Funston, Ramsay, White and Hecht Take Junior Titles at the 2015 National Championships – Updated: Full Results, Notes on Shortened Races

Update: Full results added, along with some notes on the combined Junior race and Junior Women getting pulled after one lap.

Turner Ramsay (KMS Cycling / Killington Mtn. School), left, reacts to getting the one-lap-to-go bell and then being pulled for the win. © Brian Nelson

Junior Men 15-16

The first race of the day started off with an unfortunate crash on the pavement, with Denzel Stephenson (Boulder Junior Cycling) pulling away early from the chaos to take the holeshot. Evan Clouse (Canyon Bicycles-Shimano) was the first contender to chase a surging Stephenson in the first half of the first lap.

Scott Funston (RAD Racing NW getting the gold in the Junior Men’s 15-16 race. © Brian Nelson

The lower half of the course showed how sticky the mud was becoming in the week. The slipping was far less intense than the races seen on Saturday, but stays were getting clogged and derailleur hangers were snapping with frightening consistency.

Clouse and Funston had an epic battle for the Junior Men’s 15-16 National Championship. © Cyclocross Magazine

Scott Funston (Rad Racing NW) was able to surge forward before the second lap, and took the lead with Clouse in tow. In the second lap of the three lap race, the top five riders spaced themselves out, with Funston in the lead, Clouse second, Stephenson in third, Andrew Schmidt (Hincapie Development team) fourth and Calder Wood (Rad Racing NW) fifth.

“Evan was slow going through the running part,” Funston recapped after the race. “There I was able to pass. Apparently he had a mechanical, which really sucks because I thought it was going to be a slugfest until the end. I don’t think I would have won, because I was just dead.”

While Funston races on some weekends, he is mainly a cross country runner at his high school, a discipline that he readily admitted to helping him on the run-heavy course of the day.

Junior Women 15-16

The Junior Women 15-16 were the last of a three age group race to take off from the start, and all the riders and parents were warned before the race and at the startline that the finish could get confusing: after all, the Junior Women 15-16 were slotted to race a 30 minute race amongst other fields that were due to race ten minutes longer.

Turner Ramsay  (KMS Cycling / Killington Mtn. School) was given the lap bell and then pulled for the win. © Brian Nelson

The lap count was off for them, the announcers told the winner that there was still one lap to go, the winner was then pulled to the side to leave, and it was then she realized she was the winner. Turner Ramsay (KMS Cycling-Killington Mountain School) was the one consistent in the race. The young New England rider rode so well, she shed any possibility of controversy from the race. She was unarguably the winner of the 15-16 age group, not only riding through the traffic of 17-18 year old Junior women, but 17-18 year old Junior men that started a full two minutes before she was off on the starting blocks.

Kennedy Adams (WAS Labs Cycling) arrived for second, and Alijah Beatty (Northstar Development) came in for third.

“They were ringing the bell for me,” Ramsey told us after the race, thinking she still had a lap to go. “I was so confused. I [originally] put my hands up, they rung the bell for me, I went back to sprinting, and then a lady pulled me, but I was so excited… I was worried about how there were so many fields, but everyone got out of my way, which was really nice.”

“I was worried about the mud,” she said of the course. “[During pre-riding] I kept dropping my chain near the pits. My dad and I then looked at the sections I needed to run.” The strategy played out well as she took a commanding win on the day.

See the full interview with Turner Ramsay here.

Update: Prior to the race, Cyclocross Magazine asked USA Cycling’s Micah Rice about the peculiar field combinations, pairing the oldest, and presumably fastest Junior 17-18 Men with the youngest and presumably slowest Junior 15-16 women along with the Junior 17-18 women and Rice said it was simply a matter of field sizes, with the Junior 15-16 men’s field size as large as the other three fields combined, making scoring difficult and crowding the course if that field was combined with any other. Racers and parents were informed the night before, and would be informed before the race about the risks of their race being cut short, according to Rice.

But when Junior 15-16 women were pulled after just one lap, it still surprised them. Racers weren’t the only ones upset about getting pulled after one lap. See Colin Reuter’s opinion on the matter here and here, and head USA Cycling official Dot Abbott’s response at the bottom of this post.

Junior Men 17-18

No one was surprised that American phenomenon Gage Hecht (Alpha Bicycle-Subaru) took the holeshot on Monday in the Junior Men’s race. Not only has Hecht won the Men’s Elite Race for the Colorado State Championship, but he has also taken plenty of top fives in Europe that have captured the attention of the international cyclocross community.

Gage Hecht (Alpha Bicycle Co. – Vista Subaru) winning the Junior Men’s 17-18 race. © Brian Nelson

The race, however, was far from a guaranteed win for Hecht, who was finding and holding to ruts and pulling himself along the metal fences. Racer Lance Haidet (Bear Development Team) went on the attack in the first lap, and began dictating the pace up front, not only leading the race, but shedding Hecht from his wheel in the process.

“I had a few mishaps in the race early on,” Hecht told Cyclocross Magazine, “but I got it cleaned up.”

Cameron Beard (Cyclocrossworld) and Gavin Haley (Red Zone Cycling) also lingered in the mix up front, getting close to the leaders as the three surged around the course.

Many racers suffered jammed drivetrains, or worse, ripped rear derailleurs, due to the thick mud. © Cyclocross Magazine

Haidet was finally overtaken, but the duo remained together for some time. An unfortunate mechanical brought Haidet’s race to a halt as Haley and Beard, along with man other juniors, passed him. Hecht went on to take the win, with Haley coming in second and Beard taking third.

Hecht looked at his experiences in Europe as an aid “With the courses and level of competition, there’s certainly a learning curve there.” Zilker Park was one of his favorite courses of the year, but he also admitted that Namur was up there.

Junior Women 17-18

Emma White (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) took off from the starting grid, getting the holeshot, and never looked back. She found redemption on a season that saw so few races completed: after not finishing at last year’s nationals after a crash on Valmont’s plunge took her out of the race, White only saw a few races in Providence before another big crash at Ellison Park in Rochester forced her to spend the rest of the 2014-15 season recovering until the Resolution Cup.

Emma White had a season she can now put behind her with a stunning win. © Cyclocross Magazine

It wasn’t long until White was surging through the Men’s 17-18 fields. Even Richard Fries said there was no shame in being passed by a later heat considering the talent being showcased by White. She would go on to take a solo victory over two minutes faster than the runner up.

Meanwhile, Hannah Arensman (K-Edge/Felt) and Victoria Gates (JAM Fund/NCC) were battling the course out for second place. Although Arensman had the initial lead, Gates took the silver on the day with a stunning last lap that put her almost 40 seconds in front of third.

Results below official Dot Abott’s response regarding the pulling of junior racers after one or two laps:

2015 National Championships, Men's 15-16 Race

2015 National Championships, Women's 15-16 Race

2015 National Championships, Men's 17-18 Race

2015 National Championships, Women's 17-18 Race