Stephen Hyde (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) successfully defended his elite U.S. national cyclocross championship on Sunday in Reno, Nevada after going elbow-to-elbow with Jeremy Powers (Aspire Racing) for the majority of the race. Hyde passed Powers just before the run-up and then lengthened his lead on the hill to solidify his win.
“Way harder,” Hyde told VeloNews when asked how his win Sunday compared with his victory in Hartford at last year’s national championships. “I didn’t really have any big mistakes and I didn’t break anything and it was just down to the wire. In Hartford, it was just super steady and I was just like I need to go this pace and drive well and today it was super tactical. For a guy that doesn’t necessarily win all the tactical races, I’m really really happy.”
Kerry Werner (Kona) captured the bronze medal, as a host of riders came to the line together just behind him. Tobin Ortenblad (Santa Cruz-Donkey Label) finished fourth with Curtis White (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) in fifth and taking home sixth was Jack Kisseberth (JAM Fund/NCC).
Top 10
- 1. Stephen HYDE, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 59:09:00
- 2. Jeremy POWERS, ASPIRE RACING, 59:22:00
- 3. Kerry WERNER, KONA, 01:00:24
- 4. Tobin ORTENBLAD, SANTA CRUZ/DONKEY LABEL RACING, 01:00:28
- 5. Curtis WHITE, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 01:00:29
- 6. Jack KISSEBERTH, JAM FUND/NCC, 01:00:32
- 7. Tristan COWIE, TRIPLE OAKS RACING, 01:00:58
- 8. Allen KRUGHOFF, KRUGHOFF RACING, 01:01:11
- 9. Jonathan PAGE, ASSOS/SHIMANO, 01:01:14
- 10. Travis LIVERMON, MAXXIS/SHIMANO, 01:01:26
A hierarchy was quickly established as soon as the elite men got out on course. Werner took the holeshot followed by White and then Hyde. Ortenblad and Kisseberth both made strong early efforts to make it to the front of the race, hoping to avoid the inevitable bottleneck at the sand pit. Soon after the sand pit, six riders emerged better than the rest. The leaders were Powers, Ortenblad, Werner, Kisseberth, White and Hyde. Cody Kaiser (Lange Twins/Specialized) also made contact with the front group before the opening lap was done and dusted.
Powers went to the front of the lead group midway through the opening lap and remained there until the sixth lap. He fought back surges from other riders, and controlled the tempo for the lion’s share of the race, often upping the tempo to thwart surges from others.
Over the middle part of the race, the lead group slowly shrunk under Powers’ pressure. Kaiser lost contact on the second lap, while White lost the group on the third lap due to a puncture.
Kisseberth suffered a front flat tire on the fifth lap, as Werner lost contact shortly thereafter. Werner bobbled on the off-camber section on the descent from the run-up, which came near the finish. The pace was high enough among the leaders that a slight mistake made it difficult to recover and catch back on.
Entering three laps to go, Powers again led across the line with Ortenblad and Hyde in tow in that order. Powers punched it on a straightaway early in the lap, which put Ortenblad in trouble. Hyde was behind Ortenblad and had to push hard to close the gap to Powers. Instead of getting onto Powers’ wheel and resting, Hyde attacked over the top. Powers was already pushing hard and seemed caught off guard by Hyde’s move. It would take Powers nearly half a lap to get onto Hyde’s wheel.
“You know there’s always more than one plan,” Powers said of taking the race by the horns. “For me, there was always more than one plan to see how the guys reacted to the pace, but that’s how I like to race. I like to race from the front. I always have. With all those other titles, I always like to race from the front. I didn’t expect that I’d be able to stay on the front for as long as I did.
“I also didn’t expect Stephen’s attack,” Powers said of when Hyde went with three laps to go. “It was a pretty vicious attack for altitude. I didn’t have a problem sticking it. I had an attack like that I was planning to use it, but I was like ‘oh okay we’re going now.’I knew that that was going to be enough. I could hear the guys behind were hurting.”
The duo entered two to go with more than a 15-second lead over Ortenblad, who was visibly suffering. He had dug deep to stay in contact with the lead group and was now paying the price.
Over the next lap and a half, Hyde and Powers went pedal stroke for pedal stroke with each other. Neither of the two gave an inch to the other.
Both riders knew that the final time up the run-up was the key to who would wear the stars and stripes in 2018. Powers was in control heading toward the climb for the last time, but Hyde wanted none of it. He fought valiantly and passed Powers just before the run-up. Hyde then extended his lead as Powers and he charged up the climb. The race was all but won by the time the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com rider reached the summit. The fuel in Powers engine had disappeared.
Hyde safely navigated the descent and final corners to win his second straight elite national cyclocross championship. Powers came home a few seconds behind in second.
Werner passed Ortenblad on the final lap to sneak onto the podium in third.
In the under-23 men’s contest, Christopher Blevins (Specialized) put in a vicious final lap attack to take the stars and stripes jersey. He spent most of the race in a battle with Eric Brunner (EVOL DevoElite Racing) and Grant Ellwood (Boulder Cycle Sport). Ellwood kept yo-yoing off the lead group until he was finally dispatched for good on the penultimate late. As the leading duo passed the pit area for the first time on the final lap, Blevins made his acceleration. Brunner tried to follow, but could not match the Specialized rider’s speed. Brunner rode in for the silver medal with Ellwood capturing bronze.
Blevins is now a multi-discipline national champion, as he captured the under-23 cross country title last summer.
Ben Gomez-Villafane (Top Club CycloCross) powered to the victory in the junior men’s 17-18 race over Scott Funston (Rad Racing NW). Dillon McNeill (Trek Cyclocross Collective) took home the bronze medal.
Elite men full results
- 1. Stephen HYDE, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 59:09:00
- 2. Jeremy POWERS, ASPIRE RACING, 59:22:00
- 3. Kerry WERNER, KONA, 01:00:24
- 4. Tobin ORTENBLAD, SANTA CRUZ/DONKEY LABEL RACING, 01:00:28
- 5. Curtis WHITE, CANNONDALE-CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, 01:00:29
- 6. Jack KISSEBERTH, JAM FUND/NCC, 01:00:32
- 7. Tristan COWIE, TRIPLE OAKS RACING, 01:00:58
- 8. Allen KRUGHOFF, KRUGHOFF RACING, 01:01:11
- 9. Jonathan PAGE, ASSOS/SHIMANO, 01:01:14
- 10. Travis LIVERMON, MAXXIS/SHIMANO, 01:01:26
- 11. Cody KAISER, LANGE TWINS/SPECIALIZED, 01:01:41
- 12. Justin LINDINE, APEX/NBX/HYPERTHREADS, 01:01:54
- 13. James DRISCOLL, DONNELLY SPORTS, 01:02:12
- 14. Troy WELLS, TEAM CLIF BAR CYCLING, 01:02:20
- 15. Stephan DAVOUST, FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, 01:02:31
- 16. Scott SMITH, JAM FUND / NCC, 01:02:37
- 17. Anthony CLARK, SQUID BIKES, 01:02:46
- 18. Bjorn SELANDER, BORA TEAMWEAR/BIGHAM BILT, 01:03:11
- 19. Kevin BRADFORD-PARISH, GILLESPIE EYE CARE/SETCOACHING/SPECIALIZED, 01:03:48
- 20. Allan SCHROEDER, PROJECT AKA, 01:04:08
- 21. Ian MCPHERSON, EVIL RACING, 01:04:30
- 22. Sean BABCOCK, TEAM S&M, 01:04:31
- 23. David GREIF, VELO RENO P/B WESTERN LITHIUM
- 24. Alex WILD, SPECIALIZED FACTORY RACING
- 25. Josh DIREEN, GROOVE SUBARU EXCEL SPORTS
- 26. Cody CUPP, GILLISPIE EYE CARE/SET COACHING/ARLBERG SPORTS
- 27. Max JUDELSON, VOLER/CLIF/HRS/ROCK LOBSTER
- 28. Tyler CLOUTIER, RENEWED CYCLOCROSS
- 29. Brendan LEHMAN, ROCK LOBSTER
- 30. Zachary CURTIS, BMB RACING
- 31. Jules GOGUELY, NBX BIKES
- 32. Rhys LOUIS, THE VELO AMBASSADOR
- 33. Lucas ROWTON, MONTROSE BIKE SHOP
- 34. Michael LANDRY, CT CYCLING ADVANCEMENT PROGRAM
- 35. Robert CUMMINGS, DIALED CYCLING TEAM
- 36. Aj SNOVEL, JAKROO-HIFI-FELT BICYCLES
Under-23 men
- 1. Christopher Blevins, in 52:38
- 2. Eric Brunner, 52:44
- 3. Grant Ellwood, 53:00
- 4. Gage Hecht, 54:04
- 5. Spencer Petrov, 54:29
- 6. Maxx Chance, 54:35
- 7. Brannan Fix, 54:57
- 8. Denzel Stephenson, 55:14
- 9. Lance Haidet, 55:21
- 10. Caleb Swartz, 55:23
- 11. Cooper Willsey, 55:27
- 12. Garrett Gerchar, 56:01
- 13. Cameron Beard, 56:26
- 14. Henry Nadell, 56:31
- 15. Ross Ellwood, 56:34
- 16. Jack Tanner, 56:55
- 17. Michael Owens, 57:10
- 18. Anders Nystrom, 57:35
- 19. Liam Earl, 58:16
- 20. Jonathan Anderson, 58:18
- 21. Andrew Borden, 58:18
- 22. Jonah Meadvancort, 59:37
- 23. Finnegan O’connor, 01:01:46
- 24. Drew Sotebeer
- 25. Harrison Buckley
- 26. Erik Hammerquist
- 27. Kobi Gyetvan
- 28. Brent Franze
- 29. Kale Wenczel
- 30. Thomas Mcdonagh
- 31. Donald Seib
- 32. Spencer Johnston
- 33. Eli House
- 34. Maxwell Southam
- 35. Matthew Owens
- 36. Frederick Junge
- 37. Sebby Frimat
- 38. Charles Mandel
- 39. Zacharey Elzi
- 40. Nevin Whittemore
Junior men 17-18
- 1. Benjamin Gomez Villafane, in 40:01
- 2. Scott Funston, 40:17
- 3. Dillon Mcneill, 40:24
- 4. Sam Noel, 40:30
- 5. Gregory Gunsalus, 40:51
- 6. Lane Maher, 40:56
- 7. Calder Wood, 41:45
- 8. Torin Bickmore, 42:02
- 9. Henry Jones, 42:12
- 10. Sam Brown, 42:44
- 11. Kelton Williams, 42:58
- 12. Charles Springer, 43:02
- 13. Calvin Keane, 43:15
- 14. Noah Hayes, 43:19
- 15. Nathan Knowles, 43:49
- 16. Cobe Freeburn, 44:05
- 17. Campbell Watson, 44:21
- 18. Amai Rawls, 44:21
- 19. Max Mcfadden, 44:43
- 20. Ian Brink, 44:52
- 21. Camden Brooks, 44:55
- 22. Joshua Vahlberg, 45:09
- 23. Max Ritzow, 45:14
- 24. Julian Lepelch, 45:22
- 25. Kaveh Pourmehr, 45:27
- 26. Joseph Lukens, 45:56
- 27. Dylan Gong, 46:17
- 28. Caleb Trumbull, 46:27
- 29. William Seitz, 47:05
- 30. Dylan Pollard, 47:08
- 31. Byrne Dobrient, 47:37
- 32. Lance Heaton, 48:23
- 33. Evan Goldberg
- 34. Jacob Krynock
- 35. Brian Kalcic
- 36. Gavin Beer
- 37. Jordy Malmberg
- 38. Seamus O’connor-Walker
- 39. Connor Bernstein
- 40. Joshua Gilbert
- 41. Lucian Spampinato
- 42. Jack Zakrajsek
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