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Rumors & Rumblings is our regular summer column that takes a look at what cyclocross stars are up to during the ’cross offseason. This past weekend was a big one with U.S. Pro Road Nationals taking place in Knoxville, Tennessee. We have quite a bit to report on from the time trials, criteriums and road races held in the Volunteer State. 

Coryn Rivera Wins Women’s Road Race

Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) has won a few U.S. cycling national titles during her racing career. Coming into Sunday’s road race in Knoxville the number was 71, to be exact. However, despite winning 71! national titles, one has eluded her thus far: the Women’s Elite Road Race. It’s not that she hasn’t come close; Rivera finished second each of the last three years.

All that changed on Sunday in Knoxville. Rivera captured her first Elite Road Race National Championship and added her 72nd Stars-and-Stripes jersey to her closet. Rivera entered the final corner of the course second wheel behind Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) and outkicked her in the finishing sprint to take home the win. Emma White (Rally Cycling) beat the rest of the 11-woman lead selection to take home third and top U23 honors.

Road standout Coryn Rivera has some cyclocross heritage. She is seen here en route to a second-place finish in the 2015 Collegiate D1 race. © Brian Nelson

Road standout Coryn Rivera has some cyclocross heritage. She is seen here en route to a second-place finish in the 2015 Collegiate D1 race. © Brian Nelson

Lily Williams (Hagens Berman Supermint) continued her impressive 2018 road season with a fifth-place finish out of the lead selection in the road race.

Emma White Adds to Her U23 Title Haul

Although still a U23 rider, Emma White has acquitted herself like an Elite rider during the past few U.S. Road Nationals. Last year, White finished fifth in the road race and sixth in the criterium while taking home the U23 National Championship on the road and second in the crit.

This year, White topped those performances. She started the weekend with a third-place finish in the 14-mile time trial on Thursday. She then took fourth in the criterium on Friday and finished third in the road race on Sunday.

White was the top U23 rider in each event, so she added three more 2018 U23 Stars-and-Stripes jerseys to go with the one she earned at Cyclocross Nationals in Reno.

Hecht Leads U23 Men in Time Trial

Last year at U23 Road Nationals, Gage Hecht (Aevolo) had a memorable day with a second-place finish against the tough field of his up-and-coming peers. Hecht and his Aevolo team headed to Pro Road Nationals this year, and Hecht started the weekend with another memorable performance. He finished fifth in the time trial on Thursday behind then-defending Road National Champion Larry Warbasse.

Eric Brunner (303 Project) and Lance Haidet (Aevolo) both landed in the top ten in the criterium on Friday. Brunner finished seventh and Haidet ninth.

The U23 Time Trial, Criterium and Road Race National Championships are at the end of July in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Full results from the U.S. Pro Road Nationals are available on USA Cycling’s website.

Compton and Company Shine at Tour of America’s Dairyland

Cyclocrossers were also keeping busy on the road elsewhere over the weekend. Katie Compton (IS Corp Cycling) moo-ved to Wisconsin for her annual Tour of America’s Dairyland criterium series cyclocross warm-up that started on Thursday. The 11-day series held each year in the Milwaukee area provides her a chance to get some preseason intensity in and eat lots of cheese curds (I am going to assume it’s mostly about the latter).

Joining Compton this year are Peta Mullens (Hagens Berman Supermint) and Katie Clouse (DNA Cycling) as well as a group of Midwest local stars that includes Maria Larkin (Chicago Women’s Elite Cycling), Katie Isermann (Chicago Women’s Elite Cycling) and Nicole Mertz (The Meteor / Intelligentsia).

Thus far through four races, Compton has finished in the top five in each race. She started the ToaD series off with a third-place in the Kenosha YMCA Food, Folks and Spokes race. She added a fourth on Friday in the East Troy Cycling Classic.

Mullens’ top finish was a win in Saturday’s Giro d’ Grafton. Clouse’s top finish was also in that race, where she finished sixth. Compton is currently tied for first in the overall ToaD standings and Mullens is third.

The Tour of America’s Dairyland continues through this Sunday when the series concludes in one of our Wisconsin favorites Wauwatosa. Race results are available on the ToaD website.

Noble Wins on the Road at Greenfield

Last year Ellen Noble (Trek Factory Racing) put in a full year on the road as her cyclocross offseason training. This year, we’ve been watching her return to mountain biking, which included a third-place finish at a UCI race in Canada last weekend.

This weekend, Noble put her mountain bike aside for her Trek road bike and jumped in the Greenfield Criterium that is part of Massachusetts’ NE Crit Week.

Her return to the road was a successful one. Noble took home the win in the Women’s Elite criterium at Greenfield and then for good measure, jumped in the Men’s Elite criterium as well.

BrittLee Bowman (CRCA / The Meteor / Intelligentsia) took home fourth and Erin Faccone (B2C2 p/b JRA Cycles) landed in the top ten as well in the Greenfield Crit.

In the Men’s race, Kevin Goguen (CRCA/Jamison Capital – Cannondale), whom we last saw at the national level in cyclocross in the Junior 17-18 race in Hartford, took home the win. The Junior 15-16 National Champion in Reno Magnus Sheffield (Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team) continued the youth movement with a third-place finish. Adam Myerson (Cycle-Smart) finished fourth, and Lane Maher (Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team) finished ninth.

NE Crit Week continues with races through Sunday.

For more offseason racing coverage, see our Rumors and/or Rumblings archive.