Number Crunching: Looking at Women’s Race Lap Times from the 2013 Cyclocross National Championships

checking 2013 lap times from the 2013 cyclocross national championships photo: wwarby on flickr

Yesterday we took a look at the lap times from six of the seven laps the Elite Men completed at the 2013 USA Cyclocross National Championships.  Today we’ll look at the four laps the Elite Women completed in the race won by Katie Compton.

Thankfully for this race, the lap time data is complete, and lap one includes the starting straight, making for full lap race times. To nobody’s surprise, Compton owns the fastest lap times on lap one and two, as she stormed out to an early lead. The 29-second lap one gap in awe-inspiring, and she followed that up with a 10:25 lap, the fastest lap of the entire race, to stretch her gap out to well over a minute over Meredith Miller, Kaitlin Antonneau and Nicole Duke. After losing exactly one minute to Compton on lap one, crossing the line with three to go in 11th, silver medalist Jade Wilcoxson put the hammer down, turning out impressive lap times, including the second fastest on lap two (10:48).

The second half gets more interesting: with Compton in control and with a comfortable gap, she could afford to let her foot off the gas a bit. Behind her, racers had plenty to race for and were motivated to make their case for inclusion on the Worlds team for Louisville (final 2013 USA Worlds team members were announced yesterday), or to end their season on a high.

As Wilcoxson continued her tear through the field, she posted the third fastest third lap and fastest last lap (10:34, the second fastest lap of the day).  Her last two laps were actually three seconds faster that Compton’s, although by then Compton’s gap was comfortable.

Fourth place Georgia Gould also had a strong second half, when she started to find fast lines and turn out fast laps. Gould, in our video interview with her after the National Championships said, “It took me until the end to figure out what I was doing out there … I could not get out of my own way the first few laps … I feel like I could do another – I should just do the men’s race!”

Her recollection of the race appeared to be somewhat accurate, losing a whopping 1:20 to Compton in two laps, but by lap three she turned in the fastest lap time with a 10:54, and third fastest lap four (10:49). Those two laps actually matched Compton’s pace in the second half of the race.

With just four laps, and the first one including the starting straight, the variance between lap times is less telling, but for what it’s worth Elle Anderson, Rebecca Blatt and Amanda Carey were the most consistent.

See our analysis of the Elite Men’s lap times and Jonathan Page’s impressive consistency.

2013 Cyclocross National Championships Elite Women: Lap Times, Split Times - Non-Lapped Racers

2013 Cyclocross National Championships Elite Women: Lap Times, Split Times - All Racers