Charm City Cross Day One Recap
Clauzel and Strohmeyer Win One For The Thumb
Leading up to race time, it looked like we may get a sloppy Druid Hill Park for day one of Charm City Cross as light rain persisted in the third oldest established park in the United States. But as the afternoon approached, the clouds cleared out, and the sun made up for lost time, blasting the park with hot temperatures to complement the high humidity.
Elite Women
Lauren Zoerner (Comp Edge Racing) grabbed the hole shot and led through the barriers before Manon Bakker (Crelan Corendon) and Sidney McGill (Cervélo Orange Living) went to the front followed by Hélène Clauzel (Van Rysel Racing Team). By the time the field made it to Mansion Hill—which comes much earlier in the lap for the 2024 version of Charm City—Clauzel had moved to the front.
Although she preferred racing in the rain for today, Clauzel was pragmatic about the conditions.
I prefer a muddy one, but yeah, the sun was here. So it's also good to have a sunny day, because maybe tomorrow it's not a good day with the weather, so when you race two times, it's better if you have a sunny one.
After taking the lead on Mansion Hill, Clauzel stayed out front and never looked back. She cruised to her fifth win in a row and has taken a commanding lead in the Trek USCX series.
Behind Clauzel, Bakker took advantage of a heavy course to pull away from the chase group and ride solo in second place.
Clauzel is really strong, especially on the punchy parts. She could ride the [Mansion Hill] climb where I had to run it. She took a lot of time there and then I just overcooked myself. But it was a fun race, and in the last two laps I really found myself again. So that was good.
Farther back, Caroline Mani (Groove Off Road) started mid-pack but kept her pace steady and eventually caught and passed the lead chasers to take third.
They just went backwards. I had one speed today. I mean, it's a good course for one speed but it's kind of weird.
Katie Clouse (Steve Tilford Foundation) finished fourth with McGill rounding out the wide angle podium.
Elite Men
The storylines for this race were two-fold: (1) can Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD Trek Bikes) keep his streak alive and win his fifth UCI race in a row, and (2) what kind of form will US National Champion Eric Brunner (Comp Edge Racing) bring to Charm City.
At the start of the race it looked like storyline number one would be answered in short order as Strohmeyer got off to a quick start.
The only plan I had was get the hole shot because the first turn is super sketchy, and just get out in clear air and not have to worry about anything. I did that and then it was just so hot that I really had no snap today, no acceleration at any of the corners, so I just had one pace, and I really couldn't go easier or harder than that. It was so weird1.
The race got interesting as Strohmeyer flew into Charm City’s club row and slid out in a corner. Brunner, who was in second, caught and passed Strohmeyer, bringing storyline number two into focus.
Brunner was able to stay with Strohmeyer for a while, but the heat and first big race effort eventually took its toll.
I didn't have too much of a plan, because I didn't really know what to expect. I did expect to feel a little better, to be honest, but looking back, I had a lot of training and then a very aggressive taper, and I often do better on day two, so I think I needed that one to get the legs going.
After falling off of Strohmeyer’s pace, Brunner then had to contend with his good friend and former teammate Scott Funston (Cervélo Orange Living) quickly moving through the field.
On the off camber, I went in front of Tobin and had a few bike lengths. And thought ‘Oh, I better keep on the pedals.’ and then ‘Oh, I'm behind Kerry, Okay.’ I just kept riding and all of a sudden [Brunner] was there and I caught him and then did the same thing to him and then I was like, ‘well, I'll just keep riding.’
After leapfrogging the frontrunners, Funston solidified his position in second and Brunner held on for third. Kerry Werner (Groove Off Road) outlasted Marcis Shelton (Bear CX) to finish fourth and fifth.
Note that Mani and Strohmeyer independently gave pretty much the same quote about only having one speed. Pretty weird, indeed.
Sure missed seeing Charm on the livestream - always fun to see who could ride Mansion Hill when it goes right to left. Noticed that “one speed” comment too as well as mentions of the heat. It appears quite a few riders were off the pace (Tobin, the Mayor). With Clauzel hoovering up all these C1/C2 points she should be showing off that French champs jersey a lot on the front row once we finally get to some “televised” CX racing.