The North American cyclocross calendar's final C1/C2 weekend is underway in Falmouth, Massachusetts, at the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross. The weather is in the sixties, the Fall colors are beautiful, and the racing is speedy on a dry, fast track.
Elite Women
Coming into Really Rad, the hands-down favorite to win both days was Maghalie Rochette (CX Fever). After one day of racing, that prediction holds as Rochette easily won Saturday’s C1 event.
Katie Clouse (Steve Tilford Foundation) started quickly and led through the planks and sand, features that come early in the lap. She was joined at the front of the race by Rochette, Lizzy Gunsalus (CCB p/b Levine Law Group), and Caroline Mani (Groove Off Road Racing).
When the leaders started lap two, Rochette moved to the front and led the group of four into the sand. She then accelerated. And that was pretty much it.
I knew that the sand was a key section to try to make a difference today. And so on the second lap, I decided I wanted to ride it first. And so that's what I did and I hit it pretty good. And I just knew that I had, I mean, I didn't actually know if I had a gap or not, but I decided that I would punch it at the end of it.
And I looked in my shadow and I couldn't see the other people's shadows. So I said, "Just commit, just try it." And so I pushed it for a lap and a half, kind of full gas to see if I could keep my gap and it worked.
And after that, I just said, “I'm just gonna keep pushing as much as I can.” And yeah, it was good. Yeah, so that's all it takes sometimes.
Watching from behind, Clouse knew there wasn’t much she could do to counter Rochette’s decisive move.
Mags opened up a little bit in the sand section. She just rode it super well, and yeah, she just opened up that gap the second lap in, and I made a little bit of a mistake going into the sand second, but I mean, that's just how it goes.
I think I got better at the sand through the race, so that was good, but yeah, once she opened up that gap, I knew she was gonna go, and I had a rough middle of the race. Once Mani caught me and I regrouped, my last half was better.
As for Mani, she played it smart, picked her battles, finished on the podium and kept a little in reserve for tomorrow—something she has never had to do before this year.
You've seen me racing for a long time. I would just give everything I have to close the gap, but I'm like, oh gosh, you should just chill out a little bit.
I'm trying to do everything properly and take it … be a little more of a bike racer than all the other things, so hopefully, it pays off.
Cody Scott (Comp Edge Racing) won the hole shot and led the field into the early turns of the Really Rad track, but that lead didn’t last long as Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD Trek Bikes) moved to the front to be first over the planks and through the sand. Strohmeyer’s mission for the day was to turn the pace of the race up to European levels, which started as soon as he took the lead.
The Euro races are a really big goal of mine for this year. And we only have a couple of races here in the US left. I want to use them to prepare for those [European] races as best as possible. And so today, I was like, we're going to go from the start. And these first two laps are going to be as hard as possible. And then we'll see where everyone's at.
And yeah, I was off the front and Eric [Brunner] was maybe between five and seven seconds behind me for the first four laps or something. I was just holding it there. I was trying to keep it, keep that little gap as long as possible.
For Brunner (Comp Edge Racing), a slow start had him fighting from the beginning. He was able to fight back to Strohmeyer’s wheel at the halfway point of the race, but as soon as he made contact, Strohmeyer attacked, not allowing Brunner to sit up and recover.
I haven't had great starts this year; I don't really know why. It wasn't even horrible, but Miles Mattern (CXD Trek Bikes) got around me on one of the early corners, so then I was fifth, and a gap opened up. It was just pretty strung out. Strohmeyer and Miles hit it pretty hard, and I felt like I was chasing the whole race.
I got on [Strohmeyer’s] wheel mid-race, and then he hit it again. He got about a second on the barriers, and I just didn't have the legs today. I kind of came back again late in the race. Maybe he sat up a little bit. I think he was feathering the gap. He probably didn't have a whole lot left to give, but neither did I, so that was about it.
Brunner finished second to Strohmeyer. Behind the leading pair, a battle for the third step may have been the most exciting race in the field. Mattern, Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation), Henry Coote (Comp Edge Racing) and Dylan Zakrajsek (Comp Edge Racing) made up the early chase group. Coote fell off the pace after a mechanical forced him off the bike.
For the remainder of the race, Coote made up for lost time by catching and passing the chasers and setting his sights on Brunner, who was in second place.
When I dropped the chain and my derailleur went into crash mode, I kind of freaked out a little bit, but then I calmed myself down, regrouped and realized I didn't really lose that much time.
So, I was able to fight back into the front group, and when I came through, I just tried to ride through the group. I didn't want to bring anyone with me, so I made sure to accelerate out of the corners, and when I got a little bit of a gap, I went with it.
From there, I realized I might have a shot at catching up to second place, so I went for it, but it wasn't there today. I'm hoping I can do that tomorrow.
My training is going really well, and I think I have the form to be up there. I just need to learn to race properly and be a little less like a junior racer.
After talking with the podium finishers, it was clear that the sand section of the Really Rad track was a decisive factor in the racing. At first glance, riding a long sand section that exited into a fast downhill section would be a better choice than running. However, Strohmeyer bucked the conventional wisdom choosing to run the sand rather than ride.
I've been watching races all day: the junior women, the junior men. And someone would try to ride it. Someone would get off and run, and they would pass them, or they would open up a gap.
So I was like, yeah, there's no point. And the sand here is so deep and it's so dry that you just have to put a ton of power down. There's no line through it. So I was like, all right, I'm going to play it safe and just run it every lap. And I think it actually saved me energy. It was one less match I burned every lap and I was just able to use that once I got back on the bike.
Is there cross on TV to watch? I know road racing was all over the place, but other than the majors you had to search for it.