Gould and Kona Double Up at Wissahickon

Georgia Gould (Luna) took control early at Wissahickon.© Dennisbike

by Ken Getchell

October 18, 2009; Conshohocken, PA, USA:  Ryan Trebon summed up today’s Wissahickon in his typical straight-to-the-point manner, “It was cold and freakin’ windy.”  As in yesterday’s Granogue Cyclocross, Trebon led a Kona 1-2 and Gould won by a large margin.  But there were eye-opening gaps behind them.

The women started-off the second day of the UCI double-header, and despite the storm that turned the previous day’s course into a quagmire, the course at Wissahickon remained solid, though somewhat cooler than normal.  “This course is always exactly the same,” said Mo Bruno-Roy.  “It’s always flat and windy.  With the rain this weekend, it made it slightly boggier, but not much.  Fortunately, the rains stopped this morning.”

At the start of the women’s race, Rebecca Wellons (Team Plan C) took the early lead, but it wasn’t long before Georgia Gould (Luna Chix) asserted herself – and then fell down.  “It was after the two off-camber 180’s.  I got through the technical portion and thought ‘that wasn’t so bad’ because I hadn’t pre-ridden that section.  Then I just fell down and I was like, ‘Oh, that was a real professional move!'”  Even with the fall, Gould was untouchable for the second consecutive day.  Behind her, Mo Bruno-Roy (M&M Racing/Seven Cycles) was alone in second while a chase group consisting of yesterday’s revelation Amanda Carey (Kenda/Trainwitheric.com), the C3-Athletes Serving Athletes duo of Laura Van Gilder and Dee Dee Winfield, and Boston’s Andrea Smith (Minuteman Road Club), who was competing in her first MAC Powered by SRAM weekend.  Carey was dropped as Smith bridged-up to Bruno-Roy.  What followed was some of the most aggressive women’s racing seen in America in many years.  Time and again, the relatively unknown Smith (who has been racing ‘cross only since last year) would dive under Bruno-Roy, only to have the more experienced racer take away her line.  Bruno-Roy would counter every acceleration Smith made.  Smith eventually was able to get by for the first time heading into the show jumping ring with slightly less than 3 laps to go, but couldn’t ride Mo off her wheel.  The action came down to the long, paved uphill sprint about a minute after Gould crossed the line with a victory salute.  Smith led out the sprint from the front, accelerated late and sealed her best cyclocross performance to date with a second-place finish.

In the Men’s race, a crash at the start delayed a few riders while Dan Timmerman (Richard Sachs/RGM Watches/Radix) took the holeshot ahead of Ryan Dewald (Battley Harley Davidson) and Valentin Scherz (Pro Cycles Scott Newwork).  Asked after the race why they were getting beat off the line this weekend, Wicks and Trebon answered in unison, “Holeshots are overrated.”

Scherz led for a while, as did Wicks, but by halfway through the second lap Trebon was off the front and Wicks had a gap back to second.  The bearded Timmerman closed the gap to Wicks and made a race of it.  “I attacked Barry a couple of times,” said Timmerman, “but that plan backfired because then Barry attacked me.”  Still, Timmerman kept it close through the rest of the race, but Wicks never made a mistake large enough for Timmerman to get back in contact.

The MAC Powered by SRAM Series next moves to New Jersey on October 31 and November 1 for a weekend of UCI racing, Halloween costumes – and a wedding reception (really!).  Information on Beacon Cyclocross and HPCX can be found on BikeReg.com.

Race Notes:

1)      The large crowd near the beer tent amused themselves during the men’s race by planting money in the ground on the run-up for riders to grab while running by, something the backmarkers especially hope becomes a tradition.

2)      For the second day in a row, 15-year-old Sam “Sammy T. Hammer” O’Keefe of the C3-Athletes Serving Athletes team took a convincing win in the B-Men’s race.

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