Jackson and Amos Steal The Show at Fayetteville US Pro Cup MTB
Jackson and Amos Steal The Show at Fayetteville US Pro Cup MTB
Centennial Park hosts full slate of UCI HC XCO and XCC racing
Racing at Centennial Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas, continued April 5 and 6 with UCI XCC short track racing on Friday, along with a stand-alone UCI HC XCO U23 men's race. On Saturday, the US Pro Cup and USXC round two events finished with the UCI HC XCO races in junior and elite categories, with the U23 women once again racing with the elites for all but the final lap and scored separately.
Short Track (XCC)
The short track at Centennial Park is one mile of wide-open circuit racing. Without any technical features, the powerline climb is the place to be if you want to see the XCC fireworks.
In the women's field, Jenn Jackson (Liv Factory Racing) entered the race as the hands-down favorite and she did not disappoint. She put on a clinic in this race, patiently sitting in the group, nestled between fourth and sixth place for the first three laps as Bear National Team teammates Bailey Cioppa and Makena Kellerman set the pace. Marin Lowe (Pittstop Racing Team) and Ella MacPhee (Pivot Cycles-OTE) rounded out the lead group.
On lap four of five in this 20-minute race, the bell rang announcing a $250 prime, courtesy of Orange Seal, and Jackson channeled Pavlov's dog and turned on the jets.
The frontrunners moved around the course at a brisk 4:03 to 4:06 pace for the first three laps. On lap four, Jackson shaved 30 seconds off that time, posting a 3:34 lap to grab the bonus cash. She didn't let up, though, and put in a 3:50 lap at the final bell to take the win by 12 seconds over Cioppa and Kellerman, who sprinted it out for second with Cioppa getting the spot on the line.
Asked if the prime payout was the impetus to attack on lap four, Jackson said not really. Instead, she had been reviewing mental game tape from last year and remembered Kate Courtney's attack on the powerline climb with two laps to go. That strategy paid off for Courtney last year and proved to be the winning recipe for Jackson in 2024. The prime was just a nice bonus.
In the men's short track race, all eyes were on former XCC World Champ Chris Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing). At the first round of the US Cup in Vail Lake, the men's short track was an elbows-out battle that came down to a three-up sprint between Blevins, Ben Oliver and Sean Fincham. We didn't get a rematch of that battle with no Oliver or Fincham on the start line. Also missing was Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) because he was racing in the U23 HC XCO race later in the day.
That didn't mean there weren't any heavy hitters in the race. The Giant Factory Off-Road trio of Carter Woods, Jens Schuermans and Dario Lillo would give Blevins a run for his money.
In his prime, Sven Nys always seemed to place himself fifth in the field. This position seemed to be the sweet spot where you could follow wheels and conserve energy while not having too many riders in front who could make a mistake and end your day.
Blevins, much like Jackson in her race, adopted this strategy. Blevins shifted between fourth and seventh place for the first four of six laps.
The pace started high and remained that way until a group of six established themselves on the front. On lap four, with the race now down to a manageable number, the pace slowed, and the tactics began with everyone watching Blevins to see not what he would do but when he would do it.
On lap five, a person familiar with going fast at Centennial Park sensed the slowing pace and decided to get things moving again. That rider? Your 2024 US cyclocross national champ, Eric Brunner (unattached), who earned an impressive fourth-place finish against the world's best at the 2022 Fayetteville UCI Cyclocross World Cup. After Brunner ramped it up, Carter Woods took the opportunity to put in a dig and went to the front. Blevins followed with Logan Sadesky (Broad Street Offroad) in third.
The group of six stayed together on the final lap until the inevitable happened. Blevins decided it was time. The powerline climb is the sprint before the sprint. Get to the top and enter the Stonehenge spirals before the finish, first, and your chances of victory are high. This move is precisely what Blevins did, coming onto the asphalt first, making sure the sprint was never in doubt and taking the win. Woods finished second, with Schuermans in third.
Friday's final event was the U23 men's XCO HC race. This event, originally scheduled for Saturday, was moved a few weeks ago to Friday at the request of USA Cycling. Events in other countries started offering U23 races on separate days to allow athletes to race in the U23 and elite categories.
The main reason for this specific schedule change is to allow athletes to gain as many points as possible in an Olympics year. Allowing Riley Amos to have an opportunity to race the U23 and the elite race makes it possible for him and others to double up on valuable UCI points. The goal for the US team is to have two men compete in the XCO race, and to do that, they need to be in the top eight nations when the UCI compiles the final ranking May 26. Currently, the US is ranked tenth in the world. [I started to explain, the best I could, how the Olympic selection works but realized it made more sense as a stand-alone post.]
As I wrote in Thursday's post, a similar accommodation was not made for the women's U23 field. Something that isn't fair and hopefully will be fixed in future events. However, as far as the US goes, the women are relatively safe in securing two spots for the Olympics and Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk spent the weekend collecting points in a Brazilian C1. The US women are currently fourth in the nation rankings with a decent buffer to eighth place, which is the cut-off for two spots. The men, on the other hand, have some work to do if they are going to get that second spot in the 36-rider field. So having this U23 race on Friday is a great opportunity, if not necessarily an equitable one.
Cross Country (XCO)
As for the racing, things went according to plan if you're Team USA. In Friday’s men’s U23 race, Amos went to the front on the second lap and kept the tempo high enough to stay in the front for the duration. He got some pacing help from Carson Beard (Durango Segment 28), who monitored the front for laps four and five. Amos took over the front for the final two laps and pulled away from Beard at the end to take the solo win by 26 seconds. Cole Punchard (Pivot Cycles-OTE) finished third.
Saturday in Fayetteville was another beautiful day, with sunny skies and warm temperatures. The wind, however, was relentless, with powerful gusts coming in waves throughout the elite races. As much as it affected the athletes' race strategy, the wind also dampened spectating opportunities at the popular first gap jump. With racers gaining speed off the big descent, they can use the jump to showcase new tricks everyone has been practicing in the offseason. However, on Saturday, you got the sense that most everyone, save a few brave souls, would play it safe. Carter Woods expressed it best on lap two when he got pushed around midflight like an errant drive at Carnoustie and, after course-correcting the landing, matter-of-factly exclaimed, "Yeah… that's windy."
In the women's elite race, I could probably just cut and paste from Wednesday’s race report. Jenn Jackson was first out of the gate and did not give up P1 the entire race. She put in a hard effort on the first full lap, clocking 12 minutes and 58 seconds. After that, she completed the next five laps between 13:18 and 13:25. Never too high, never too low, just metronomic the whole race. Ella MacPhee was again the best of the rest, finishing second, 2:21 behind Jackson. Makena Kellerman secured third.
Missing from the podium was Wednesday's fourth-place finisher, Bailey Cioppa, who opted to race in the U23 category instead. Cioppa won that race over Marin Lowe (Pittstop Racing Team). Kellie Harrington (Bear National Team) finished third in the U23 race.
At the start of the men's race, it looked like we may also get a repeat of Wednesday's race in which Blevins, Amos and Woods fought for the win.
That trio followed the same script as Wednesday with the two Americans ganging up on the sole Canadian a few laps into the race. Amos was the aggressor in the group and went to the front on lap four and got a bit of a gap. Blevins seemed more than happy to sit in and let Woods fight the wind to try and bring Amos back.
Blevins moved in to second place on lap five and looked like he may bridge to Amos, but Woods fought back. After that, everything seemed to fall apart for the US National Champ. Blevins started to fall off the pace on the next to last lap and, depleted of energy, slipped to sixth by the finish.
Amos, by contrast, relished in the opportunity to win an elite HC race and closed the deal emphatically, rolling through every post-up routine he's been saving for this opportunity. Woods finished second, with Punchard taking third.
As Blevins hit the tarmac in sixth to finish his race, he had Carson Beard (Durango Segment 28) coming up fast on his wheel. A sixth place in an elite HC and beating the national champ would've been a noteworthy accomplishment for Beard, but what he did was even more significant. He didn't sprint. Beard saw Blevins ahead, saw he was slowing up and just wanting to finish, and Beard waited. He could've easily taken the spot but chose not to. It was a classy move worth highlighting.
Full US Pro Cup results are here. Next up in the 2024 country mountain bike national series is Piney Hills Classic in Louisiana, April 12-14.
I must be slow to the party. What does “HC” mean?