Powers and Compton Continue Their Winning Ways in Waterloo: Full Results

Katie Compton and Jeremy Powers both took commanding wins on a day of evolving weather conditions at the 2nd Annual the Trek CXC Cup. By the time the Elite women and Elite men hit the course, rain had given way to dry and fast course conditions.

Report by Mark Vareschi.

Compton Wins in Sponsor’s Back Yard

Compton makes her debut in Waterloo a dominant one.

Gabby Durrin (Neon Velo) took the holeshot and led the first lap. She was joined in the front group by Meredith Miller (Noosa Professional Cyclocross), Caroline Mani (Raleigh-Clement), and Nicole Duke (Marin-Spy).

The second lap saw a reshuffling of the front group with Mani, Miller, and Georgia Gould (Luna Chix) all in attendance and Durrin driving the pace.

Katie Compton (Trek Factory Racing) worked her way through traffic, and attacked at the start of the third lap.

Compton’s attack forced Miller, Gould, Mani, and Durrin to dig hard. It was to no avail as Compton glided through the Trek off-camber section and extended her lead.

“I had a bit of a tricky start. I recovered from that and then I spent the first bit trying to get through traffic,” said Compton. “I attacked on the second lap and then got a gap and just tried to put pressure on the run-ups. It’s really fast, really windy, and it was getting hot out there on the last lap.”

With two laps to go Compton had the race well in hand, and the chase group was left to fight for the remaining podium spots. After a bobble by Miller, Gould opened a gap on the run-up that she would hold to the line.

The chase splintered even further on the bell lap. With Gould firmly in second, Mani rode alone in third, while Miller and Durrin chased. Miller opened a small gap going into the barriers and held it to the finish.

For Compton this was her 96th UCI race victory.

Powers Holds off Johnson, Milne Podiums

Powers continues the post-CrossVegas undefeated streak of National Champions.

Wisconsin native Tristan Schouten grabbed the holeshot, but it wasn’t long before Jeremy Powers (Aspire Racing) took the lead that he would carry all the way to the finish. Powers entered the hilly section of the course with a six second gap over the field led by Shawn Milne (Boulder Cycle-Sport/YogaGlo) and Jeremy Durrin (Neon Velo.)

For Powers, this was all to plan.

“It felt great. This is a good course, really fast. There’s not a lot of places to find a ton of time so for me today I was thinking that it would be great to get out there and get a nice gap early and really establish myself,” said Powers. “I didn’t want to come out in 13th place, or 20th place and have someone crash in front of me given how technical it is right at the start. I established a good gap and then ran with it. I built it up and then hung onto it. It was pretty turnkey; it was exactly what I expected from myself.”

With six to go Powers rolled through the start finish comfortably off the front with two chasers, Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and Milne, charging hard.

At four to go, no competitors were in sight as Powers continued his dominating ride. Behind him, Johnson continued to attack Milne, who responded to each effort. Alan Krughoff (Noosa Professional Cyclocross) and Ben Berden (Raleigh-Clement) followed just off the pace.

With Powers comfortably in the lead at three to go, the sparring for second continued as Milne launched an unsuccessful attack on the pavement through the start finish. Johnson bided his time and waited for Milne to make a mistake before countering.

“As we were going along I could tell I had pretty good pace on him [Milne] so I’d get a couple seconds on him and he’d close it eventually,” said Johnson. “I was behind him and I was hoping he’d be pushing it, and maybe he’d take a risk that wouldn’t pay off. Sure enough he ended up going down in one of the slippery corners.”

The bell lap found Powers digging to fend off a late charge from Johnson, who’d opened a significant gap over Milne. Krughoff had shaken off Berden on the back section of the course with 2 laps to go and rolled through solo in 4th.

Powers was too strong and stayed away for the solo win. Johnson took second, Milne third, Krughoff fourth, and Berden fifth.

2014 Trek CXC Cup Day 1 Elite Men Race Results

2014 Trek CXC Cup Day 1 Elite Women Race Results