Press Release from Cincy3 Cyclocross Festival as follows:
Now in its 11th year, the Cincy3 Cyclocross Festival (Oct 31 – Nov 2) promises to deliver some of the most intense competition on the ProCX calendar this year; 3 days, 3 different venues, $35,000 in prize money, loads of UCI points, and equal payouts. The Toyota Cincy3 CX Festival features C2 racing at Harbin Park Friday, C1 night racing at Kings Saturday, and concludes with the first-ever Pan American Continental Championships Sunday (C2 for elite men). The weekend also features amateur racing in the popular OVCX series all 3 days. Already, the festival-style weekend boasts well over 1600 registrations.
Last year’s winner Tim Johnson attacks the Harbin Park course. photo by Kent Baumgardner
Friday venue at Cincy 3
Day 1 is a Friday afternoon UCI C2 affair at Harbin Park in Fairfield. Harbin Park, the home of cyclocross in Cincinnati for the past 20 years, has been featured as a UCI C1 venue 4 times previously. According to Harbin organizer Julie Herrmann, “We designed the course to pay homage to many of the beloved features that have been a staple of the race in the past while adding some new features aimed at keeping the racing close to spectators and challenging for the racers!” Harbin dishes out an up-and-down flow course that starts the weekend off with a smile.
The 17-18 UCI juniors start their weekend off at Kings on Saturday, photo by Kent Baumgardt
Saturday venue at Cincy 3 – Kingswood Golf Course
Saturday, it’s the Kings CX Lionhearts International, on a former golf course in the northern suburb of Mason featuring music, food, and lots of racing. With both elite races at night under the lights, the entire schedule starts later in the day making it easier to take on a long morning drive to the race from Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. You won’t want to miss the LED lit-up barriers, the festive Heckle-Hill and other creative illumination. A new challenging course will greet riders at Kings this year. Course designers Corey Green and James O’Loughlin explain, “Our goal was to make the course even more spectator friendly than the last couple years. To accommodate this, Deerfield Township has assisted us with trimming down a couple trees and clearing some sight lines. There are a couple spots we believe you will be able to see the entire course.”
Sunday venue at Cincy 3 – Devou Park
Back in February Cincy3 organizers announced that their bid to hold the first-ever Pan American Cyclocross Championships was met with approval from the UCI. Devou Park was the natural choice of venues. Its elevation, technical difficulty, and scenery offered the perfect mix for a proper championship course. American elite racers for awhile now have asked American promoters for courses like they’ve seen in Europe. To answer the call, the traditional Devou course underwent a complete overhaul while still maintaining the previous physical difficulty yet substantially upping the technical ante. With two run-ups, a downhill drop not seen on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and 150 feet of climbing per lap, riders will need to be in peak form for the final day of Cincy3. Here’s a link to a course preview on Vimeo:
The strongest fields to ever assemble in Cincinnati will be on hand this year. For the women, battling for podium positions will be Katerina Nash (former European CX Champion and winner of 2 out of 3 races in Cincy last year), Georgia Gould (2012 Olympic MTB bronze medalist), Meredith Miller (2014 CrossVegas winner), Catherine Pendrel (2014 World MTB Champion), and Katie Compton (2013 CX World Cup Winner).
The men’s elite races will feature U.S. Champion Jeremy Powers, former U.S. Champion Tim Johnson (winner of 2 out of 3 races in Cincy last year), Canadian National Champion Geoff Kabush, Olympian and former U.S. Champion Todd Wells, and for Sunday – the return to racing of former U.S. Champion Ryan Trebon.
As World’s team qualifier races, the UCI Junior 17-18 events in Cincy are set to be the most competitive of the season. Cincinnatian Spencer Petrov, racing on his local training courses, along with fellow top-ten world-ranked Gage Hecht (Colorado), will be the favorites after swapping wins in the KMC Providence weekend earlier this month. Known as the home of Lionhearts Racing, Cincinnati recently has become a Midwest magnet for high-level junior racing. With Red Zone Racing 90 min down the road in Louisville, and Midwest Devo 90 min east in Indy, the host Lionhearts team do weekly battles with top-ranked U.S. juniors in the local OVCX series. For this weekend, juniors from 17 states will be racing Cincy3
The inclusion of the Pan American Championships on Sunday throws in some interesting weekend dynamics. European riders like Nash (CZE), Ben Berden (BEL), and Gabby Durrin (GBR) will contest the events at Harbin and Kings, but will have to sit out the Pan Am events at Devou since they are not part of the 43 nation Pan-American Confederation. U23 men and women will race Harbin and Kings with the older elites, but will have their own races in smaller fields on the final day at Devou. With the Pan Am race being held on the hardest course on the final day, riders will have tough decisions to make all weekend. Will they save their legs Friday or Saturday, or is it full gas all weekend for the opportunity to win the Pan-American Champion’s jersey?
In its 11th anniversary season, the ZIPP OVCX Series, including the MudFund Derby City Cup and Cincy3 UCI weekends, will continue its focus on maximizing the growth of regional cyclocross through great courses, competitive fields, and good times. Find the complete schedule and registration links online at OVCX.com. Like OVCX on Facebook and follow OhioValleyCX on Twitter.
