Starting in the blue jersey of UCI points leader, cyclocross rider Katie Compton of Colorado Springs and the Spike Shooter team enjoyed a two-win weekend in Saturday’s Redline Cup and Sunday’s Boulder Cup races in Boulder.
Compton, a three-time national champion and 2006-07 world championship silver medalist, led Saturday’s race from the gun, opening a gap of 20 seconds over chasers Georgia Gould (Luna Chix) of Fort Collins and Proman/Paradigm’s Rachel Lloyd of Fairfax, Calif. By the finish of the five-lap, 45-minute race, Compton had built a 35-second lead.
After shaking Lloyd on the second lap, Gould rode solo to second place. Lloyd finished third in the field of 26 elite women.
Sunday’s main event saw similar results, with Compton establishing a 17-second gap over Gould on the first lap that grew to nearly a minute by race’s end as Lloyd, Wendy Williams of Portland, Ore., and Tokyo Joes/
Van Dessel team rider Kerry Barnholt of Boulder filling out the podium.
In the men’s races, Ryan Trebon of Bend, Ore., showed why he’s the best in the U.S., doubling up on victories Saturday and Sunday as well. The national champion dominated the field of 66 elite racers. Durango’s Todd Wells overcame mechanical problems to finish eighth, while Boulder’s Brandon Dwight crossed the line ninth.
Coloradans take Maui. Software manager Cindi Toepel of Littleton won her 55-59 year-old age group title at the recent Xterra World Championships of off-road triathlon in Maui, Hawaii, finishing with a time of 4 hours, 24 minutes on a course consisting of a 1.5K open-ocean swim, a 30K mountain bike ride up and down the Haleakala Crater, and a 10K trail run over roots, sand and lava.
“It feels great,” said the former Hawaii Ironman competitor. “It’s a lot of hard work, but I kept trying and didn’t give up.”
Toepel was joined by three other Coloradans claiming age-division titles in the annual event, including Lisa Leib of Durango, who won the 35-39 division in 3:39.
James Lewis of Broomfield won the men’s 55-59 age group. He finished with a time of 3:45.
Tune in. Local athletes competing in the 2007 Xstream Expedition & AXS Series will want to tune into Altitude Sports Network this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Highlights from the series and the three-day expedition finale in Moab will be shown in an hour-long program. Log onto for cable listings.
Olympians train on local slopes. Keystone Resort began its stint as exclusive training for the U.S. Ski Team on Saturday. The team returns for the second straight year to make final preparations before the alpine ski racing season is fully underway.
“Keystone again is stepping up to help support our training at all levels by allowing us exclusive access and to control the snow environment specific to our training,” said U.S. Alpine director Jesse Hunt.
Colorado resorts have long factored heavily into U.S. early-season training and competition due to the historical early-season snow and the consistent ability to make snow for training. The men’s alpine World Cup stops at Beaver Creek Resort with the Charles Schwab Birds of Prey races Nov. 29-Dec. 2, and the women’s Audi Aspen Winternational World Cup the following weekend, Dec. 7-9.
Waring leads U.S. in World Cup halfpipe. Broc Waring of Edwards had the top U.S. men’s result at the recent World Cup halfpipe snowboarding competition in Saas Fee, Switzerland, placing 11th in the field of 51 riders for his best World Cup finish.
Waring, 15, from Vail Mountain School, entered his first World Cup last March.
The next World Cup halfpipe contest is Jan. 27 at Bardonecchia, Italy, the Olympic venue in 2006.
Scott Willoughby, The Denver Post
