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Nash, Trebon score wins in Louisville
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The USGP series made its third stop in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday. With record crowds in attendance and some seriously heavy mud on the course, Katerina Nash and Ryan Trebon raced to victory and into the series leaders’ jerseys at Day One of the USGP Derby City Cup.
The ground is still the same - a former country club sited on the flood plain of the Ohio River — but the course and conditions were different than the previous two iterations of this event. Heavy rain on Friday left the low spots soupy, but clearing skies and a gentle breeze along with hundreds of riders plying the track in earlier races left the twisting course a smorgasbord of textures. One encountered everything from chocolate milk to peanut butter.
The elite races could not have been more different. In the feature events of the day, Trebon (Kona-FSA) won a scintillating sprint over Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com). In the women's Katerina Nash clearly had the most power to deal with the difficult conditions, simply riding away from the field of female pros.
It was once again a battle of Kona versus Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld.com as Trebon and teammate Barry Wicks took a first lap lead only to be chased down by the tenacious trio of New Englanders Tim Johnson, Jamey Driscoll and Jeremy Powers. The addition of Canadian National Champion Geoff Kabush (Maxxis/Rocky Mountain), Chris Jones (Champion Systems), and Jesse Anthony (Jamis). After a barrage of attacks, the lead group boiled down to Trebon, Johnson, Driscoll and Anthony.
For three laps the pace cooled off. The leaders rode just hard enough to preserve their lead. With two laps to go the artillery barrage started. A Trebon attack dropped Anthony. An attack by Driscoll required Trebon to chase. A second attack by Driscoll pinned Trebon down with Johnson waiting to counter his teammate.
Trebon chose to wait. Over barriers and berms, Trebon held his last card for the end. On the last lap, Trebon closed the gap that Driscoll had opened ever so slowly - so that Johnson could not counterattack as the catch was made. In a real cliffhanger finish, Trebon caught Driscoll with only 180 meters to go as they entered the paved finishing stretch.
Asked to recount his final five turns, Driscoll said "I don't remember too much at that point, there wasn't much blood in my brain."
Johnson took a close third. Trebon took the series lead.
The win gave Trebon the overall series lead after three races.
Erik Tonkin, who started on the back row, rode a strong race and survived a rolled tubular to finish sixteenth and claim the SRAM Most Aggressive Rider prize.
Steady as she goes
The elite women's race started with a strong group of six that included Team Luna riders Nash, Georgia Gould, and Alison Dunlap, with Sue Butler (Mona Vie/Cannondale), Alison Sydor (Rocky Mountain/Maxxis) and Kristen Wentworth (Planet Bike).
Farther back, the rising 22-year-old star Amy Dombroski (Richard Sachs) wound up on the ground, having folded up the front of her bike in a ditch. By the time she re-mounted, more than 20 riders had passed.
After the first lap, Nash had gapped teammates Gould and Dunlap as Sydor and Sue Butler (Monavie) rounded out the top five. Dombroski had gradually worked her way up to seventh place.
Dombroski had gradually worked her way up to seventh place.
Steadily pulling away, Nash stood on the pedals where others sat spinning, stomping away over the spongy ground. Dombroski continued to surge through the field, passing all but Gould and Nash to notch her first USGP podium.
Dunlap outsprinted national road champ Meredith Miller to take fourth. Since series leader Katie Compton took a pass on the Louisville races to focus on World Cup events in Europe, Nash took the USGP leader's jersey. Nash is focusing her season on the world cyclocross championships which will be held in January, in her home country, the Czech Republic.
Dombroski and Jamey Driscoll both grew up in the Vermont hamlet of Jericho. And neither have much reverence for Olympians. Dombroski surged away to finish third. For her strong efforts on the day Dombroski was also named the SRAM Most Aggressive Rider.
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