National Elite Wrap-Up: Solid performances from Wicks, BJM, AJM, Olds
The US Elite Cyclocross Championships were decided on Saturday (Men) and Sunday (Women), with dominating performances my Ryan Trebon and Katie Compton, respectively.
Northern California riders were in the action as well, with standout performances from Elite Men Barry Wicks (6th), Ben Jacques-Maynes (7th) and Andy Jacques-Maynes (10th).
In the Women's race, Shelley Olds' US Cyclocross Nationals debut was a strong one, notching up an incredible 8th place, and Christine Vardaros returned to home soil for a 7th place finish. Also in the mix were Sarah Kerlin (16th) and Josie Beggs (20th).
Full results here.
Also see CyclingNews' US Natz page to links to all race reports.
Northern California riders were in the action as well, with standout performances from Elite Men Barry Wicks (6th), Ben Jacques-Maynes (7th) and Andy Jacques-Maynes (10th).
In the Women's race, Shelley Olds' US Cyclocross Nationals debut was a strong one, notching up an incredible 8th place, and Christine Vardaros returned to home soil for a 7th place finish. Also in the mix were Sarah Kerlin (16th) and Josie Beggs (20th).
Full results here.
Also see CyclingNews' US Natz page to links to all race reports.
posted by funkdaddy at 12:52 PM
15 Comments:
Thanks for the props on your site! And thanks to all the Bay Area folks for the cheers! I'm now back in Belgium.
Best,
Christine (aka Peanut)
who cares about the Nationals.
the only race that matters is Masters Worlds!
I am going to Master Worlds and everyone else is not!
That is the big race.
Who cares about the Masters Worlds!!
The only race that matters is the Inter-Galactic Final!!
I am going to the Inter-Galactic Final and everyone else is not!!
THAT.. is the REAL race!
dude Masters Worlds is it! Dont kid yourself.
Random thoughts from a sports fan at Nationals:
It is a great move on the part of USA Cycling to have an open enrollment format at Nationals for the Non-Elite classes. Cyclo-cross in the United States is a participant sport where the racers make up the fan base as well. In other words there are not a whole lot of fans who are not either racers or friends/family of racers. As a result there were huge crowds at Nationals that lent to a very exciting atmosphere. The flip side to this is that a riders placement on the starting line pretty much came down to how fast their internet connection was, because it was a first registered, first lined up scenario. Case in point is Gannon Myall, he was 11th at last years National's, but they only seed the top 10 from last year. Moreover, he had several top 5 finishes in this years National Grand Prix series but they do not count this toward the seeding. Thus a guy who should have been on the front line was somewhere around 100th place at the start. Despite this he finished 5th.
The course was truely epic, because it was fast and technical at the same time. I am all for gnarly run ups and sand or mud pits, but a good cross course has to have some wide open fast sections as well. It seems a lot of our Nor-Cal courses miss this point. The nationals course was the best course of the year in my opinion, and I did a lot of racing including most or all of the dfL, Pilarcitos, Surf City, and CCCX races.
The action in the elite race was incredible to witness. The fact that Trebon soloed for a 40 second victory and seemed to be lightning fast made me wonder what it would have been like to watch Sven Nys go around the course. The weekend before Nationals Nys was a full five minutes faster than Trebon at a Superprestige race. Let's see that would put him about 17 or 18 minutes faster than me over an hour, ouch! The chase group was powered primarily by Tim Johnson and John Page, both of whom were just motoring and smooth. It was really great to see Page make such a comeback after the huge disappointment of his injury before the first World Cup.
Lastly, our boy Funk had a bad ass race. He was moaning before the race that he should not even be there because of his cold, but he kicked butt to finish sixth anyway. He ran with a big chase group of six following the two leaders and was near the front of it the whole time. Maybe with a bit of luck health wise and a bit more bicycle riding from now until June he can pull of the elusive big win next year. Thanks for the blog Funk- dfl Rules!
Ducky T
Ducky or silly rabbitt??
I did the Pilarcitos races, the Surf City races and the CCCX races and I am also going to Master Worlds, and those courses I raced on all had some fast, wide open sections. Seems to me, by the great results NorCal racers had at the big dance that the NorCal courses are doing darn good preparing our racers for national events.
Ducky, seems to me you are missing a few points in your points.
Ducky T
I also raced at the Nationals like you, and I thought the course was good. But I also raced the Pilarcitos races and the CCCX races and it seems those courses were fine too. I did a CCCX course where there were many wide open sections where racers could get some speed up. And then at the same venue, but another race, it was horrid rain and I was in my lower ring a lot. But those courses always had some fast wide open sections to really use the Cyclocross bikes advantage. I dont know what courses your refering to, but I think you are off on that topic!
As far as Myall's starting position, that really sucked for him, and it seemed he was on a good day and possibly could have won the thing. But who ever is his handler needs to either get in his registration right when the site opens for sign-ups, or he needs to have the national governing body hear his case, and his past results to grant him a better starting position. But if there are rules set in stone, then he could have only improved his start position by a early registration submit, and if this was not done then it is no ones fault then his own. There were other stories of great racers getting bad starting positions and that is the way it goes sometimes. Clearly Myall was diserving of a front row, or 2nd row start position, and I am guessing he will have that next year.
Quack, Quack Ducky. See you at the races!
Dave Carr knows that in your America Cyclocross is a participant sport filled with bloke's who give it a go and enjoy racing Cyclocross. There are more age group racers then fans watching the events. Here in Europe Cyclocross racers are the finest elite atheltes alive in the region, and they are true super stars. Cyclocross racing takes over our entire towns and the spectators watching are average folk who follow the sport on TV and in the newspapers like American baseball and football fans do in your USA. Here in Europe they have kids going crazy over the super-star racers and the top racers have true movie star status. Our top riders here in Europe are like your finest tennis players or golfers in the USA, they are the real deal, they are larger than life, and they have fans going crazy over just catching a glimpse of their shadow. USA's top riders are just getting by, while Europe's cream of the crop riders are commanding huge Euros just to make an appearance at a event. USA's promoters fight just to find a place to hold a Cross race, while here in Europe they have entire towns fighting over the rights to hold Cyclocross races and the entire towns population attends and goes crazy for the big events. Were talking kids, adults, and the grandparents too!
I think in 20 years if Cyclocross stays strong in America there will be more Americans at the top level in Europe racing, instead of 2 or 3 that I see now. Cyclocross is in the stage now in America where riders like Jock Boyer and Andy Hampston first started doing the Tour de France. Odds are in 10 to 20 years America will produce the next great Cyclocross king, like Lemond or Armstrong were at the Tour de France, A racer who will dominate a sport that was considered far away above something an American could handle.
But it will take time and pioneers to make that leap into the sport we own. I am thinking that Funke's son will be the first American Elite World Champion in Cyclocross.
I respect Dave Carr for his skill and his keen knowledge of the traditions and protocol of the sport that my fellow Europeans dominate.
Keep up the good work Dave and see you when you come to Belgium. The Flanders boys think your great lad.
And the Brussels boys enjoy your mud index.
Johan M.
God bless all of our local race promoters and their courses, no offense intended. Obviously, I find their courses and cross racing super fun or else I would not show up every weekend to get slaughtered (butchered, stuffed and slow roasted)!
Quack
Hey, hats off and many thanks to all of our local race promoters and their courses. I love 'em or else I would not show up every weekend to get slaughtered (butchered, stuffed, and slow roasted).
Quack
Alec went to work at Providence and I went just to play and take pictures. And what I wouldn't give for a location like Roger Williams Park - it was the real deal. After 3 days of ferocious racing, untold thousands of tire impacts - you could see where the lines were for the most part but the resilience of Rhode Island dirt was phenomenal. Sunday night during teardown the course traces were visable but would disappear shortly. As many have mentioned the course was very wide - heaps of passing room and the City and the Park honchos were not dismayed by the very slight scars - that stuff does disappear quickly, unlike Northern California dirt. That Park has uber tough turf! The Mayor was very complimentary and truly wants racing to return to his city.
Richard Fries, Tom Stevens and Lyle Fulkerson swung for the fences - and did they ever smack one out of the park. Yes, this could easily be the first US World Cup venue - they just need a couple hundred thousand simoleons to make it happen.
Northen California general course material is so much softer and delctae compared to our New England cousins - we'd be able to see the remains of 2,000 competitors thrashing our courses from the moon! From my perspective as a way longtime retired racer - everybody got a chance to RACE - lapped riders were not being yanked off the course after 2 laps due to low starting positions that some Nationals courses require - that's the 'cross etiquette that I like. The course was long enough that in many events there were no lapped riders. 3 sections requiring dismounts (unless you were Matt White) were perfect - the rest of the time you were flat out moving.
The bike wash equipment sat unused all weekend long - the Medical crew had very few sorties - and Providence? They like food in that town. Yumm-o. What's not to like?
I would give almost anything to beam Roger Williams Park to my backyard.
Tom Simpson
Hey Johann,
dude, the reason you have a whole town's population showing up for a cross race is because in those regions THERE'S NOTHING TO DO on weekends except eat, drink and bet on pigeons races!!
That is why you Americans are slow and cry about everything.
You are negative on things and this leads to you being a negative loser.
The whole towns here just love the action and the history the races provide.
Your whole towns show up to football games and baseball games and that is all you have to do there stupid boy. Its not our fault that your towns dont like bike races. Just deal with the fact and dont be biter to me please.
We do cyclocross, you do other stuff.
That is my point, you little leg shaving fool. I mean dude.
I have to agree with that dude from Belgium.
We have too many things going on this country, the USA.
If americans had pigeon racing as a big thing, then I bet cyclocross would be huge.
But we have too much other stuff besides bicycle racing to occupy our brains.
B.J.M. needs to ride wih gloves, because if he rides with no gloves and he crashes he will scrape his little hands. And have a boo boo.
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