Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross: Coote scores first-ever elite win while Rochette wins women's C2 for weekend sweep

Henry Coote (Competitive Edge Racing) won his first elite men's UCI cyclocross race Sunday while Maghalie Rochette (Canyon) went two-for-two in the elite women's races at Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross. 

Coote, who finished fourth overall in his first elite men's UCI cyclocross race a month ago at Rochester Cyclocross in September, held off Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing) by 11 seconds for the victory. A trio of Competitive Edge Racing teammates - Eric Brunner, Dylan Zakrajsek and Cody Scott - trailed more than a minute back with Brunner taking third.

Brunner, the winner of the Really Rad C2 race in 2021 and 2022, took the early lead on Sunday, joined by Saturday's winner Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD Trek Bikes). By the mid-point of the race, White and Coote rushed to the front and were making inroads for separation from the rest of the bunch. Then Strohmeyer crashed on the sixth of nine laps and could not continue, leaving Brunner to chase alone and his teammates to take up another chase.

Last season racing in the junior division, Coote took second at GP Sven Nys in Belgium in the X2O Trofee series and was second at Pan-American Championships. On Saturday at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds, Coote was able to edge White for third place in the C1 race, then on Sunday he pulled away again from the former US cyclocross champion, this time for the win.

On the second day of racing for the elite women at the long-standing Massachusets fixture of cyclocross, Rochette battled it out again with Katie Clouse (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing). Lizzy Gunsalus (CCB p/b Levine Law Group) came out on top in the fight for third with two-time Really Rad winner Caroline Mani (Groove Off Road).

Clouse, second to Rochette in Saturday's C1 contest, took the hole shot and continued to set the pace with Rochette, Gunsalus and Lauren Zoerner (Competitive Edge Racing) on the first lap. Mani dangled off the back of the wheels of Clouse and Rochette on the second lap, while Gunsalus fell off by a handful of seconds. Making up some ground behind were Zoerner, Raylyn Nuss (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing) and Cassidy Hickey (CCB p/b Levine Law Group).

Rochette made separation from Clouse once the duo kicked up the dust on the fifth of seven laps, and the Canadian rider maintained her pace of the 23-year-old US rider to seal the back-to-back victories. Meanwhile, Mani and Gunsalus battled for the final spot in the podium, the 21-year-old attacking on the final lap to hold off the veteran by nine seconds.

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