Monday Musette – North American Cyclocross Weekend Wrap-Up: Louisville Sluggin’

Posted on November 14, 2011 by

Photo Courtesy of Rapha

This weekend, North American cyclocross racers converged on Louisville, Kentucky to fill perhaps the biggest, deepest field yet this season. Weather was cooperative and as we mentioned in our weekend preview, a number of riders have been heating up lately. The depth of the field meant that racing was aggressive from the gun. Let’s take a look at what went down:

Day 1 –

After Ben Berden took the holeshot and won another $250 prize courtesy of Avid Brakes, Ryan Trebon took over to do what he does best: go hard at the front and ride everybody off his wheel by the virtue of steady, diesel power. He was followed by Jeremy Powers and Chris Jones, both of Rapha-Focus, but after Jones bobbled a tricky ride-up that would be decisive for a number of riders throughout the weekend, and a fast-bridging Ben Berden flatted away, Trebon and Powers were left to duke it out for the bulk of the race. Behind, a high-powered chase group coalesced, featuring Tim Johnson, Geoff Kabush, Danny Summerhill, Jamey Driscoll, Troy Wels, and Chris Jones.

The lead duo entered the final laps having exchanged the lead a number of times, and for a while, it looked like Trebon was going to emerge victorious, having stretched out a lead of a couple bike lengths over Powers. Powers, though, had the final word, regaining the lead, hitting the ride-up first, and entering the pavement just ahead of Trebon. Trebon, full of spirit, misshifted, and Powers took the win. Meanwhile, Tim Johnson and Geoff Kabush both pulled out leads over the chase group and were riding home the last of a tough time trial.

A few noteworthy items – Trebon and Powers are clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Though Cyclingdirt’s commentary and Twitter both lit up with support for Tim Johnson’s inspired chase of Trebon and Powers, he never really came close.

Danny Summerhill was the “best of the rest,” beating others in the strong chase group for fifth place. He was also one of the few riders bunnyhopping the barriers. East Coast Hero Justin Lindine had an okay race, riding in 15th. It was good, but not great. Tristan Schouten, meanwhile, rode to a 10th place. Adequate but not on par with his capability. On Twitter, he expressed surprise at a 3rd row start – but he should know how the UCI points game is played by now.

Day 2 –

The news from the starting line was that during his pre-ride, Ryan Trebon crashed heavily and injured his knee. Though he entered the race, he was in obvious pain – cameras caught him going over the stairs, limping heavily. His discomfort was hard to watch considering his incredible performance the day before.

From early in the race, Geoff Kabush assumed Trebon’s role, hitting the front and keeping the pace high in an attempt to blow the race apart. But Kabush lacked Trebon’s power; Powers, Johnson, Todd Wells, and Ben Berden clung to him, with Wells looking the best. Wells looked eager to make up for his race the day before, when he had flatted out of the chase group and gone backwards fast.

In time the race came down to Wells and Powers: though strong, Kabush wasn’t able to keep the pace, and Johnson faded away, dropping back several places. Powers hit the pavement well ahead of Todd Wells and sat up to salute the crowd, but Wells wasn’t done talking – he was still sprinting behind, forcing Powers to sprint again before saluting. Wells never gave up, and charged Powers all the way to the line as Powers sprinted, saluted, and sprinted and saluted again.

Several notable results: Ben Berden outsprinted Chris Jones for 4th; Jones’s 5th place was a fine result. Trebon, despite his injury, scavenged a 10th place finish, behind Tristan Scouten, who scored his second top ten of the weekend. Lindine rode in for 12th place – again not an outstanding result, but this time, ahead of a number of impressive riders including Yannick Eckman, Danny Summerhill, and Zach hMcDonald.

Keep your eyes peeled for this week’s North American Cyclocross Power Rankings for some individual analyses of the continent’s top riders.

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Cyclocross Weekend Preview: Louisville and Hamme-Zogge

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

Photo by Luc Claessen | http://www.ispaphoto.be

This weekend’s cyclocross action sees a host of action as riders on the North American circuit head to Louisville, Kentucky – site of this year’s Master’s World Championships and next year’s World Championships – for the latest two-race installment of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. Overseas, the Euro crowd visits Hamme-Zogge for a Superprestige race, after sparring at Jaarmarktcross earlier today.

USGP of Cyclocross Derby City Cup (C1/C2)

After last weekend’s three-day actionfest in Cincinatti and two-day speedfest in Northampton, the country’s best cyclocrossers converge to compete against each other with no competing UCI races on the continent. The USGP races will see deeper fields of more committed riders – no picking and choosing which days to ride, as we saw last weekend.

Considering the ways that they’ve been riding lately, Ryan Trebon and Jeremy Powers are likely to steal the show. And considering the fact that both have been eager for wins as their form has been developing, it’s likely to be a slugfest – the last USGP race saw the two of them going blow-for-blow pretty much from the gun, trading leads, eeking out seconds over each other before Powers finally clawed his way back to Trebon and pulled out a few seconds of his own to win the race. Expect these two riders to steal the spotlight. Betting on them splitting the weekend seems safe.

However, with a strong schedule over the past few weeks leading up to this race, a number of riders are on good form. Of the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com three-headed monster of Tim Johnson, Christian Heule, and Jamey Driscoll, it’s Driscoll who looks the most prepared to give Powers and Trebon a decent run for their money – though Johnson has been steadily (if quietly) pulling his prowess together. Meanwhile, there are a number of strong and savvy riders who’ve had some exceptional results of late – including Zach McDonald, Tristan Schouten, and Ben Berden. Furthermore, East Coast Champion Justin Lindine is making the trip. We’ve got it on good authority that he’s gunning for a solid result at Nationals, and while that is a ways away, this weekend will be a good test of how he ride against the country’s top riders.

Superprestige Hamme-Zogge (C1)

Niels Albert heads into Sunday’s Superprestige race at Hamme-Zogge as the favorite to win. Albert leads the Superprestige series over Sven Nys and Klaas Vantornout following his two wins in Ruddervoorde and Zonhoven. Considering that Albert’s season has been a bit up and down up to this point, with some disappointing performances in big races, he’s likely to do what it takes in order to hold on to his lead. A win in last weekend’s Grand Prix de la Region Wallonne shows that his form is there.

It won’t be easy. Kevin Pauwels seems eager to replace Sven Nys as Cyclocross’s resident cannibal, riding on ripping form that’s brought him a host of wins big and small this season. Nys, too, is clearly riding well, as his victory in this morning’s Jaarmarktcross would show. However, the weather forecast doesn’t offer the conditions that helped Nys to his 2010 victory at Hamme-Zogge, but considering his performance on the fast course at Jaarmarktcross , it may not be necessary.

These three Belgians will have a bunch of riders gunning for them. Foremost among them is Zdenek Stybar. Though he can podium at will and has rode impressively and aggressively, victories have eluded him this season. Will he strike out again this weekend, or will he break through? Finally, a number of riders have been gaining the form necessary to trade blows with the front of the field – foremost among them Tom Meeusen and Bart Aernouts. We’ll see what they can do.

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The Sticky Bidon – November 10, 2011

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, November 10, 2011

Seen any cool links we missed? Share them in a comment below!

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International Cyclocross Power Rankings, Week #8

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

Photo by Balint Hamvas | cyclephotos.co.uk

Coming off another action-packed weekend of International cyclocross, here’s this week’s installment of Pavé’s power rankings.

1. Kevin Pauwels (1) – Pauwels is on fire. It’s not that he’s winning races – we knew he was capable of that – but rather that he’s riding away from Niels Albert early in the race and then dumping Zdenek Stybar late in the race. And he’s doing it all sorts of ways, too – going solo one week, outsprinting somebody the next week, and this past week, outmaneuvering his opponent late in the race. His performance is causing Nys and Stybar to deliver tweets of admiration and awe. 

2. Niels Albert (4) – Albert takes a couple steps up in the power rankings due to a victory at last weekend’s GP Wallonne, in which he bested Stybar. Albert’s physical form seems to be where it needs to be – victories at Ruddervoorde and Zonhoven back that up – but we can’t help but wonder if it’s his mental game that puts him behind the 8-ball in big races. He spends a lot of time chasing, but we’re inclined to think he’ll be looking to triple up on Superpretige wins at this weekend’s race in Hamme-Zogge. 

3. Zdenek Stybar (2) – The only thing stopping Zdenek Stybar from being the Zdenek Stybar we all know and love is that Kevin Pauwels stands in his way. His form has been rising but he’s been persistently stymied by his Belgian rival, but it’s only a matter of time before the tables are turned.

4. Sven Nys (3) – Nys has gotten his season off to a strong start, but he’s had some bad luck. Adding to that is the fairly pleasant weather outlook, denying Belgium’s best mudder from conditions that suit him best. 

5. Tom Meeusen (7) – Meeusen is still lurking right behind the leaders. Of the chunk of riders that are doing that, he’s probably the most significant podium threat.

6. Bart Aernouts (6) – the Rabobank rider has been steadily climbing the results and seeing the front of races. A powerful move saw him lead the way at the Ronse GVA race this past weekend. It didn’t stick, but Aernouts is looking strong. If his form keeps building he’ll hit the podium soon.

7. Klaas Vantornout (5) – Vantornout – Pauwels’ teammate on Sunweb-Revor – looks like he’s having a hard time matching the form that he displayed en route to a podium place at Tabor. 

8. Radomir Simunek (8) – Simu’s been building form and snagged a podium last weekend – let’s see if he’ll get a chance to repeat that performance at this weekend’s Superprestige race. He’ll have a deeper field to contend against, but he might get the opportunity to float by for a chunk of the race if his teammate Albert gets where he wants to be. 

9. Francis Mourey (nr) – Mourey came back from France with a handful of fresh decent results, including fourth place at GP Wallone. Fourth place seems to be just about where he tops out. 

10. Rob Peeters (nr) – the sleeper result of the weekend was Peeters’ 5th place at GP Wallone. It wasn’t a particularly deep field but you can’t write off a performance that sees him finishing only :15 behind Niels Albert. 

Dropped this week: Bart Wellens (9), Vincent Baestaens (10).

Stay tuned for our Cyclocross Weekend Previews, coming tomorrow!

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The Sticky Bidon – November 9, 2011

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, November 9, 2011

Seen any cool links we missed? Share them in a comment below!

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North American Cyclocross Power Rankings, Week #9

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

Photo courtesy of Gateway Cross

What’s going on with North American racing? The guys chasing Powers and Trebon seem to swap places too readily; but for Powers and Trebon it would seem like an extremely even-matched professional racing circuit. Despite this challenge we’re willing to rank them – let’s take a look:

1. Jeremy Powers (2) – J-Pow comes off a rest week and goes two-for-three in Cincinatti. In the process he applies a big sign to his back for this weekend’s upcoming US Gran Prix races. It says, “Objects in front of you are going faster than you can.”

2. Ryan Trebon (1) – Trebon puts in an extremely capable weekend but can’t hold off  

3. Jamey Driscoll (7) – of the many top riders who shuffled positions on the extended podium this past weekend, Driscoll’s got the nicest results, with a pair of fifth place finishes following Friday’s second place to former teammate Powers and ahead of Saturday’s winner in Cincy, Ryan Trebon. After a lackluster start to the season, Driscoll’s got to be happy with that performance.

4. Tim Johnson (4) – hot on the heels of his younger teammate Driscoll is Tim Johnson. Like Driscoll he’s had a fairly quiet September and October; he pulled down 4th place and 2nd place this weekend. He’s a bit off of the pace of Trebon and Powers, but we all know that Johnson is capable of blowing his opponents out of the water.

5. Ben Berden (3) – the perpetual podium lurker, Berden’s got two fourth places and a fifth from this past weekend to brag about. He’s demonstrated his ability to win against capable opponents; what will come next?

6. Zach McDonald (nr) – the young Rapha-Focus rider goes rocketing up the Power Rankings following an explosive second place in Cincinatti.

7. Tristan Schouten (10) – Schouten builds on last week’s strong showing with a decent result in Cincy. It looks like he’s building form leading up to this weekend’s USGP weekend.

8. Geoff Kabush (5) – Kabush opted out of racing this past weekend’s UCI offerings in North America, but he’s a consistent form-builder and has shown that he’s at a level where he can compete with some of the top riders in the county. Don’t write him off.

9. Todd Wells (6) – well, he may have opted out of cyclocross racing this week, but Wells won Ruta del Sol, a four-day mountain bike stage race in Costa Rica. So his tires aren’t skinny enough, but you can’t drop too far down the cyclocross rankings if you’re chasing other fat-tire disciplines and winning them. Wells stays on the Power Rankings.

10. Barry Wicks (nr) – comes on strong with 6th and 11th in Cincy. The other half of the former leggy Kona pair tends to race at a lower profile than his former teammate Trebon, but he’s pulled some nice results together.

Dropped this week: Danny Summerhill, Justin Lindine. 

 

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