Temperatures had just crept above the freezing mark and 12 inches of new, powdery white snow glistened throughout Jackson Park when the elite women and elite men took to the course on Saturday on day one of the UCI C2 Hunter Subaru North Carolina Grand Prix (NCGP) in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Canadian Ruby West (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) won her third consecutive event on the USA Cycling Professional Cyclocross (ProCX) calendar on Saturday for the elite women. It would be the fourth win of the season on the men’s side for North Carolina resident Kerry Werner (Kona Factory CX Team), who is second overall in the elite men’s ProCX standings.
All racers faced some degree of tricky travel due to the snowfall that belted the Appalachian Mountains to reach Hendersonville, located just south of Asheville. They then faced muddy and slippery conditions on the course.
Midway through the elite men’s contest, five riders had separation over the other 25 competitors. In the mix was Werner, who now calls Advance, North Carolina his home.
“I was a little worried at first that it wouldn’t be ridable,” Werner said about all the snow that fell overnight in Hendersonville with Winter Storm Benji. “But then I saw some of the amateur racers riding around and you could see mud, so that was a good sign. By the time we rode, after Noon, it was fun. I ran super low [tire] pressure because the speeds were pretty slow today and also there wasn’t anything to hit. We don’t always get the opportunity to do that. I felt really good out there today on the tricky bits. Kind of my forte is the slip and slides.”
In the mix with Werner was Eric Thompson (MSPEEDWAX.COM), Cooper Willsey (Cannondale p/b cyclocrossworld.com), and a trio of Tar Heel state riders — Travis Livermon (Maxxis/Shimano), teammates Tristan Cowie and Merwin Davis (Cycle-Smart Inc.).
“Three laps in, I gapped Eric (Thompson) off the back, and Cooper (Willsey) was chasing for a few laps,” Werner added. He would not only have his fourth ProCX win, but a 10th podium for the year. “I put an emphasis on hitting it hard in the power sections. I knew [Willsey] was holding it together and wouldn’t hit those sections super hard. So I built my gap and from there it was just trying to stay smooth, taking a bunch of bike changes and making sure there were no mechanicals were happening.”
Werner would ride solo to the line for this victory. Willsey took the sprint behind him for second, with Thompson coming home in third.
“There really is only one line around the course, there’s so much snow,” Willsey said. “I knew the start would be super important. So I focused on getting a good start and clean first few laps. I went out hard and rode at the front. I saw Kerry and Eric coming up to me, so I knew they would make it. So I waited up a little bit and we were a group of three working well together.
“Maybe on the third or fourth lap, I got caught up in the tape, while running. It as my fault. The gap opened up to them and I went pretty deep to close it. I almost got back to Kerry. I paid for that effort and Eric got back in front of me. I surged on the last lap and got him in the sprint.”
It would be the third ProCX podium for Willsey and the first time for him to secure a silver medal. It would be the sixth ProCX podium finish for Thompson.
“I was trying to scheme a little bit and get Tristan and Kerry at each other so I could come up from behind,” Thompson said about early tactics. “Both of those guys are strong, plus all the rest of the guys, Cooper and Travis, and everyone else. I just tried to have a smooth race. Really, that’s all you can have out here with these conditions. Anything can go wrong. I recovered from a crash out there, then came back to Cooper finally with two to go. Then I was able to recover. But at the end Cooper came back and took me in the sprint. So he rode really strong. We did our best just to stay upright.”
Livermon would finish fourth, followed by Cowie in fifth and Davis in sixth. Racing should prove to be challenging on Sunday, as overnight temperatures are expected to dip below 20 degrees.
“If you are a good bike handler, you are going to be in the mix. If not, it doesn’t matter how strong you are,” Werner said. “It’s about who can hold it together mentally. Tomorrow will be even more crucial. We might be dealing with frozen ruts and maybe more of a slip-and-slide situation. We’ll see. I think tomorrow I think the group will break apart earlier. I’m looking forward to it.”
Elite men top-10
- 1. Kerry Werner, 55:09
- 2. Cooper Willsey, 55:36
- 3. Eric Thompson, 55:37
- 4. Travis Livermon, 56:21
- 5. Tristan Cowie, 56:31
- 6. Merwin Davis, 56:48
- 7. Isaac Neff, 57:26
- 8. Caleb Swartz, 58:10
- 9. Cade Bickmore, 58:57
- 10. Andrew Giniat, 59:06
West gets hat-tirck of victories for the season
Ruby West made sure to move to the front from the start, to navigate the off camber sections without the hassle of other riders. There would be lots of dismounting and remounting throughout the course of the lap.
“I think the first half of the course I liked a little bit better. It was more about staying smooth and following your own lines,” the 18-year-old said about the race. “The second half was so much running and so miserable. I like running, and I think it is one of my strengths, but it was just so slippery and so muddy that there was almost no hope in moving there. I was making mistakes there every lap. So, I was just trying to minimize mistakes and get up fast when I fell.”
Among the contenders in the top six in early laps were North Carolina residents Lily Williams (Pony Shop CX Team), Hannah Arensman (J.A. King P/B BRC) and Emily Shields (Kens Bike Shop).
“It stayed pretty close together in the beginning,” said Williams, who would score her third podium of the ProCX season. She said the separation came on the back side of the course. “It had the off camber sections, the “w”, where [the course] split with a high line and a low line, on the back side. A lot of people in front of me took the low line, which was slick. So I was able to make up some ground on the high line on the first lap. And then coming to the start/finish the first time, after the first lap, it kind of filtered out and that is where it stayed.”
She was correct about the final placement. Williams would finish second, but it would be Shields working her way from sixth to a third-place finish, her first podium at a ProCX event this year.
“I really like the mud, so I really liked today. It was ideal,” said Shields, who finished second earlier in the season at the Deschutes Brewery GO Cross in Roanoke, Virginia, part of the USA Cycling American Cyclocross Calendar. “It was kind of hard to pass people because there was just the one rut. But I just kept slowly moving up and ended up in third.”
Arensman would slip back to fifth. Fourth place was sealed by Cassie Maximenko (Van Dessel/Atom Composite Wheels).
“I was excited to race in the snow,” West added. It was her fifth ProCX podium of the season. “I actually hadn’t raced in the snow since the World Championships last year in Luxembourg. Canada has been unseasonably warm so far this year, so most of the races I have done have been warm or no precip.”
Elite women full results
- 1. Ruby West, 44:14
- 2. Lily Williams, 44:49
- 3. Emily Shields, 45:51
- 4. Cassandra Maximenko, 46:13
- 5. Hannah Arensman, 46:15
- 6. Julie Wright, 46:45
- 7. Jennifer Malik, 46:49
- 8. Emma Swartz, 47:07
- 9. Erin Faccone, 47:36
- 10. Allison Arensman, 48:02
- 11. Gabriella Sterne, 48:57
- 12. Leslie Lupien, 50:09
- 13. Philicia Marion, 51:30
- 14. Erica Allar
- 15. Riley Gallagher
- 16. Hannah Bauer
- 17. Megan Heath
Elite men full results
- 1. Kerry Werner, 55:09
- 2. Cooper Willsey, 55:36
- 3. Eric Thompson, 55:37
- 4. Travis Livermon, 56:21
- 5. Tristan Cowie, 56:31
- 6. Merwin Davis, 56:48
- 7. Isaac Neff, 57:26
- 8. Caleb Swartz, 58:10
- 9. Cade Bickmore, 58:57
- 10. Andrew Giniat, 59:06
- 11. Alex Ryan, 59:54
- 12. Bradford Perley, 01:00:36
- 13. Byron Rice, 01:00:54
- 14. Richard Cypress Gorry, 01:01:16
- 15. Michael Landry, 01:03:54
- 16. Keith Mullaly, 01:04:54
- 17. Samuel Kieffer, 01:05:53
- 18. Scott Myers
- 19. Jon Okenfuss
- 20. Garret Thompson
- 21. Alistair Sponsel
- 22. Lucas Livermon
- 23. Charlie Hough
- 24. Steve Hindman
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