Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant) extended her streak of wins in the USA (Image credit: Dave McElwaine/ www.trailwatch.net)
American Katie Compton was nearly undefeated in the 2010-2011 season, and hasn't finished a race off the podium in any race in recent memory. While her small handful of second place finishes unfortunately included the 2011 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, where she was beaten by Marianne Vos, the seven-time US champion is first in the minds of Cyclingnews' readers.
It is the fifth straight year Compton has won our poll, and this year she crushed Vos, exacting her revenge for Sankt Wendel with a 1,614-vote advantage over Vos out of more than 21,000 entries.
"I'm excited to win the poll and glad to know I'm still number one in the hearts of Cyclingnews readers!" Compton said.
While the rainbow bands may have eluded her, Compton finished the season as overall UCI rankings leader and just 10 points shy of the overall World Cup despite skipping two of the seven rounds.
On home soil, the Colorado resident was nearly flawless, missing only one win, the USGP round in Fort Collins, where she was beaten by Katarina Nash.
Vos, despite being world champion in the discipline, fell shy of the win, but earned the respect of our readers with a strong second place showing. She beat Nash by 2256 points to take the runner-up spot, while Nash once again stepped onto the podium thanks to her numerous wins which included several USGP rounds and the Czech national championship.
2011 best cyclo-cross female:
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1 Katie Compton 6163 (28.5%) 2 Marianne Vos 4549 (21.0%) 3 Katerina Nash 2293 (10.6%) 4 Hanka Kupfernagel 1943 (9.0%) 5 Meredith Miller 1868 (8.6%) 6 Georgia Gould 1368 (6.3%) 7 Helen Wyman 1110 (5.1%) 8 Daphny van den Brand 1050 (4.9%) 9 Sanne Cant 722 (3.3%) 10 Sanne van Paassen 568 (2.6%) Total: 21634
