An ecstatic Stephen Hyde took the win on Day One of the Derby City Cup. © Kent Baumgardt
In what was unquestionably the upset of the season, the understudy has defeated the master—Stephen Hyde (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) beat Jeremy Powers (Aspire Racing) in a sprint finish at day one of the Derby City Cup in Louisville, KY.
Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com controlled the race early, with Ryan Trebon and Curtis White driving the pace.
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Victim of a poor start, Jeremy Powers had to work his way through traffic throughout the race, and finally made the final selection with Logan Owen (Cal-Giant), Trebon and Hyde. White dangled slightly off the lead group's pace in fifth place.
Responding to an attack by Owen, Hyde was able to counter and establish a slight gap on Powers and Trebon. Powers eventually bridged the distance, with Owen clawing his way back to the leaders, establishing the final selection as Powers, Hyde and Owen, with Trebon chasing a few seconds back.
With one lap to go, Owen fell off the pace on a run up, leaving Powers and Hyde to duke it out for the win. Powers attemped to attack to shake Hyde with half a lap to go, but was unable to go clear. With positioning being critical at the Derby City Cup's finish, Hyde moved to the front and the rest was history—Powers was unable to match his pace, and Hyde was able to sprint to the UCI C1 win.
Owen stayed steady to finish in third, with Trebon and White rounding out the top five.
With the drama of the Elite Men's race, the Elite Women's race played out a little more like we're used to seeing. Katie Compton (Trek Factory Racing) has began to ramp up her performance after a slow start to the season, and cruised to a dominating win.
The race got off to a fast start, and saw a massive pile up in the turn off the pavement into the grass, taking out big numbers in the middle of the field, and holding up those behind it.
The race's front-runners were able to avoid the crash, and quickly ramped up the pace.
Compton wasted no time getting to work, powering away to a smooth, technically-superior race in which she put time into her rivals at every opportunity.
Compton was able to take the win solo by a healthy margin, and Kaitie Antonneau (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) who was never quite able to match Compton's pace, set a strong pace of her own, ended up in second place.
Elle Anderson (SRAM / Strava) showed that she is well-prepared for her cyclocross comeback, finishing a strong third place, 25 seconds off of Antonneau.
Take a look at our photo gallery to see how it all went down, and be sure to check out the Elite Men's and Women's full results.
