Elite Women's Race Report: Cincinnati Cyclocross Day 2
Report and photos from a muddy Sunday at Kings CX
On Saturday, Maghalie Rochette came into Day 1 of Kings CX with a plan to push herself as hard as possible to train for her upcoming World Cup races in Europe.
On Sunday, going with that plan would not be quite as easy. You see, after the weatherman predicted rain for the second day of the weekend, the forecast came true and pre-race rain turned the undulating, off-camber course at Kingswood Park into a slick, challenging cyclocross course.
With the conditions in mind, Rochette had a much simpler plan: “So many things can go wrong with a race like this. The main priority today was to win, so I wanted to figure out the best way to try to win.”
Just Try to Win
In Saturday’s race, Rochette went wire-to-wire en route to an overwhelming victory. There would be no wire-to-wire win on Sunday as she missed her pedal at the start and dropped back into the mob of riders during the holeshot. Saturday’s head-turner Sidney McGill took the holeshot honors in her fellow Canadian’s stead.
Despite the slip, it took all of 19 seconds of race time for Rochette to recover and take over the lead. As Rochette pushed to the front McGill kept her spot in 2nd and Caroline Mani slotted in at 3rd. While Rochette was not following a specific plan, she was still riding fast, and after the “drop” section in the woods, Rochette had a small gap.
After Saturday’s 2nd-place finish, Mani lamented that she did not get to the front of the chase earlier to give herself a chance to follow Rochette’s fast pace. When she moved ahead of McGill, she at least had a shot at reining in the hot-starting Canadian. However, Mani’s chance soon dissipated when she slipped out on an off-camber and fell back to 4th position.
“I was not riding really well. I felt out of my comfort zone,” Mani said. “Usually I am smoother. I felt like I was all over the place. But everyone was all over the place. The first lap I hit a post and my shoe went wide open. It was too muddy to just tighten it. I had to stop and it took me a bit of time. I think it threw me off too.”
It was a young rider who had a nice result on Saturday who took up the chance when Mani went down. Lizzy Gunsalus, wearing the colors of her school Marian University, took up the chase at the first run through the sidehill section on the camel’s hump. However, by the time the chase reached the “Debacle” feature, the chase grew to Gunsalus, Mani, Raylyn Nuss, and Madigan Munro.
Rochette, meanwhile, opened up a 29-second gap on the chasers one lap into the five-lap race.
At the head of the race, there is not much else to say about the challenge to Rochette. Her lead swelled to 1:06 after Lap 3 and then 1:29 at the bell.
“Once I had a gap, I did try to learn from one lap to the next,” Rochette said. “In these conditions, you have to adapt. It changes from lap to lap. If you crash on a corner one lap, then you want to figure out how to do it right the next one. I was trying to improve from lap to lap.”
Rochette was not perfect, as there was some of the thick mud on her white Pan-Ams jersey, but on this day, in these conditions, no one was perfect.
“I did go down a couple of times,” she said. “It would have been awesome not to, but I think it would have been hard not to. I think these races are won by the person who makes the fewest mistakes, so I was really trying to not make many mistakes. Still a few times I crashed a little bit, but I got up quickly and tried to get on with it.”
With her 5th win of the season in hand, Rochette now prepares to head to Europe in a few weeks, where she will start her racing with the Tabor World Cup on November 14. She said the chance to race in the conditions at Cincy was a positive thing as she prepares for Belgie mud.
“You can't train at home for these conditions. People say when it rains, go ride outside, but you end up riding on the grass in the rain and getting wet. You don't create mud like this. Races like this are the only place you can practice. I think after today's race, I feel more prepared for the crap mud of Europe. It's thick mud. I feel more ready now than yesterday, so that's good.”
A Dynamic Battle for Second
While Rochette was doing her thing at the front, the battle for 2nd was super dynamic and engaging throughout the 50+ minute race. The group of four rode together out onto the wide grassy section at the start of the lap before they started jockeying for position when the off-camber turns started.
Nuss was the first to apply pressure, but she slipped out when dismounting for a steep, muddy run-up in the woods, and Munro quickly moved past her. Munro decided to go with the opportunity, and she held a roughly 5-second lead on the other chasers for much of the lap. However, after clearing the section sidehill section on the camel, things came back together, and the chase was again Munro, Mani, and Nuss after two laps.
In Lap 3, Mani started to assert direction on the chase. After Nuss led early on, Mani went on the attack—albeit a slow, drawn-out attack because of the conditions—and opened up a gap on Munro at the flat section along the lake. Mani was able to extend that advantage when Munro slipped out on the Debacle run-up, costing her another few seconds.
When the damage from Lap 3 was tallied, Mani had a 5-second gap on Munro through the start/finish straight, and Nuss chased another 8 seconds behind the young Trek Factory Racing rider.
Mani, however, was not gone to a silver. Munro was excited to be there and she was going to make the most of it. “It was super slippery but so much fun,” she said. “I love riding in the mud, so I am glad it rained.”
Munro made the catch early in the lap and then passed Mani exiting Pit 2. Mani jumped back to the front along the lake, but Munro passed her again. Needless to say, it was a full-on race between the two. “She passed me at one point, but then I put pressure on behind her because I thought it would pressure her to make a mistake,” Mani said.
That pressure, perhaps, got to Munro when the Coloradoan slipped out while remounting her bike after a section of running. As she slid on the off-camber, Mani passed her and took over 2nd position with a decent gap. Mani grew the lead to 9 seconds at the bell. “I was able to play with Maddie, but when it was time, it was like, ok let's go,” she said.
In the bell lap, Munro showed she would not go down without a fight. She started to seriously close the gap when the duo reached the first section on the camel, but Mani used her power to extend her lead on the flat section along the lake. That extra bit of space would be all Mani needed to finish out her 2nd-place ride. With her 2nd-place finish, she also took home the overall title in the USCX series.
“Overall, I was trying to be safe because anything can happen,” Mani said about her overall strategy. “You can crash on the wrong side and break a derailleur, and then you run and you're screwed and done. I was trying to race for second place and be smart about it. With my experience, I knew how to not make too many mistakes.”
Munro finished close behind Mani to wrap up her best result of the season. “I was super excited to be riding with Caroline. I think I learned a lot in following such an experienced rider and it helped me throughout the race. I just tried to ride as smooth as possible throughout the whole race.”
Nuss ended up finishing 4th and Gunsalus 5th.
The race results provided the final input to the USCX GC tabulation. Mani finished as the series winner, Rochette took 2nd, and Nuss 3rd. Becca Fahringer edged out Caitlin Bernstein to finish 4th and earn some Skyline Coneys courtesy of the Alpha Bicycle / Silverthorne team.
Racing resumes in the U.S. next weekend at the Major Taylor Cross Cup in Indianapolis.