Compton makes it two-for-two in Boulder

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US National Champion Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant Offroad) won her second consecutive cyclo-cross race at the Victory Circle Graphix Boulder Cup held at the Valmont Bike Park in Boulder, Colorado. The top ranked ‘cross racer in the world rode away from her nearest competitors on the first lap and soloed to a win ahead of Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) in second and Caroline Mani (SRAM) in third.

“It is good for me to get more points so I can maintain my position at the front and it's good to win back-to-back days after skipping some early races,” Compton told Cyclingnews. “Winning always feels good but it's more fun when racing close to home. I thought the course and venue was awesome. It was really hard. Nearly every feature of classic ‘cross racing was included so it made for a great race.”

After Compton’s victory at the C2 Colorado Cross Classic held at the Boulder Reservoir the previous day, the Elite women reunited for the C1 Victory Circle Graphix Boulder Cup held at Valmont Bike Park. Racers were offered a challenging three-kilometre course that played off of the park’s steep run-ups and grass terrain and included a 20-foot wide and 100-foot long staircase on each lap.

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“I was really impressed with the park, I thought it was awesome,” Gould told Cyclingnews. “There were sections of the course where it really made a difference how fast you could ride or run them. For example, the stairs were really long and that is where I could really pass a lot of people and where I was faster. Also the mud and sand sections were hard enough that if you didn’t ride them properly you could lose a few seconds. It was a nice park.”

Compton took her place on the front row as the UCI world standings leader, next to her were the previous day’s podium contenders Caroline Mani (SRAM) and Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) along with top ten riders Nicole Duke (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), Sue Butler (River City Bicycles), Amanda Carey, Kelsy Bingham, Heather Irmiger, Alison Powers, Alice Pennington and Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com). It wasn’t long before Compton opened up a gap ahead of her competitors during the opening lap of the women’s 40-minute race.

“I got a gap at the end of the first lap in the mud section, I was able ride an off-camber section well and earned a few seconds so I attacked again on the pavement after that since I was planning on pitting for different tires and I wanted to have a little wiggle room there,” Compton said. “It took a couple laps to find my rhythm and make less mistakes but once I did I felt faster and kept pushing.”

Gould suffered a slower than usual start to the race and was forced to spend her energy trying to catch up to the race leaders. She worked her way back up to second positioned rider, Mani, and the pair entered into a battle for the remaining podium positions.

“I had a bad start, was in too big a gear, there was no reason why I should have had that kind of a bad start,” Gould said. “It took me a little bit to catch up through the field. I don’t have a lot of zip right now so I had to steadily move my way up. On the second lap I caught up to Caroline, I had to use a lot of energy to get there so I rested a bit and sat on her wheel, followed where she was faster or slower. I made a move, that she closed down, but on the second to last lap she bobbled in the mud and I was able to ride it cleanly and got a few seconds.”

Gould gained a small lead ahead of Mani with two laps to go and maintained her lead all the way to the finish line to secure second place on the day. Mani rode in for a strong third place ahead of the next set of top ten riders. Meredith Miller (California Giant-Specialized) edged Julie Krasniak (Rapha-Focus), who had crashed the previous day, for fourth after battling for the top ten with Butler, Antonneau and Carey.