U.S. Cyclocross Nationals continued in Louisville all week after my race. We were just an appetizer before the main course came on the weekend. I did absolutely everything I could to get back up there. I had to work Thursday, but after that I was free. I had planned to help my MOAB CX Team teammates, but never heard anything from anyone. There were a lot of plans talked about prior to the race, but in the end I only know of two others that made the trip to Joe Creason Park. I offered up my services to countless others to work the pits for them. Never heard anything back from them either.
By the time Saturday afternoon arrived, I had decided I was going to go back and watch on Sunday. That expensive wrist band must have been burning a hole in my pocket. The $20 entry wrist bands were good for the entire week, which is how the fee was presented to us as justified. Several bike people in the middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky area posted on Facebook Saturday looking for people to carpool with. Again, I offered to drive or ride up with people and again, no response from a single person.
The Junior race was early at 8:30 EST. That made for a 4:00am departure for us in our Central time zone. Shannon felt bad that I was having to go alone and she was kind of interested in the race anyway, so she took Dina's wrist band from Wednesday and off we went. It rained nearly the entire drive up there. It had rained a lot in the past few days and the park was now a muddy, soupy mess. We arrived just in time to literally run into the park from the parking lot across the street at the Louisville Zoo and get to the course just as the Junior Men 17-18 took off.
The course was now totally different. The layout was the same, but the ground was unrecognizable. It was pig slop with deep mud and no grass left in sight. Even the outside of the course was destroyed by so many feet walking around all week. While the rain stopped, the pressure washers in the pit kept the water flowing off the top of the hill into the bowl area.
The Juniors had a good battle. They churned up the mud to the point that it was a toss up as to whether running or riding was faster. Nick Carter led early on, then had to battle with three Cannondale CyclocrossWorld riders. As the amount of running increased due to deteriorating conditions on the course, Alex Morton and Magnus Sheffield overtook Carter. The pair battled most of the race. On the final lap, Sheffield slipped on an uphill run and his bike got hooked on the course tape. That gave Morton a gap and he never gave it back. Sheffield was then caught by Carter, before falling on the final descent. Morton took the victory, with Carter grabbing a silver medal and Sheffield taking home bronze. We cheered on Jacob Kuper as he was the only rider we knew in this Junior race. He fought through terrible conditions to make it to the finish, something many others were not able to do.
Next up was the Youth Women's race, which includes ages 17-22. It's basically a combined Junior and U23 race with results split out after the race. This race was almost entirely running. The course was junk and these girls had a tough time with it for the most part. Clara Honsinger and Katie Clouse jumped out front early and never looked back. Honsinger was in the U23 class, Clouse was a Junior. Both were winners.
Then came the U23 Men's race. All the feet on the ground from the first two races just further destroyed the course and again it was a running mudfest. In places, the mud was churned up so much that it almost looked like still waves across the surface of a brown lake. The outside of the course wasn't much better. Walking along the hillside and in the bowl was becoming treacherous and we saw many spectators end up on their backside. This race was also decided early. Eric Brunner led initially before being joined by Spencer Petrov on the first climb within the bowl. Petrov opened up a gap on the final climb of lap 1 and that was all she wrote. It was the Petrov show from that point on. He is from the Ohio Valley so the fans were in full support, even the ones hanging out of the trees to see above the fence surrounding the park. Brunner ended up fading a bit, dropping second to Brannan Fix before the finish. After not knowing anyone in the previous race, we had several to cheer for this time. I was yelling for Caleb Swartz, who has raced with me a few times in the DINO Series recently. He took a strong 9th place. Mark Myles was also out there slinging mud and almost cracked the top 25 with a 26th place finish. Simon Lewis fought through traffic to get 31st. Grant Wilson pushed on through some adversity to make it to the finsih. Again, the attrition rate was very high with the super muddy conditions. It's pretty awesome to think that everyone I race with made it to the finish. I race with tough people for sure.
After the younger riders fought the atrocious conditions, the UCI (or at least that's who was given credit) decided to change the course for the Elite races. I thought it was a bit late. It was obvious at 8am that the course was trash. If you were going to change it, change it then. By this point, I feel it was only fair for the Pros to tackle the same conditions the others dealt with. The softness of the UCI is always on display in American racing, at least in my experiences. I've been at mountain bike Nationals where short track races were shortened due to 78 degree temperatures that were "too hot" for us to ride in. At other Nationals, the Pro XC course was shortened with all singletrack removed. And Pros can never lap riders, we must pull the slow people, even if they're only 40% of a lap behind. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, Pro Tour road races are held in temperatures above 100 degrees and courses include huge potholes, traffic islands and metal poles along the street that are an obvious safety hazard. There appears to be no consistency in their decisions.
Honestly, holding a week of racing in winter conditions on a single course is pretty absurd when you think about it. During the winter months, the odds of poor weather is high in most parts of the country. Add in the guarantee of thousands of tires ripping up the course over and over every day for six or seven days straight and you have a recipe for disaster. Maybe in the future we should consider course changes over the course of a Nationals week. That could be as small as widening the course in places or shifting the course 50 feet to the left or right. Or it could be bigger like a full reroute around a damaged area or even a completely new course if the weather gets really crazy. We could have courses that are rideable for the most part, and not be completely destroyed when racing is over, leaving a giant scar on the park's landscape for the next year. Sounds like a win-win to me. We just need to make sure every class gets equal consideration, not just the Pros.
Anyway, areas were changed, mainly the climbs. Tape was moved to send riders off into areas that still had grass, which made things rideable and took a large part of the running out. I bet the Juniors would have appreciated the grass as well. The Elite Women were the first to break in the new sections. Even with the changes, there was still plenty of running. The usual suspects were still mixing it up at the front, but a few new faces shone brightly with the increased running time. Ellen Noble got the holeshot and led early. Katie Compton did her usual slow start and was outside the top 5 for a while before getting the diesel engine rolling. She moved through the riders ahead, eventually grabbing the lead from Noble on the pole-slalom descent. After that, it was all Katie and she took her 15th National title. Yes, 15. Sunny Gilbert was the most notable rider to take adavantage of the additional running, moving her long legs forward all the way to 2nd by the finish. Noble held on for a podium in 3rd. Rebecca Fahringer had a great day to finish in 4th, while Katie Keough charged up into the top 5 after some trouble early on.
Between the two Elite races came a moment to catch our breath and watch the little ones play in the mud. The kids tackled a short little loop that included the barriers and Start/Finish area. Yeah, it was muddy. The kids had a blast and we were all entertained by them slipping and sliding their way forward toward the finish. There were some impressive rides, some spills and a kid with a cycling cap flipped down over his eyes. I have no idea how he could see where he was going.
The final race of Nationals week was the Elite Men. There was a little extra excitement in the air with the race maybe being a bit more open than in past years. Stephen Hyde was coming off a big injury and his form was unknown. Curtis White was having the year of his cross life and looked to be up to Hyde's challenge this time around. And you can never count out guys like Jeremy Powers, Kerry Werner, Gage Hecht and Anthony Clark.
White got the holsehot. By the midpoint of lap 1, White and Hyde were off the front. The two teammates exchanged the lead over the next few laps. One would bobble, the other would capitalize on the mistake, then make a mistake of their own. The mud continued to dictate the race. The Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld duo may have been leading, but the gap to the chasers was not very big for most of the race. The top seven or eight riders were tight, though not really together in a group. We stood in the bowl area and watched riders cross the longest straightaway in the section. Every time a rider would come by, another was approaching 7-10 seconds back. They could all see each other.
Gage Hecht fought his way to third. He kept the leading pair in sight for quite a while, but never made the junction. Several times I thought White or Hyde was going to drop the other one, but as quickly as a gap would form it was closed and often reversed the other way. White had a nice gap with a few laps to go, but Hyde was able to cross the gap the following lap. He then pulled away on the final climb of the lap up to the pit. At the bell, Hyde had a 12 second lead. He was able to hold it the final lap to take his third straight National title. White was second with Hecht in third. Drew Dillman, who races DINO Series events from time to time, had an awesome ride to come home in 4th! We cheered him on the whole way. It's pretty cool to see someone you chase do so well at Nationals. It makes you feel better about all the chasing! Jeremy Powers started far back, but moved up to 5th by the end.
We also cheered on the others we knew in the race, like Tristan Cowie and Alex Ryan. Tristan battled for a top 10 all race and came away in 12th. Alex was putting on a mud skills clinic on the descents and off-camber sections, ending the day in 18th. Both had solid results at one of the toughest races on the cross circuit. Great job guys!
Maybe the biggest shock in this race was the pits. It was pretty horrible in there all day, but it was literally a lake during the men's race. Pressure washers had been running all day on already saturated terrain. I honestly do not know how the support guys in the pit were even able to walk to the washers. The mud was literally a foot deep with standing water on top of that. And somehow all those bikes got cleaned off every half lap and were ready for the riders the next time they passed by the pit. That part of the park will probably never be the same again.
After a stop for some Ale-8-One, we hit the road for home. It was a great day of racing, totally making the drive worth it. Those of you in the Nashville area that backed out on making the trek to Louisville really missed out. I hope we will see big UCI races at this park in the future, maybe in conjuction with a race at Eva Bandman Park. That would be a cool weekend.
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