Katie Compton’s winning strategy is simple: Attack early and often, make her competitors fight to catch up.
The Colorado Springs cyclocross queen’s plan served her well last weekend as she swept the Xilinx Cup and Boulder Cup, the third and fourth races of the national U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross.
Cyclocross is a history-rich form of bike racing, born in Europe as a way for road racers to stay in shape during the wintery offseason, and it is gaining popularity in the United States..
“I’ve never seen the interest like this year,” said Compton, who is focusing on cyclocross after two years riding a tandem with a blind athlete in the Paralympics. “It’s amazing this year. It definitely has more years to go, but every season it gets bigger. It’s all good for the sport.”
The exciting contests feature racers sprinting around 1- to 2-mile loops of mud, grass and pavement, including brief bike-toting footraces over obstacles including deep sand and muddy steps.
At Saturday’s Xilinx Cup in Longmont, Compton, 27, surged to the front in the first of six 2-mile laps, and by the final, grueling spin around the dirt-and- pavement loop, her lead was insurmountable. The fight for second and third at Xilinx was much closer, with Canadian national champion and 2005 Gran Prix series winner Lyne Bessette unable to defend collaborated attacks from Team Luna riders Georgia Gould and Katerina Nash, who finished second and third, respectively.
In Sunday’s Boulder Cup in front of roughly 600 spectators at Boulder’s Harlow Platt Park, Compton again took the early lead, but this time Bessette stayed close until the final two laps, when Compton’s trademark attack proved indefensible. Bessette finished second, followed by Gould.
In Saturday’s elite men’s race, Oregon pro Ryan Trebon won his third consecutive Gran Prix cyclocross race this season in equally decisive fashion. Crashes behind him shook up the field in the final few laps, with a thrilling final sprint deciding second (Jeremy Powers) and third (Durango’s Todd Wells).
Sunday’s Boulder Cup saw a much tighter race among the elite men, with lots of lead changes in the 10-lap race. Trebon lead the pack early, followed by Wells, Trebon’s Kona teammate Barry Wicks and Boulder’s Jonathan Baker. By the second lap, Trebon and Wells were dueling well ahead of the chase pack. They were joined by Cannondale racer Tim Johnson when Trebon endured the first of two mechanical problems.
By the final two laps, Trebon was struggling to reach Wicks, Wells and Johnson, who finished first, second and third.
Among the juniors, Loveland 16-year-old national champion Alex Coelho and Centennial’s Danny Summerhill, another veteran national champ, have ramped up their annual competition for the top step of the podium. In the Boulder Cup, the pair led the entire race. Summerhill’s midrace attack led him to the victory, followed by Coelho and Ethan Gilmour.
Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
