Johnson and Miller Win Providence Cyclo-cross Festival Day Two – UPDATED: Report, Full Results

Providence Cyclo-cross Festival, October 8-10

While Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com teammate Jeremy Powers was busy battling Ryan Trebon at the UCI3 races, Tim Johnson flew the team colors to back to back wins at the Providence Cyclo-cross festival (read about Day One here). After winning ahead of teammate Jamey Driscoll in a sprint by the slimmest of margins on Saturday, the reigning national champ had a more comfortable ride as he distanced second place by almost a minute. Italian Luca Damiani (Kenda p/b Geargrinder) and Swiss Valentin Scherz (Cyfac-Champion System) completed the podium.

The gap in the women’s race was similar as Meredith Miller (Cal Giant-Specialized) avenged her flat tire from Day One with a commanding performance en route to victory. Sally Annis (Crossresults.com p/b JRA Cycles) had another impressive ride to claim the podiums second step, ahead of New England star Andrea Smith (LadiesFirst Racing).

Miller Time

The women’s race started much like the previous day. Local racer, Rebecca Wellons (Pedro’s) once again took the hole shot with Miller, and yesterday’s top two, Sally Annis (cyclocrossresults.com) and Andrea Smith (Ladies First Racing), right on her wheel. However Miller quickly made it clear that she was the strongest woman of the weekend as she took advantage of the first lap scrum to open a quick five-second gap and was never caught again.

“I was ready to go today, I just decided to put the pressure on from the beginning and see what happened,” explained Miller. “I could go hard from the beginning and open a gap, and then I was able to ride steady from there and do my own thing. It was more technical today, so for me to be able to pick my own lines was better.”

Behind her, familiar faces fell into familiar places as Sally Annis and Andrea Smith surged from the field to chase the raging Miller, with Annis once again putting a small gap into Smith. In the end, neither could find anywhere on the course to close the gap, and the California Giant rider finished with a comfortable lead and both hands in the air.

Johnson Leaves No Question

The men’s race started with a slightly different complexion due to the absence of Jamey Driscoll, who succumbed to the demands of college classwork. At the start, Timothy Johnson, Luca Damiani, Nick Weighall and Valentin Scherz took a quick lead over the rest of the field. With the front group established, Johnson wasted no time attacking through the start/finish on the second lap and opened a gap which no one could close. “I never even saw the front until the end of the first lap,” explained Johnson. “I did an attack on the pavement, then another attack a couple of corners in to get a little bit of a gap – it worked a little bit, but it was tough because the thing with today was the course was in really good shape so you could push as hard as you wanted.”

Behind him, Scherz and Damiani did push themselves in a battle for second until a mishap left Scherz briefly on the ground and Damiani chasing solo. A fight for third then ensued as local Justin Lindine (Bikereg.com-Scott-Joe’s Garage) and California Giant rider Nick Weighall made contact with Scherz. The trio appeared to be slowly making ground on Damiani, who appeared to be tiring as the race progressed. However, the battle quickly turned into one of survival as Scherz attacked his compatriots with a lap to go, nearly making it back to Damiani, but ultimately falling short, leaving Damiani in second, Scherz in third and a distinctly international flavor on the podium.

Full Results:

Elite Women

Elite Men