Stephen Hyde has three custom painted Super Xs. Red, white and blue. He started his championship ride on this white one.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Gage Hecht's Moots with Pan American Champ color accents. One of several bikes on the front row hand made in the US(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
This is what 11.5 PSI looks like.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Ellen Noble's Horst Engineering toe spikes. Maybe the only equipment choice that mattered on this course.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Regardless of equipment choices, mud build-up made pitting every half lap mandatory(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Toe spikes were a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the elite races.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Sunny Gilbert's rode (and pushed) this Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie to a silver medal in the women's elite race.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Sunny Gilbert's Van Dessel(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Sunny Gilbert's husband/mechanic Doug custom drilled her frame for internal cable routing.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Curved chainstays on Jeremy Powers' Fuji(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
The head badge on Anthony Clark's Squid CX(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Anthony Clark's custom painted Squid with matching seatpost and saddle(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Everyone in the elite races ran mud tires. Literally.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Bar tape all the way to the stem and custom housing on Katie Compton's Trek Boone(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Adam Myerson's drilled Ritchey stem. If you want to run cantilever brakes, be prepared to work for it.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Adam Myerson's TRP cantilever brakes outfitted with Swiss Stop pads(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Gage Hecht's bike was outfitted with a 46/35 double front chainring. Unknown whether the 46 saw his chain again after the holeshot.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Stephen Hyde ran Vittoria's Terreno Wet tires.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Forty-four-tooth single chainring set-up for Stephen Hyde.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
A USA Cycling official checks for motors on the start line(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Dan Chabanov's custom lugged steel Richard Sachs.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
TRP cantilever brakes on Dan Chabanov's Richard Sachs bike.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Kerry Werner's Kona Super Jake. Most Shimano riders were on double chainrings but the course offered few opportunities to use the big ring(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Kerry Werner's mom is a machinist by trade.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Jeremy Powers' FMB Super Mud tires mounted to ZIPP Firecrest 303s(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Top tube detail on a otherwise all stock Super X for Katie Keough(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Kaitie Keough's Cannondale Super X. Most riders went with a standard 12-28 or 12-32 cassette.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
Stephen Hyde's race-winning Cannondale(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
No zip ties here. Compton's husband Mark Legg is renowned for his attention to detail.(Image credit: Ethan Glading)
The USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships last week in Louisville, Kentucky, provided a perfect testing ground for the latest tech in the off-road winter discipline. The grassy mud churned up on the rain-soaked course at Joe Creason Park after a full week of non-championship and age-graded racing put a stress test on the riders, their machines and the team mechanics.
Photographer Ethan Glading was on hand in Louisville for Cyclingnews to catch some of the newest - and not-so-new - gear being employed to help conquer the muck during Sunday's championships events, where Katie Compton won an astonishing 15th consecutive title, and Stephen Hyde captured his third in a row.
Among the younger competitors, Spencer Petrov took the men's U23 race, and Clara Honsinger claimed the women's U23 event, which featured riders aged 17-22.
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