For the competitors, I don't believe they'd want or expect to ride in anything less than what old man winter could conjure up.
By Wendy Booher and Sean Weide
Kansas City, Kan. (Dec. 15, 2007) - Race-goers to the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships finally got a chance to pull on the extreme weather gear that had been languishing at the bottom of their luggage. It was cold and snowy from the ground up and frozen and unpredictable on the surface.
Following each start, eager, sadistic fans flocked to the course's pressure points to wait for the inevitable bobbles, spills and crashes, and Saturday's races did not disappoint.
Dombroski Defends U23 Title
Amid furiously ringing bells and rabid cheers, Amy Dombroski (Velo Bella-Kona) of Boulder, Colo., became the first to test the course and she found it just fine for defending her Under 23 women's title."Last year we didn't have conditions like this," Dombroski said. "I guess the hardest part was warming up on the course and being like, 'Oh my gosh, I actually have to ride this and race this?!' So I think the thing that was harder about this year was the pre-race preparation."
Dombroski took the holeshot and rode away from there to leave Kate Scheider (Fts-North Atlantic Velo) and Kacey Manderfield (Verducci-Breakaway) to duke it out for second place. Scheider led the first lap until Manderfield passed her at the top of the second set of stairs at the far end of the course. Dombroski rode easily to victory, one minute and 13 seconds ahead of Manderfield.
Practice Really Does Make Perfect
Bjorn Selander (Ridley) switched up his training program this past week to include a ride on ice near his Hudson, Wisc. home. He figured the extra practice on ice might come in handy.
Hundreds of miles away in Burlington, Vt., we don't know if Jamey Driscoll (Fiordifrutta) was doing the same. But in Saturday's Under 23 men's race, Selander and Driscoll gave fans a race to remember with a cliffhanger of a sprint finish.
"At mid-race, I was taking really bad lines," Selander said. "I crashed on the stairs, hit my nose and thought I broke it. I got it in my head that 'he's off' but it's the national championships!"
Selander held a narrow lead from the start, just ahead of Driscoll and the other race favorite, Danny Summerhill (Clif Bar). Summerhill faded to the back while Driscoll overtook Selander with two laps to go. Driscoll seemed to be cementing the win until a bad line choice in a vicious off-camber second put him within striking distance of Selander. Opportunity knocked and Selander responded at the far end of the course, where the two stair sections gave him his chance.
"I made sure if I got ahead of him on the stairs, then I could stay in front," Selander said.
Driscoll was first to the finishing stretch pavement, but Selander dug deep to find a rocket that launched him ahead of Driscoll to collect the win.
A GOOD Break For Andy Jacques-Maynes
After suffering a Memorial Day race crash that left him with 15 broken bones, Andy Jacques-Maynes (Cal Giant Berry Farms) spent the remainder of the road season recovering on his couch at home in Capitola, Calif. Then, after his first race back, he broke his collarbone while running across the venue after the race. Saturday in the Masters Men 30-34 race, Jacques-Maynes got another break, but this time it was a good one.
Defending national champion Grant Berry (Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory) lit a fiery pace from the start and left Jacques-Maynes behind, along with Weston Schempf (C3-Sollay.com), Molly Cameron (Vanilla), and Donald Reeb (CMG-Giant) in his wake. Riding in second, Jacques-Maynes ceded his place to Reeb and Schempf after getting tangled up in course tape toward the end of the first lap.
"The whole race was about how many mistakes you made," Jacques-Maynes said. "If you made one mistake, it was a good lap; if you made five mistakes, it was a bad lap."
Jacques-Maynes caught back on to Schempf and then bridged to Reeb. His big move came late in the race, when he took aim at Berry and shot past to win by three seconds.
"This race has been a goal since I crashed," he said. "I was sitting on the couch, looking for something to get me moving and this race was it."
Crash Halts McCormack's Chances
With less than half-a-lap to go in the Masters Men 35-39 race, Brandon Dwight (Boulder Cycle Sport) was doing his best to fend off a challenge by Mark McCormack (Clif Bar).
McCormack was glued to Dwight's wheel, poised to make the kind of late-race charge that won him dozens of races during his professional road career.
But with the finish line nearly in sight, suddenly McCormack was gone.
"We got to the last two stair run-ups and he was right behind me," Dwight said. "But then I didn't hear anything. I turned back and he (McCormack) was nowhere in sight,"
What the Boulder, Colo., resident did not see was in the congestion of passing several lapped riders behind him, a narrow gap on the rutty trail quickly closed for McCormack, sending him crashing down hard to the snow-covered ground.
"We caught a couple guys in the very last little down-up off-camber and I had nowhere to go and crashed," McCormack said. "The line that we were using disappeared. He (Dwight) got through the lapped guys really well and I didn't get by them in time. Once you fall that close to the line, you'll never catch up."
Racing his age group at nationals for the first time, McCormack traded the lead with Dwight and eventual third-place finisher Richard Feldman (Durance Cycleworks-Lehma). But with two laps to go, Dwight closed the gap to McCormack knowing he would have to make his move as soon as possible.
"I knew that if it came down to a sprint finish, there was no way I was going to be able to beat him," Dwight said. "I was fortunate to be in the right spot at the right time."
The race was supposed to feature the largest field of the four-day event, with 171 riders registered. But with the bitterly cold conditions and steady snowfall, only 93 riders opted to take to the starting grid.
Back Row Start Doesn't Stop Coats
The last time Alan "James" Coats (Morgan Stanley/Specialized) raced cyclocross in Kansas City, the temperature was in the single digits, the wind chill was 30 degrees below zero and the course was a sheet of ice. It was the 2000 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships.
Coats swore at the time he'd never come back. But there he was on Saturday, ready to give it another go in the Masters Men 40-44 race, in conditions that were only somewhat nicer.
"My teammates and my co-workers at Specialized Bicycles - where I work - convinced me to come out," he said.
But even when he lined up for the start, Coats said he was second-guessing his decision. With the starting order determined by order of registration, the Morgan Stanley-Specialized rider found himself looking at the backs of a lot of racers from his vantage point in the 12th row.
"I've been a past national champion, but it was back in 2003 and in a different age group, so the official wouldn't give me a break," he said. "But with the amount of road section at the start, I moved my way up as far as I could, then backed off and started charging forward."
In the end, Coats won by 30 seconds over Gannon Myall (California Giant Berry Farms) of Lafayette, Calif.
From the sounds of it, Coats won't be swearing off a return trip to Kansas City for nationals next year.
"The course was awesome and this venue was just amazing," he said.
The Old Boss - Same As The New boss
Ned Overend (Specialized) returned this year to defend the national title that seemed to come so easily last year in Providence, R.I. He opened up the race with a slim lead until things started to fall apart in the middle of the first lap."I had a good start and a good line-up," Overend said. "I had a pretty good lead, maybe 15 seconds. Then I crashed hard into the fence and released the lock on my shoe. So I had to stop and re-tighten it."
Mark Kutney (Van Dessel) zipped by Overend and clung desperately to the lead for a lap until Overend slipped by at the race midpoint.
Overend seemed to settle into the lead by the third lap but the course's fickleness kept him on his guard.
"You think you're going along good and you're gaining confidence and then your front wheel just goes away," he said.
Despite his best efforts to make contact with Overend, Kutney slid off the pace to finish 46 seconds behind Overend.
Wittwer Gets Help From Son
It's hard enough racing your bicycle through blowing snow. But nearly as difficult for Masters 55-59 winner Fred Wittwer of Charlottesville, Va., was trying to figure out whether he was in first place. Three other age-group categories were on the course during his race, creating a string of competitors that stretched over more than half of the course.
"It was really tough because we caught the end of the Masters 50-54 group pretty early on so it was just bedlam," Wittwer said. "After the second lap, my son figured it out and he was giving me time splits. So it worked out all right."
Wittwer successfully defended the title he won a year ago. And in doing so, he surprised even himself.
"I didn't think I had good technical skills, but today I felt great about my race," he said. "On the last lap, I didn't have any brakes. My rims iced up so when I hit the brakes, I just kept going."
MEDIA ALERT! In order to offer the best race conditions possible, USA Cycling will re-run the Masters Men 60-64, 65-69 and 70+ national championship races Sunday at 11 a.m. The three categories will compete in a 30-minute race that originally fell in an "open course" practice time slot.
Racing begins Sunday at 8 a.m. with the Singlespeed Mixed category.
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For a complete schedule, race results, the daily blog, more action photos* or to purchase official race apparel, visit: www.kccrossnationals.com.
Photos: Kurt Jambretz/www.actionimages.cc
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