U.S. CX Nats Preview and Cyclocross Radio Ep 339 with Ben Frederick

Joe Creason Park © 2023 Bill Schieken

Cyclocross is a two-act play with no intermission. This Saturday’s U.S. Cyclocross National Championships closes Act I with a slate of show-stopping numbers and a curtain call of new Stars and Stripes winners. Without any time to rest, Act II starts almost immediately, with most of the top riders in the U.S. traveling to Europe and racing the following weekend at the Hulst and Zonhoven World Cups.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about Nationals. We are again in Joe Creason Park, and 2024 is shaping up to be the Goldilocks year. 2018 was too hard, 2023 was too easy … will 2024 be just right?

Hearing on-site reports and comparing last year’s map to this year's, I feel good about the early feedback. The first map below is from 2023. The map under that is 2024. The course runs counterclockwise.

Let’s find the start line and go from there. The black line is what we will follow, and you can see it’s not much different year to year for the first third of the track. The oddly named “Belgian Stairs” are still there¹ as is the fly-over. It’s after pit one where things get interesting. In 2023, riders headed east and made their way around the Louisville Metro Parks building to the big descent before heading to the limestone stairs and the tricky off-camber along the fence line below the Parks Dept. building.

2023

2024

For this year, riders head west, hit the tricky off-camber first and then the limestone stairs. (Jeff's course preview below shows this starting at the 3:30 mark.) After that, they climb back to the top of the venue before descending the big hill. Once at the the bottom of the extended descent, riders are confronted with heavy ground at the lowest point of the venue before climbing back to pit two. This part of the course is reminiscent of what we saw in 2018.

Once riders are out of the lower bowl and through pit two, the course resembles last year's, with a few more technical bits thrown in for good measure. With the forecasted rain and more challenging track², I think we will be in for some great racing that will prepare our elite athletes for conditions they will see for the next month or two in Europe.

Course Preview

Weather

Elite Women

Coming into this season it looked like Katie Clouse had the women’s elite national championship wrapped up before we even started racing. But the landscape has shifted and the young guns have entered the fray. With Vida Lopez de San Ramon and Lizzy Gunsalus foregoing the U23 race for the elite race, Clouse is no longer a clear cut favorite. Gunsalus won the U23 championship in Louisville last year and Lopez de San Ramon won the junior title. Both of these riders could give Clouse, who hasn’t raced since illness kept her out of the Dublin World Cup, a run for her money.

As far as darkhorses go, look no farther than the two-time U.S. Gravel National Champion Lauren Stephens. I know cyclocross isn’t her discipline and this is far from a season goal, but I just spent a day editing her episode on Groadio and she’s a scary bike racer. Cross-promotion baby!

Women’s Elite Start List

Elite Men

Eric Brunner is your defending national champion and nobody will be surprised if he wins again to take his third elite national championship title. Andrew Strohmeyer looked like he was the strongest in the country at several points during the season but inconsistent results have dampened his frontrunner position. Scott Funston is always in the mix and one mistake by those other two and this could be his time to shine.

Throw in Curtis White and Kerry Werner and we may have the most exciting race in Louisville since Citation chased down Coaltown in sloppy conditions to win the 1948 Kentucky Derby by 3 1/2 lengths.

Speaking of horses, the dark one for the elite men? That’s a tough one. We’ve got Gage Hecht racing. We’ve got Ty Magner in there … but let’s go with Caleb Swartz. If the chain stays on, Caleb could crash the party up front.

Elite Men’s Start List

UCI Points

Here’s what everyone’s playing for on Saturday.

Daily Schedule

And here is your schedule. Livestream is provided by FloBikes and starts at 2P ET, December 13.

Predictions

I don’t want to tip my hat here. You’re going to have to listen to our conversation with Ben Frederick to see who Boedi, Ben and I choose as our Jr, U23 and elite winners.

1. I’m not sure what makes stairs Belgian. My vote would be to call them the Chicken Stairs to give the feature a Louisville tie-in.

2. If you are in Louisville and racing, come find me if you don’t have toe spikes. You will need them and I am the official Horst Cycling toe spike dispensary for the event.