Honsinger Honored with First U.S. Win as National Champ
Elite Women's race report from Day 1 of Charm City Cross
After last weekend’s Elite Women’s races at Rochester, the task was pretty straightforward for Clara Honsinger, Caroline Mani, and the other women with podium aspirations on Saturday.
“I was keeping my eyes on [Maghalie],” Clara Honsinger said. “I made sure I moved toward her wheel as soon as possible, and not letting people get ahead of me.”
While Rochette took the holeshot again on Saturday, Mani was on her wheel and Honsinger was sitting third wheel. The course at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore was grassy yet tight and punchy, and so when Honsinger accomplished her mission of keeping her eye on Rochette, it was game-on for the first Honsinger v. Rochette battle we have long been waiting for.
Semi-Charmed Kind of Race
While Honsinger and Mani were on Rochette’s wheel early on, it wasn’t that the Canadian Champ wasn’t putting in a big effort at the start of the race. Rochette accelerated up the first of many punchy climbs and opened up a small gap after summiting the triple-decker flyover for the first time.
Honsinger and Mani led the chase, sitting a few seconds back.
Midway through the lap at Druid Hill Park was a long, slightly uphill slog to the far side of the course and then a precarious sidehill skate on a deceptively steep off-camber. Rochette kept the heat on heading up the climb and around the off-camber.
Honsinger, to her credit, kept to her pre-race plan and kept a laser focus on Rochette’s wheel and eliminated Rochette’s small advantage on the back half of the first lap. One lap into the 7-lap race, it was Rochette, Honsinger, Mani, and Katie Clouse at the front. Crystal Anthony sat a few seconds back in the chase.
Honsinger made her first move to the front early in the second lap after heading up and over the flyover. It was then official that Saturday’s race would not be a wire-to-wire Rochette win.
Meanwhile, Clouse dropped off the pace a little bit after riding up into the lead group from her second-row start.
“My plan was to try and have a good start,” Clouse said about the beginning of the race. “I knew a group like that was going to form because that's kind of what happened last week. I think the goal was to try and be in that group and sit in as long as possible. I only lasted a lap, but that was enough to get a gap on the riders behind me.”
The lead was now down to the top three women in domestic racing thus far. Although Mani is French and Rochette Canadian, Honsinger still felt a little overwhelmed in the group. “In the race, Caroline and Maghalie were actually talking in French to each other. I was like, wow, I'm getting teamed up on by the Francophones,” she said.
Mani took up pacemaking after the flyover as she and Rochette conversed in their native tongues. Honsinger, however, decided to thwart whatever they were planning and use the long climb to the off-camber to her advantage. “I was able to drive my own pace into the climbs and keep it out of the red. I could hear people behind me breathing hard and struggling,” Honsinger explained.
With Honsinger leading through the off-camber, Rochette slipped out, giving Honsinger a momentary advantage. Rochette recovered, and the two North American champs gapped off Mani. The anticipated battle between Honsinger and Rochette was finally here.
After testing her legs in Lap 3 and sensing potential weakness in Rochette, Honsinger really let it rip in Lap 4. She took over the lead and then powered up that long climb to the far side of the course.
“I was sitting third wheel going into the off-camber climb,” Honsinger explained. “I had seen that Maghalie had a little bobble, so maybe she was feeling a little insecure. I made my move going into it, got a little gap, and just kept attacking out of every corner.”
Honsinger’s aggression earned her a gap, as Rochette was unable to respond.
Once in the lead, Honsinger was unstoppable on Saturday. She continued to extend her gap while the riders behind her just could not keep up her pace.
“I tried to keep it smooth, and then when I felt the gap was big enough, I was able to settle in and keep it within myself,” Honsinger said. “Making sure I wasn't clipping pedals, running into posts, running into cameramen on course.” (Ed note: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
One neat part of the afternoon was the second half of the race became Honsinger’s first win wearing the Stars-and-Stripes in the U.S. Each time she passed club team row and the flyover, fans gave her a welcome worthy of a National Champ.
“Honored. Honored is the word I'm looking for,” she explained. “I felt really honored to have American fans cheering for me.”
The Podium Battle Heats Up
Behind Honsinger, things got really spicy, really fast. At the beginning of Lap 5, the toll the heat was taking on Rochette became apparent. Mani started to close her lead, bit by bit, in the early part of that 5th lap.
Mani made the pass soon after passing the barriers as the two women passed club team row. She would use that dreaded long climb up to the off-camber to cement her hold on second.
While Clouse had gotten dropped earlier on, she was still in a good position with Crystal Anthony about 10 seconds behind her. For the middle part of the race, she kept one eye forward and one eye back, knowing that a potential podium could be up the road.
“It was definitely a mentally challenging race today,” Clouse said. “It was constantly either Crystal 10 seconds behind me, and then it was Raylyn the last two laps. That was definitely challenging trying to keep myself going.
Clouse’s work paid off in Lap 6 as she too caught and passed Rochette on the far side of the course. The long, exposed climb on the warm Mid-Atlantic early-October day really took its toll.
“I wasn't too worried about the people in front of me because I wanted to focus on myself and focus on my ride and a little bit on the girls behind me. But yeah, then Maghalie started to fade a little bit and it was a really good opportunity for me to just get ahead of her and put someone in better me and Raylyn.”
From there, the podium order was set. Mani held on for a strong second, and Clouse wrapped her day with an impressive third.
“I'm super happy with the result,” Clouse said. “It's early in the season, so I think there's more to come, hopefully. There's more progress and being comfortable on my bike. It's been a while since I've been on a 'cross bike. Also getting comfortable with my shoulder again. But yeah, I think this was a really good result for me this early.”
Another rider who had an impressive day—well, an impressive 5/7th of a day—was Raylyn Nuss. Nuss got off to a slow start and found herself in a 30-second hole after the first lap. Things only got worse, as Nuss lost another 7 seconds on the leaders in Lap 2.
“Such a slow start. I don't know what happened, honestly,” Nuss said. “I'm not a good starter in general, but today was extra tough. I felt like my legs didn't want to move. I don't know it was the heat or if I didn't warm up well enough.”
However, once Lap 3 hit, Nuss “got her groove on.” Her legs came online, and she started to move forward through the field. One by one, she eyed up riders and passed them on the narrow, turny course.
Nuss was up to 6th after Lap 5, and then coming up on two-to-go, she moved past Crystal Anthony to take over 4th place.
“Because I had such a poor start, I had to focus on just picking people off. I could see everybody because of all the turns. You could kind of gauge where you are. Of course, I was motivated,” she said. “I honestly didn't realize I was in fourth. But then someone screamed it at me, and I was like, Oh my gosh, there's a podium right there. I dug even harder. If I had one more lap, I think I would have gotten there.”
Nuss could not catch Clouse in that last lap, but she did hold on for a solid 4th in a C1.
“I am extremely happy with the progress I have made. Honestly, a lot of it I owe to my teammate Stephen Hyde. He's really done a great job mentoring me. But I'm hungry, and I'm really competitive, and I want more. I want to get on the podium at a C1 race. It's coming, and I'm just being patient. I'm going to just keep on keeping on.”