The Redline Team cyclocross riders had a great weekend—Kari Studley won the MFG women’s race on Saturday and leads that series and was third in the SCX race yesterday. Justin Lindine was second to Adam Craig at HPCX a UCI cat 2 race in New Jersey yesterday.
But most exciting for US fans was junior racer Logan Owen taking third place yesterday in the second World Cup in Plzen, Czech Republic. Owen continues to improve at the World Cup level and he reached the podium with a stellar ride in very tough conditions in Plzen. The race was won by the current junior World Champion Mathieu van der Poel, and Logan was down by 1:58. Second place went to Quinten Hermans of Belgium who was 1:12 back from van der Poel. Logan’s third place now moves him up in the overall World Cup standings to third overall, and will certainly keep him in the top eight, which is all important for getting a front row spot at the World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky February 2nd.
Here is Logan’s story from the race:
When we got to the course nothing was really any different from the pre-ride the day before except it got a bit sloppier. So American racer Curtis White and I pre-rode the course for a lap just to see if there were any major changes to the course and there were none. We then headed back up to the car, changed and got our warm ups in. Before I knew it I was getting called up as the fifth call up. All of us were locked in the grid and ready to go.
When the light turned green, I pushed down on my pedals and my chain came off and I flipped over and a French kid landed on me. I got untangled, stayed calm, tightened my shoe back down, got my chain back on and began the mission of trying to catch as many people as I could. By the time I got going, I was about 30 seconds off the back of the second to last place guy, as I was last. I started catching kids and was passing everyone every second the first lap because I was running the technical sections. My A bikes derailleur hanger got bent severely but for being severely bent, the di2 worked super well to adjust and get me to the pits. So I was stuck switching between my B and C bike during the race.
After the first two laps, I caught a group of four fighting for sixth and I immediately went by them and began bridging the gap to the group of two fighting for third. When we got the bell lap I had just made contact with the group of two and immediately went to attacking them. I dropped a Dutch kid but the Italian kid put up a good fight and stayed about three seconds back most of the last lap and I ended up putting more time into him in the technical sections before the long stair run up, really close to the finish. I hit the finish straight away and it began to hit me that I was about to get my first World Cup podium.
I saw all the photographers just passed the finishing taking photos in their UCI vests as I crossed the line. Not only did I cross the line in third but I also moved into third in the World Cup overall. This was a huge accomplishment for me especially because I had to have the best ride of my life to pass 50 kids and get third. I wonder how I would’ve done if I had a clean start? But that’s what the third World Cup in Koksijde will show me! A big thanks has to go out to USAC, Redline Bicycles, Challenge tires, FSA, Kool Stop, WTB, Voler, and TDLCCYCLING for helping me achieve this.
Next World Cup round for Logan: World Cup #3 in Koksidje (Belgium) on November 24th.
