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Powers and Compton repeat in Cincinnati
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The Cincinnati UCI3 Festival moved north Saturday to the pocket-sized Sunset Park in Middletown, Ohio, for the Java Johnny’s – Lionhearts International; and Jeremy Powers and Katie Compton once again delivered an old-fashioned whuppin.'
Sunset Park is a neighborhood park surrounded by houses. At first glance, most racers would never consider it large enough for even a small, grass-roots race, let alone as part of one of the richest UCI race weekends on the U.S. calendar. The park is so small that, even at less than full power, the two-speaker PA system could be heard well outside the borders. But Doug Dobrozsi and the Queen City Wheels took the tiny green plot and once again crafted an old-school cyclocross course.
With lots of tight turns, few straights of even moderate length, and other old-time features like a high-speed plank barrier section, the course was fun to ride and the tight confines and easy access encouraged camaraderie among spectators. Also contributing to the general good mood was the notably improved weather over the previous day’s mud bath in Covington.
As she did Friday, Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale) out-gunned national champion Compton (Planet Bike) at the start and led until the up-and-back beach volleyball section about one minute into the race.
While Butler rode through the section with no difficulty, Compton skimmed across the top of the sand. Ninety seconds into the race, as they crossed the finish line following the prologue section, Compton had a 14-second lead over Butler. Behind Butler was a large gap that developed when Deidre Winfield (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes) bobbled in the sand and everybody else stacked up behind her.
The race for the win was already essentially over as Compton just powered away from everybody for the remainder of the race. The only thing that interrupted her machine-like composure were a group of fun-loving hecklers who made her laugh while loudly imploring her to “slow down more, you’re making the race boring!”
Meanwhile, Butler rode her own race to maintain a gap over the three-way chase group behind her that contained Winfield, Barbara Howe (Vanderkitten) and Laura Van Gilder (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes). “We all knew when we came here that we were racing for second place,” said a happy Butler after the race.
Winfield, Howe and Van Gilder stayed together for nearly the entire race, with Winfield seeming slightly faster through the sand, but not enough to make a break. Just before crossing the line on the bell lap, Van Gilder went over the handlebars and flipped into the sand. Quickly back on her feet, she chased down the other two riders and then passed them. Van Gilder did not make another mistake and took the third-place. Behind her, teammate Winfield outsprinted Howe for fourth.
Before the men’s race, it was learned the Ryan Trebon (Kona) was still sore after impaling his calf on his chainring during the previous day’s race. At the start, Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) and Barry Wicks (Kona) outsprinted the field from opposite sides of the front row, with Wicks taking the front spot. Powers, though, would take the lead and make friends of the crowd when he unexpectedly bunny-hopped the barriers on the first lap, gapping Wicks and the rest of the field.
Trebon, Wicks and the season’s new revelation, Mark LaLonde (Planet Bike), made up the first chase group, while Ryan Knapp (BikeReg.com), Brian Matter (Gear Grinder), Joachim Parbo (CCV Leopard Cycles) and Troy Wells (Clif Bar) composed the second chase. Trebon tried to bridge the gap to Powers, then fell back through the chase groups before dropping out.
Powers continued to extend his lead, bunny-hopping the barriers every lap. More subtle, but perhaps more important, were Powers’ cornering lines. On some of the tight hairpin corners, Powers was noticeably faster, and in some cases was able to pedal all the way around where every other racer was coasting.
On the last lap, Powers not only bunny-hopped the barriers, he popped a wheelie to salute the crowd as he rolled another two-thirds of a lap to his second victory in two days, which this time came a few hours after his teammates Tim Johnson and Jamey Driscoll went one-two at the Providence Festival of Cyclocross in Rhode Island.
Wicks attacked LaLonde on the asphalt start straight to establish a gap that he held to the end. When LaLonde was asked what he thought when Wicks attacked, he smiled and said, “Ouch!” The second chase group, now without Knapp, stayed together until the last minutes of the race when Parbo gutted out another race to finish fourth ahead of Matter.
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