Jeremy Powers takes a big win on Day 1 of the UCI3 Festival. © Mitch Clinton
by Ken Getchell
October 9, 2009; Covington, KY, USA: Jeremy Powers (CyclocrossWorld.com/ Cannondale) and Katie Compton (Planet Bike/Stevens) were victorious by wide margins in today’s Cyclo Stampede, the opener of this year’s Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival.
But the race was truly dominated by the team of Mother Nature and Gravity. Mother Nature delivered plenty of pre-race rain, while gravity took advantage of riders as they rode, or rather, tried to ride, the multiple off-camber straights and turns on the golf-course based route. If the riders of the race had been taxed for the amount of course tape they took out, a good portion of the national debt could have been retired. With three inches of rain the night before, the course had to be re-routed prior to the race to avoid fairways and use more of the golf car paths. But muddy, slippery off-cambers were the story of the day. Even Compton was victimized by the muddy slopes, falling twice and running off course in the first lap.
Surprisingly, Compton lost the hole shot to Sue Butler (Monavie Cannondale) at the start of the women’s race. With only one bike available for this race, she never pre-rode the course to try and keep her race bike clean prior to the start and elected not to lead the race since she didn’t know where the course went.
Katie Compton was at ease despite not pre-riding the course. © Mitch Clinton
“Sue would have got the holeshot anyway,” she said of Butler. When asked why she didn’t have a pit bike, the World Cup leader explained that there had only been enough time between her busy travel schedule to assemble the two bikes she used in the World Cup last weekend, and she and husband Mark (who finished third in the Elite Masters race) made the decision to leave one bike in Europe.
With Butler leading into the first off-camber “Slippy-Slide” section moments after the start of the race, Compton tried to pass on the low side of the hill. The two riders both careened, more-or-less out of control, to a point of convergence just before the course flattened out onto a golf cart path, knocking Compton into the tape and bringing her to a halt as she unhooked her bike. Just as she got going again, a chain reaction on the same “Slippy-Slide” brought seven riders down. But the momentary stop, and two first lap falls into the mud couldn’t slow down Compton for long. By the end of the third lap, she had a 93 second lead, which she extended throughout the remainder of the race. “I forgot how to ride mud,” said Compton after the race. “After the second lap I remembered how again and it got better, and the third lap was even better.”
Prior to the start of the men’s race, Ryan Trebon (Kona) pronounced the soggy, slippery course to be “burley” and said the one portion of asphalt golf cart path was “terrifying”. That very portion of the course would have a big outcome on the finish of the race. Soon after the start of the men’s race, a lead trio of Jeremy Powers and the Kona teammates, Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks, pulled away from the field, while Danish National Champion Joachim Parbo (CCV Leopard Cycles) and Mark Lalonde (Planet Bike) began a battle for fourth that would last most of the race. “It was the kind of race where you just waited for somebody to make a mistake,” said Powers afterward.
On the third lap, Trebon led Powers across the line, while looking back to find Wicks, who had been gapped by about ten bike lengths. Not long after, on a grass-to-pavement transition, Trebon flatted his front tire and had to run over half a lap. Powers never looked back and Wicks was never able to close the gap. Behind them, Parbo used his immense experience to gut-out a third place.
The Cincinnati UCI3 Festival continues with Day 2 on Saturday with the Java Johnny’s Lionhearts International presented by Queen City Wheels in Middletown OH. Brief results below.
Photo Gallery by Mitch Clinton
Photo Gallery by Mark Legg-Compton
Brief results:
Women:
1. Katie Compton (Planet Bike)
2. Sue Butler (MonavieCannondale.com)
3. Deidre Winfield (C3 Sollay)
4. Linda Sone (Planet Bike)
5. Laura Van Gilder (C3 Sollay)
6. Barbara Howe (Vanderkitten)
7. Kimberly Flynn (Vantaggio/Specialized)
8. Elizabeth Frye (Boone Velo)
9. Nicole Borem (DRT Consulting)
10. AnnaJean Dallare (Cannondale Factory Racing)
Men:
1. Jeremy Powers (CyclocrossWorld / Cannondale)
2. Barry Wicks (Kona)
3. Joachim Parbo (CCV Leopard Cycles)
4. Marko Lalonde (Planet Bike)
5. Ryan Trebon (Kona)
6. Molly Cameron (Portland Bicycle Studio)
7. Troy Wells (Clif Bar)
8. Brian Matter (Tem Geargrinder)
9. Greg Wittwer (Alan North America)
10. Weston Schempf (C3 Sollay)
