorado. And once again, her lack of UCI racing experience seemed to matter little as she soloed away from the rest of the field in Providence, Rhode Island, repeating her dominating performance in Portland last year.
Behind her, 2002 national champ Ann Knapp (Kona) rode alone in second spot, while further back Rhonda Mazza (S&M-Vanilla Bicycles) and Maureen Bruno Roy (Independent Fabrication) battled for the bronze. Mazza’s slip-up in a nasty off-camber section on the final lap opened the door for Bruno Roy to take her first elite ‘cross medal.
Much was made about Compton’s lack of a call-up position, as race organizers had originally listed defending national champions on their Web site as the first riders to be called up in the elite men’s and women’s races.
International Cycling Union regulations, however, state that UCI points decide the first order of start position, followed by any non-UCI ranked rider, in order, who placed in the top 20 at the 2004 national championships. Though there was speculation that the race organizer might have some room for an interpretation of the rules, in the end chief commissaire Randy Shafer held firm to the UCI line.
"I think there was a lot of desire to call Katie up first," Shafer said. "But UCI regulations state that any race other than a World Cup is based on UCI points. That’s their ranking, so that’s how we start national championships as well.
"There was certainly a lot of discussion about that. But this is a world championship selection event, and UCI regulations state that’s the way we do it. USCF rules state that when we have a selection event, we have to hold it according to UCI regulations completely. We saw people this weekend from 100th place make it up to second place. It’s pretty easy if that’s what you want to do."
And while it might be easier said than done, a wide road that enabled riders to be lined up 14 deep, combined with a long stretch of pavement before the riders hit the slushy snow sections, allowed Compton to make the front group in the first moments of the race.
"I just wanted to make sure I had a gap in case I crashed or had a mechanical or a flat tire," Compton said. "I just wanted to stay on it the whole time. But everything ran smoothly, and I didn’t even have to take a bike change. I figured I would have lost five or 10 seconds in the pit with a bike change, and I didn’t want to break my rhythm."
It seemed the right thing to do. Behind, Knapp chased in vain. Like Compton, she was one of the few riders able to keep her bike upright throughout the 40-minute race. "I had one wild turn, but I didn’t wipe out," Knapp said. "But I felt like I didn’t have it all pulled together. It was hard to see, and it was slow. I wished I felt a little more on today, but, oh well."
Compton agreed that a one-on-one race can be preferable to a one-on-none affair, but added that in conditions like she experienced today, it was best to keep an open course ahead.
"I think it’s more fun when you’re racing head to head," she said. "But for today, with the lines, being able to see where I wanted to go, it made a huge difference to be off the front."
When all was said and done, Compton collected her second consecutive stars-and-stripes jersey, Knapp took the silver, and Bruno Roy won the fight for the third spot on the podium.
"It was a surprise that I stayed in third," Bruno Roy said. "I had a strong start heading into the first turn, and was in the first position for a while. Then Katie Compton came by like a freight train. Ann was chasing Katie down, but I just hung onto third and settled into my position.
"Rhonda came up and passed me — she was really moving. But I started closing the gap on her. In the last lap she slipped on the muddy ice coming into the off-camber section by the start/finish. It was pretty slow riding that section — you just tried to stay upright. It was a good place for her to slip, for me to catch her, because she wasn’t going to be able to power away. She just held her momentum and I ended up passing her about 15 seconds later."
Elite women
1. Katie Compton, Redline, 39:55
2. Ann Knapp, Kona, at 1:32
3. Maureen Bruno-Roy, Independent Fabrication, at 2:38
4. Rhonda Mazza, Team S&M-Vanilla Bicycles, at 3:05
5. Melissa Thomas, Tokyo Joes-GoLite, at 3:23
6. Barbara Howe, Velo Bella, at 4:02
7. Georgia Gould, Kona, at 4:24
8. Brigette Stoick, River City Bicycles, at 6:11
9. Amy Wallace, Verizon Wireless Wheelworks, at 6:35
10. Josie Beggs, Starbucks-California Giant Strawberries-Specialized, at 6:39.
Wells wins again in battle of the champs
Earlier in the day, spectators were treated to a battle of past and present national champions during the Liberty Cup, a non-championship event held strictly for the fun of it.
European-based riders Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Jonathan Page, who races for Cérvelo but was riding for race sponsor Liberty Mutual in Providence, gave the race a pass. But among the starters were Canadian champ Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau), multiple national titlist Steve Tilford (Verge-Shimano), and freshly minted elite champ Todd Wells (GT-Hyundai), who put on another impressive display of power to win by a considerable margin.
There was no controversy over call-ups at the Liberty Cup, as it was a non-UCI event. After calling up the weekend’s national champions, race organizers gave Bessette a second-row position, followed by Adam Craig (Giant), Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com), Barry Wicks and Erik Tonkin (Kona), Mark McCormack (Clif Bar) and Jonathan Baker (Primus Mootry).
Like Compton, Wells was off the front immediately. He opened a 20-second lead on the first of seven laps and, except for instances where the course overlapped itself, was never to be seen by the rest of the field again. Craig was the primary chaser for the first half of the race until Johnson — who finished fifth in the elite men’s race after his cleat disengaged from his shoe but stuck in his pedal — slipped past Craig and took over. But with a lead that had stretched over 40 seconds, Wells was not to be caught.
"I had this whole other half of my legs that I didn’t use yesterday," Johnson joked. "But seriously, Wells deserved to go two-for-two. He was flying today. There was no way I was going to catch him today."
Wells, who, like Johnson, is known to excel in adverse conditions, appeared energized by the combination of a slippery course, a new stars-and-stripes jersey and a lack of Saturday’s main protagonists.
"Today’s race was slippery, there were a lot of ruts that were frozen. It was sketchy," Wells said. "I was going to take it easy out there, but I was out there freezing, my feet, my legs, so I figured if I was going to be out there suffering I might as well try to win. Without Page and Trebon, those were the big guys yesterday, it was easier and there was no pressure, so it was nice."
Also putting in an impressive ride was 2004 national junior champion Bjørn Selander (Alan Factory), who finished third in the junior race Saturday after an incidental collision with eventual winner Danny Summerhill (TIAA-CREF-Clif Bar) destroyed his derailleur hanger.
Selander showed what he was made of in the Liberty Cup, riding in the top 10 for most of the race, ahead of names like Chris Horner (Saunier Duval), masters 30-34 national champ Justin Robinson (California Giant Strawberries-Specialized) and recently crowned U23 national champ Troy Wells. Tilford caught Selander on the final lap, bumping the talented young rider into 11th place.
Things didn’t fare as well for another talented young rider, Alex Coelho (Redline-Excel), who started out in the top 10 but abandoned the race after a series of crashes. Coelho, who impressed spectators last weekend at the Colorado state championship by riding at the front of the race, won by national cross-country champion Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, took an easy victory in the juniors 15-16 race by nearly three minutes.
"I had a good start, but the conditions were much tougher than yesterday," Coelho said. "After a few crashes I just felt like I didn’t even know how to ride a bike anymore."
Liberty Cup
1. Todd Wells, GT-Hyundai, 59:45
2. Tim Johnson, Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau, at 1:22
3. Adam Craig, Giant, at 2:01
4. Mark McCormack, Clif Bar, at 2:21
5. Erik Tonkin, Kona, at 2:22
6. Jeremy Powers, Jelly Belly, at 3:20
7. Carl Decker, Giant, at 3:38
8. Jonathan Baker, Primus Mootry, at 3:41
9. Michael Gallagher, U.S. Armed Forces, at 3:48
10. Steve Tilford, Verge-Shimano, at 4:45
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