Katie Compton’s (KFC Racing-Trek-Panache) streak of elite U.S. national cyclocross championships continued on Sunday in Reno, Nevada, as she captured her 14th consecutive title. The Colorado Springs resident found herself alone midway through the second lap and kept the pressure on to win another stars and stripes jersey.
Competing in her first elite national championships, Ellen Noble (Aspire Racing) began the race strong, as she was the only one able to stay with Compton through the opening lap. The veteran’s power proved to be too much for Noble, as she lost contact with the defending champion on the second lap. She came on strong in the final lap, as Compton made a mistake late, but the gap proved to be too big.
Noble crossed the line second. She was clearly happy with the result as she had a huge smile on her face and pumped the air when she finished.
Kaitie Keough (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com), currently ranked second in the world, rode alone for the nearly the entirety of the race and finished in third.
Top 10
- 1. Katherine COMPTON, TREK CYCLOCROSS COLLECTIVE, 49:51
- 2. Ellen NOBLE, ASPIRE RACING, 49:58
- 3. Kaitlin KEOUGH, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 51:31
- 4. Courtenay MCFADDEN, PIVOT CYCLES-DNA, 53:08
- 5. Amanda NAUMAN, SDG-MUSCLE MONSTER, 53:25
- 6. Rebecca FAHRINGER, AMY D. FOUNDATION, 53:34
- 7. Samantha RUNNELS, SQUID BIKES, 53:42
- 8. Lily WILLIAMS, THE PONY SHOP, 54:43
- 9. Rebecca GROSS, ZERO D RACING, 54:52
- 10. Caitlin BERNSTEIN, VIVE LA TARTE, 55:13
The U.S. national championship course in Reno was dry and fast when the elite women lined-up to compete for the stars and stripes jersey. It was a power rider’s course but also had many technical aspects. There were two sets of stairs, a sand pit, barriers, and a steep run-up.
Noble shot off the start line to lead the field onto the course with Compton and Keough right behind. Through the first turns out on course, the top-eight riders was virtually the same as those that had lined up on the first row. The sand pit was the first major obstacle on the course where the field bottlenecked. Being at the front here was critical for anyone that had podium aspirations.
Compton led the group through the sand pit with Noble hot on her wheels. The duo rode the section quick enough that they exited with an advantage over everyone else. Keough also found herself with a gap, though she was stuck all alone between the leading duo and the rest of the field. She would time trial like this for the rest of the race.
Noble and Compton traded-off leading through the rest of the opening lap. It wasn’t as if they were trading pulls, but they both had certain sections where they were stronger than their competitor and tried to take advantage of that.
The leading dup completed the opening lap with an eight-second gap to Keough in third. Behind Keough, Courtenay McFadden (Pivot Cycles-DNA) had moved into fourth place. However, McFadden was over 10 seconds behind Keough.
Compton’s winning move came at the sand pit on lap two. She blitzed the obstacle and powered around the turns that came after. Noble fought hard but was unable to match the pace of the multi-time world championship medalist.
At the end of lap two, Compton held an 11-second lead over Noble with Keough over 25-seconds down in third.
The final four laps of the six-lap race saw three individual time trials. Compton leading, Noble in second, and Keough in third. But, Noble wasn’t going away. After losing that initial time to Compton on lap two, Noble stayed virtually the same distance behind the 13-time defending champion as the laps wound down.
Late in the final lap, Compton botched the off-camber turn at the bottom of the descent coming off the run-up and was forced to run. This gave Noble hope. The gap between the top two noticeably shrunk, but Compton’s mistake happened to close to the finish line.
The Queen of U.S. cyclocross held on to capture her 14th successive elite national cyclocross title. Noble rode in for the second, an impressive performance for her first time racing in the elite race at the national championships. Keough finished in third with McFadden cruising in for fourth.
Emma White (Cannondal-Cyclocrossworld.com) took home the women’s under-23 title in dominating fashion, as Katie Clouse (Alpha Bicycle Co.-Groove Subaru) won the junior women’s 17-18 stars and stripes jersey.
Elite women full results
- 1. Katherine COMPTON, TREK CYCLOCROSS COLLECTIVE, 49:51
- 2. Ellen NOBLE, ASPIRE RACING, 49:58
- 3. Kaitlin KEOUGH, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 51:31
- 4. Courtenay MCFADDEN, PIVOT CYCLES-DNA, 53:08
- 5. Amanda NAUMAN, SDG-MUSCLE MONSTER, 53:25
- 6. Rebecca FAHRINGER, AMY D. FOUNDATION, 53:34
- 7. Samantha RUNNELS, SQUID BIKES, 53:42
- 8. Lily WILLIAMS, THE PONY SHOP, 54:43
- 9. Rebecca GROSS, ZERO D RACING, 54:52
- 10. Caitlin BERNSTEIN, VIVE LA TARTE, 55:13
- 11. Arley KEMMERER, FEARLESS FEMME RACING, 55:29
- 12. Sarah STURM, SKA ZIA, 55:38
- 13. Caroline NOLAN, CLIF-VOLER-HRS-ROCK LOBSTER, 55:45
- 14. Beth Ann ORTON, SDG-MUSCLE MONSTER, 55:50
- 15. Jennifer MALIK, AMERICAN CLASSIC PRO CYCLOCROSS, 55:53
- 16. Raylyn NUSS, MAPLEWOOD BICYCLE ST. LOUIS, 56:01
- 17. Crystal ANTHONY, MAXXIS-SHIMANO PRO CYCLOCROSS, 56:13
- 18. Cassandra MAXIMENKO, VAN DESSEL FACTORY TEAM, 56:24
- 19. Emily KACHOREK, SQUID BIKES, 56:27
- 20. Sunny GILBERT, VAN DESSEL FACTORY TEAM, 56:37
- 21. Teal STETSON-LEE, KYND CANNABIS, 56:52
- 22. Erica ZAVETA, GARNEAU-EASTON P/B TRANSITIONS, 57:12
- 23. Kristen LEGAN, EVOL DEVOELITE RACING, 57:13
- 24. Emily SHIELDS, HEARTS RACING CLUB, 57:17
- 25. Christa GHENT, AMY D. FOUNDATION, 57:51
- 26. Rachel RUBINO, FEARLESS FEMME RACING, 58:18
- 27. Regina LEGGE, TREK CYCLOCROSS COLLECTIVE
- 28. Laura WINBERRY, SPEEDVAGEN RACING
- 29. Anne USHER, FAST FUN NICE
- 30. Anna MEGALE, TEAM UPCYCLE
- 31. Allison ARENSMAN, JA KING
- 32. Erin FACCONE, B2C2 CYCLING CLUB
- 33. Gabriella STERNE, VANDERKITTEN CX-VKCX
- 34. Leslie LUPIEN, B2C2 CYCLING CLUB
- 35. Leslie ETHRIDGE, TOPO DESIGNS
Under-23 women
- 1. Emma White, in 45:04
- 2. Clara Honsinger, 45:37
- 3. Katie Clouse**, 46:02
- 4. Emma Swartz, 46:55
- 5. Shannon Mallory, 47:11
- 6. Hannah Arensman, 47:30
- 7. Petra Schmidtmann**, 48:32
- 8. Katherine Santos, 48:38
- 9. Ava Lilley**, 48:40
- 10. Kennedy Adams, 49:10
- 11. Katja Freeburn, 49:24
- 12. Laurel Rathbun, 49:31
- 13. Ellen Campbell, 49:32
- 14. Ellie Mitchell**, 49:48
- 15. Anya Malarski, 50:11
- 16. Kelsay Lundberg, 50:20
- 17. Allison Mrugal, 51:05
- 18. Abigail Youngwerth**, 51:26
- 19. Cara O’neill, 51:52
- 20. Alijah Beatty, 52:08
- 21. Meghan Owens, 52:11
- 22. Hayden Gizinski**, 52:21
- 23. Turner Ramsay**, 52:28
- 24. Rosemary Morrissey**, 53:12
- 25. Kathryn McDicken**
- 26. Anna Savage**
- 27. Abbey O’Brien**
- 28. Ashley Zoerner
- 29. Sophie Russenberger
- 30. Riley Gallagher**
- 31. Chloe Welch
- 32. Cayla Crockell
- 33. Ciara Macdonald**
- 34. Brooke Lyman
- 35. Bethany Newton
** Denotes junior 17-18 rider
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