Katie Compton at the Teva Mountain Games. Photo by Mark Legg-Compton
Vail, Colorado – Katie Compton won her second consecutive Teva Mountain Games Cross Country race this weekend, fending off strong challenges from Georgia Gould (Luna) and Heather Irminger (Gary Fisher/Subaru). Compton, still racing for Spike, while in the midst of a hunt for sponsors, attacked early in the race, opening up a small ten second gap. By the start of lap two, that gap had grown to thirty seconds.
“Heather was leading Georgia heading towards the first short singletrack section early in the race when I jumped past them and applied a little pressure through the singletrack. After that, I just rode my own pace up the climb with Georgia chasing about ten seconds back.”
Compton maintained the early pressure heading into lap two of three,opening up an advantage of one minute and three seconds going into the final lap. Heather Irminger – having a good day in third place – continued to chase Gould, who dangled about a minute in front. Despite her best efforts, she could not close the gap and would settle for the bronze medal.
At the top of the climb on the final lap, Gould had reduced Compton’s lead to approximately 40 seconds. Compton was feeling the affects of her mid-race asthma attack from the previous weekend’s racing at the US Cup in Alabama, that landed her in the hospital. “My lungs were still feeling a little raw from the Alabama race and I had to back off a little on the last climb. I was a little worried because Georgia is a real fighter and never lets up. On the descent I lost a little more time because I had to dismount and run around a rider in the women’s expert race who wouldn’t or couldn’t let me by, but I’m sure Georgia had the same trouble too with so many categories on course at the same time.”
Compton hung on for the win over Gould and Irminger to win the $3,000 prize money and a very nice watch, supplied by Victorinox.
