Cross Country Cyclo Cross

In cyclocross there are three levels of UCI races.  In order of importance it goes World Cups, C1 then C2.   Results and points are important because they dictate where you start for each race.  The more points the closer to the front.  The World Cup hasn’t started yet so C1 races are the most important.   There are only 10 C1 races in the USA and this weekend there were two on the same day – crazy I know.  The second stop of the USGP series had a C1 (Saturday) and C2 (Sunday) in Fort Collins while on the East coast the long running Providence cyclocross festival had the same C1 (Saturday) C2 (Sunday) schedule.

With some money on the line for USGP overall the vast majority of top US cross racers headed West to Fort Collins – leaving at lot of points available in Providence.

USGP thoughts

A cold wet muddy day saw Ryan Trebon take the win – no real surprise there – he’s great in the bad weather and with Nationals this year in January in Madison, WI the more practice he gets racing in the bad, cold weather the more a favorite he has to be.  Not surprising the top 10 was full of mountain bikers with Geoff Kabush 2^nd, Chris Shepard 6^th, Troy Wells 7^th and ex US National mountain bike champ JHK finishing just outside in 12^th.  J-Powers did better then expected with a strong 3^rd place Saturday and Tim Johnson and Christian Heule did worse.  Heule did crash hard last weekend so is obviously still not back up to speed.  Other surprisingly bad races came from Brian Matter (19), Chris Jones (21) and Tristan Schouten (27).   The ride of the day Saturday was definitely U-23 rider Yannick Eckmann who finished 5^th overall… crushing the other U-23s  Zack McDonald and Cody Kaiser by 1 minute and 3 minutes respectively. 

Sunday was back to fast dirt – again a bit more like a dirt crit and as usual J-Powers took to the front and if he hadn’t had a slight crash with 5 to go would have been long gone.  As it was he chased back from about 10-12 sec down to catch Trebon and take the win.  Trebon was 1sec back and way clear of the rest.  No real surprised on Sunday except Tim Johnson is still struggling with the fast start of these races.  He was was back in about 15^th place after one lap and took the whole race to claw back to 4^th only to get passed by Schouten on the final lap for a 5^th place.   Chris Jones was back in his element – dirt crits – and did what is expected from him. Launch off the front by lap 3 and get caught 2 to 3 laps later.  He hung on for a top 10 finish and shouldn’t be counted out for a podium at any dry fast races coming up.

Providence thoughts

It’s hard to get excited about a race that is missing all the top cross guys but as expected the race was still extremely well run and provided some exciting east coast racing for guys who either can’t afford to fly west or don’t care about USGP overall points.  Plus a bunch of Canadians came down to mix it up in preparation for their National Championships in only three weeks.

Justin Lindine won both days – and is in a good position with UCI points when they re-set after next weekend for the 2011 / 12 season.   A couple of Canadians – Evan McNeely (on Saturday) and Derek St. John (on Sunday) picked up podium finishes.  Nice to grab a few UCI points before Nationals.

Next Weekend

The first UCI World Cup of the season is next weekend in Plzen Czech Repulic and after today’s Belgian domination at the first SuperPrestige look for a very, very, very fast race as they try to take Stybar down in his home country.  A few American’s are heading over (J-Pow, Tim Johnson maybe and Jamey Driscoll) its going to be a tough day out there for them based on how the Belgians rode today.

Here in the USA there are more UCI races with Spooky Cross in Irvine, CA and Granogue CX in Wilmington, DE.   Those are all C2 but expect Trebon to get some easy point in the west and probably Lindine back est.

Here are my thoughts on the top 10 guys in the USA right now…

USA Cyclocross Power Rankings after three weeks:

1. Ryan Trebon – he got caught on Sunday by J-Pow on the fast dry conditions, but when the weather gets rough there is no one better in the USA
2. Jeremy Powers – clearly the man to beat on fast dry conditions.  If the rest of the season stays dry he’s going to win a lot more races
3. Geoff Kabush – strong results in Fort Collins with 2^nd in the mud and 3^rd in the dry conditions
4. Jamie Driscoll – solid performances in all races with a pile of 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place finishes
5. Tim Johnson – terrible day on Saturday but a 5^th place finish on Sunday shows he’s continuing his way back up to the front
6. Yannick Eckmann  - Awesome result for the U-23 rider in the mud on Saturday to finish 5^th in the Elite men’s race
7. Zack McDonald – also U-23 and finished ahead of Eckmann on Sunday.  Consistently top 10-15 in Elite races
8. Christian Heule – had a bad crash last weekend and a 9^th place finish on Saturday before dropping out Sunday
9. Ben Berden – a long time pro in Belgium who’s spending this season racing in the USA.  Lots of podiums on the east coast and now racing with the rest of the top guys.
10. Tristan Schouten – had a very bad Saturday race, but bounced back for 4^th place on Sunday.  Couple that with some good results back East and he replaces his fellow Wisconsinite Brian Matter as my 10^th best guy right now.

Check back later in the week for a look at women's cyclocross right now in the USA...

You wanna see some FAST cross action – check out this: 

Superprestige 2011-2012 from jef cleemput on Vimeo.

World Cups and Superprestige are live on Sporza online (www.sporza.be) – check www.cyclingfans.com for dates and times.