Johnson and Gould Rule Boulder Cup – UPDATED: Full Report, Women’s Crash Video

by Grant Berry

Boulder, CO – Tim Johnson (Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld.com) picked up where teammate Jeremy Powers left off yesterday and took the win, divvying up the weekend as the duo has several times this year. Todd Wells (Specialized) was next, followed by the third in the Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld.com camp, Jamey Driscoll. Powers’ position at the front of the race came to an end thanks to a flat tire, causing him to fade back in the pack. He’d eventually work his way back up to seventh.

In the women’s race, yesterday’s winner Katie Compton crashed out while battling at the front, and Georgia Gould (Team Luna) capitalized on the opportunity to take an impressive victory by over two minutes over her nearest competitor. Meredith Miller (California Giant-Specialized), who has shown a trend of improving as race weekends progress, moved up from yesterday’s fourth to claim second. Nicole Duke (HUDZ-Vista Subaru) had another impressive ride to match yesterday’s third place in front of her teammate Amanda Miller. Teal Stetson-Lee (California Giant-Specialized) was close behind in fifth.

The course for Sunday’s UCI C2 Boulder Cup could not have been more of a contrast to Saturday’s sand fest at the Boulder Reservoir. Loose wheel-sucking sand and wide open terrain was traded for off-camber grass and tight technical sections in a venue that showcased the sport of cyclocross to a potentially untapped audience. Flatirons Mall, specifically Nordstroms and Dick’s Sporting Goods, were the backdrop for the nation’s best ’cross racers as they competed for valuable UCI points. The crowds were thick, and Chris Grealish’s DBC Events crew put on the race in their typical classy fashion.

Elite Women

Georgia Gould (Team Luna) led the race off the line with an impressive holeshot that she would parlay into a small lead midway through the first lap. Her lead was momentarily lengthened as there was a massive pile up going into the first uphill 180-degree turn that took down half-a-dozen riders and stalled a good portion of the rest of the field. Katie Compton (Planet Bike-Stevens) and Nicole Duke (HUDZ-Subaru) were two riders to make it through the crash unscathed, and they joined Gould shortly thereafter when she suffered her own difficulty in a dusty depression. “I just completely ate it in one of the little ditches by the pit. I thought ‘Wow, that’s a really pro move!’ It was a pretty spectacular crash!”

As it would all day, the run-up at the end of the first lap proved a crucial part of the course as Gould and Compton separated themselves from Duke and Amanda Miller (HUDZ-Subaru), and once again the battle was on.

As Gould and Compton battled on the ultra-slippery grass, it was apparent that Gould was content to lead and was showing a high level of confidence in her technical ability on the demanding course. As the two leaders wound their way down the series of extremely steep 180-degree turns towards the pits on lap 3, Compton would suffer what would turn out to be a race-ending crash. As her front tire lost grip on the grass, Compton plummeted to the ground and ended up landing square on the contact patches from her course-tape-related crash the day before. Clearly stunned and in a lot of pain, Compton lay in the grass for some seconds as Gould rode away. After picking herself up off the ground and adjusting her bike so that it would roll again, Compton would finish the lap but pull out at the top of the run-up before the start/finish straight; her day was over. Shortly thereafter, Compton’s husband Mark Legg-Compton was seen running into the Boulder Beer tent not for an icy cold mid-race pit crew refreshment, but for a couple bags of ice to help reduce the aftereffects of the tough crash Compton had suffered.

As Gould checked out off the front of the race, the battle for the remaining spots on the podium were still up for grabs. NACT series leader Meredith Miller (Cal Giant-Specialized) had recovered from another bad first lap as she too had hit the ground, and she’d ridden her way up to Duke in the battle for third place. Duke put her technical skills to work and would gap Miller on many of the off-camber sections until, with two laps to go, Miller seized an opportunity on one of the non-technical climbs on the backside of the course to drop Duke and set off after Amanda Miller and second place.

With half-a-lap to go, the Millers would come together with Meredith taking an advantage as Amanda suffered an untimely crash which derailed her chain. “I crashed, and my chain fell off. It took forever to get it back on.”

Duke would take advantage of her teammate’s misfortune as well, and rode by her and onto the podium for the second time in as many days.

Another ride of note was from former Collegiate national champion Teal Stetson-Lee (Cal Giant-Specialized), who was another rider caught behind the first lap pileup. Stetson-Lee would ride her way from the back of the field up to fifth place by the end of the race.

Gould was happy with her win, and the new venue. “This venue is awesome. I feel like this is our chance to take ’cross to the masses and expose it to people who might never see this sport.”

Elite Men

As spectators refilled their beers and adjusted their costumes, the Elite Men were locked, loaded and ready to go. Notably absent from the line was Ryan Trebon, who was still nursing a painful muscle injury from Saturday’s race.

As the whistle blew, Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) didn’t disappoint and took yet another holeshot at the start of the race. He quickly established a small gap, and was immediately chased by Saturday phenom and cyclocross comeback kid Alex Candelario (World Bicycle Relief) and Davide Frattini (HUDZ-Subaru). By the end of the first lap, it was Powers building a slight lead followed by Danny Summerhill (Garmin-Slipstream) and Todd Wells (Specialized). The second chase group contained Jamey Driscoll (Cyclocrossword.com-Cannondale), local favorite Jake Wells (HUDZ-Subaru) and Chris Jones (Rapha-Focus).

The spectator-friendly venue offered views of most of the course from a couple key spots, but the action was really to be seen on what had been a run-up for most competitors in the earlier races and was now a ride-up for the top Elite Men. Lap after lap as the lead group approached the steep grassy hill, all three leaders hopped over the large and then the smaller barrier that were designed to encourage a dismount, and made quick work of the steep terrain.

As the lead trio headed out for their third lap, Tim Johnson had successfully crossed the gap and was ready to make team tactics a factor in the outcome of the race. That, however, was short lived as Powers would suffer a flat and lose his place in the lead group and go on to finish 7th. Summerhill would also mechanical out of contention after he suffered a flar rear tire, and had to nurse his bike down the off camber turns and into the pits.

Johnson forced Wells to ride on the front as his teammate Driscoll was trying to chase across and make contact to tip the odds back in favor of the Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale team. As Driscoll dangled, Johnson seized the opportunity and attacked Wells on the pavement with four laps to go.

“Wells had us on the ropes at the start. He gets better and better every race throughout the season, and I thought this was going to be the race where he would be unbeatable. But, after a slow start, I ended up attacking him on the road to open a gap. I had no idea how he was feeling as I was riding behind him and couldn’t see his face. I wanted to attack with enough time left to go again if I needed to.”

Johnson would stretch his gap to over 20 seconds to take the win while Wells fought hard to hold off Driscoll. Behind, Geoff Kabush (Rocky Mountain-Maxxis), Adam Craig (Rabobank-Giant) and Jake Wells chased to try and reel in Driscoll for the last step of the podium. With a lap to go, Driscoll would make contact with Wells, but it came down to the run-up/ride-up section of the course with 150 meters to go to force the decision. As Driscoll dismounted to run, Wells easily hopped the barriers to separate himself slightly, and take second.

Johnson was happy with his win, and welcomed the change of scenery that the Flatirons Mall venue offered. “Every single city has a mall; if we could get a ’cross race at every single one we’d have the biggest sport in the world,” said Johnson.

First lap crash in the Elite Women’s race:

Elite Men’s Highlight Video (with LOTS of bunnyhops!):

Full Results

Women:

Men:

yesterday in the Colorado Cross Classic.