Compton Wins Record Fifth National Championship – Updated Photo Gallery

Katie Compton wins her fifth straight elite women's title. © Joe Sales

by Jacob Sisson, photos by Joe Sales and Larry Rosa

The elite women’s field had a shot at victory for all of 45 seconds, before Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) took over and crushed all of those hopes. For Compton, it marked her fifth elite national championship in a row, tying American legend Alyson Dunlap for the most total national championships in American history. Compton will now be flying high as she heads back to Europe to take on the world’s elite.

The front of the women’s race looked exactly as everyone had expected, with Compton taking the reigns shortly after the start and Georgia Gould (LUNA) and Rachel Lloyd (Cal Giant Berries/Specialized) the only two riders who were able to keep the pace. Amy Dombroski (Velo Bella – Kona) was the next strongest rider on the road, but by the time the riders had completed half a lap, the rest of the race was well behind Compton, Gould and Lloyd. Compton had already successfully ridden Gould and Lloyd off her wheel as well, with small gaps forming between the three main protagonists before the first lap was over.

Compton continued to apply constant pressure and the gap back to Gould continued to grow steadily. Dombroski, who had won the women’s U23 race the day before, had been brought back by the duo of Laura Van Gilder (C-3 Sollay.com) and Maureen Bruno Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles). Behind those two, Meredith Miller (Cal Giant Berries) was stuck between the group of three and the duo of Sue Butler (Monaviecannondale.com) and Deidre Winfield (Velo Bella – Kona). By the time two laps were in the books, Compton’s advantage over Gould had grown to 13 seconds, and was increasing steadily. Her next lap would be one of her fastest, as the gap would grow from 13 seconds to 24 seconds.

Gould was not gaining much of an advantage over Lloyd, and at times it looked like Lloyd was slowly but surely reeling Gould in. Behind, Van Gilder and Bruno Roy had managed to put a small gap between themselves and Amy Dombroski, mostly under the pressure of Bruno Roy, who knew she would be overmatched in a sprint against either of those two ladies. Dombroski was having none of this and would claw her way back into the group. That chase group would remain intact for the rest of the race, with Van Gilder the most active in the later stages. Van Gilder led the group for the last half-lap of the race, leading out the sprint, and easily overcoming Dombroski. Bruno Roy did not have the sprinting legs of her chase group mates, and settled for sixth.

The most impressive ride of the day came out of the day’s 14^th place finisher, Devon Haskell (University of Chicago). Not only was Haskell riding her way into the top ten, she had also won a national championship in the collegiate category only two hours earlier!Compton’s gap with one lap to go would stand as unassailable and she could safely ride her way down the hill to her fifth consecutive national championship. Georgia Gould was able to keep Rachel Lloyd at bay and would take home the silver medal, ahead of Lloyd, who announced just after her race that this would be her final cyclocross national championships. Van Gilder held off Dombroski to take fourth in a close sprint, with Maureen Bruno Roy crossing in sixth. Seventh place would go to Meredith Miller, who rode an impressive race to stay away from Deidre Winfield who took eighth with Sue Butler coming home ninth. The top ten was rounded out by Kelli Emmett (Giant).

Want to relive the racing action? Watch our Live Updates archive of the day’s racing here. Also see Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 reports along with our Collegiate and Singlespeed, Men’s race reports from Day 4 of the 2008 Cyclocross National Championships from Kansas City.

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