Kerry Werner (Kona) and Christel Ferrier Bruneau (SAS-Macogep) emerged victorious in the men’s and women’s elite races, respectively, on a cold, slippery day Saturday at SuperCross Cup in Suffern, New York.
In the women’s race, Cassie Maximenko (VanDessel-Atom Composite Wheels) took the holeshot. However, Ferrier Bruneau wasted no time, escaping on the first lap and staying off the front to win.
“The victory with the jersey [Canadian National Championship] was very nice,” said Ferrier Bruneau. “The race was good. It was mostly me in the rain. I am good on some parts, I like a technical race.”
Maximenko would end up second in the deteriorating weather conditions. Kathryn Cumming (Jalapeno Cycling) was third.
“I got the holeshot; it was a little squirrelly, but I got it. And then I just kind of battled with Christel [Ferrier Bruneau] and Ruby [West] for that first lap,” Maximenko said. “Christel started to gap us on the climbing, so I decided that I had to pass Ruby to try and not let Christel get away. She still managed to get away, but I kept my head down and kept the foot on the gas and held on for second, even though Kate Cumming was charging hard. I tried to keep it pretty clean, ride a good, solid, steady pace the whole time. I just never gave up and finally had a good day one.”
Cumming said the gravel start straight made for a hectic race off the line. From there, the race quickly split up on the grassy, hilly course.
Werner wins slick elite men’s race
Werner was first off the line, and he linked up with two Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com riders to form a front group: Curtis White and Cooper Willsey. Even these top riders were challenged by the pouring rain and changing course conditions.
“So we started with my tire pressure a little high,” said Werner, “and then the rain started coming down a little bit more. It’s kind of an interesting course because 90 percent of it you can run with 20 PSI, but then you hit the slick section right before the finish and there are lots of rocks and roots, so you are risking a flat if you do that. I took a bike change with two laps and that seemed to do it, so I was pretty comfortable out there. I held a steady pace and gradually got a gap, and stayed on it.”
Werner collected his fourth ProCX win of the season by a healthy a 40-second gap over second-place finisher White. However he had to fight his teammate Willsey, 21, all the way to the sprint finish to take silver.
“First, we were battling ourselves against the course. And then just fighting each other,” said White. “The first couple of laps I was in the lead group with Kerry and Coop. Kerry was on a really good day. He’s technically a very good rider. I was struggling through the technical parts early on. It was a very technical course. We really had to get it dialed. Unfortunately, it took me a longer to figure out than some guys.”
White needed a couple trips to the pit to get the right tire pressure. After that, he was better on the slick track.
“Having Kerry and Curtis and Justin [Lindine] and Jeremy [Powers] out there, I knew it would be a hard race,” said Willsey. “The rain came in, so sure enough it got kind of slippery. You saw everyone switching to lower [tire] pressures out there. Third lap or so, Curtis and Kerry pitted. It ended up just being me and Kerry. And Kerry got a gap on me and just rode away. He seems to have an extra gear. It ended up being me and Curtis in the end, and Curtis got me in the sprint. He just passed me before the last wooded section, and I could not come around him in the finish.”
Women’s results
- 1. Christel Ferrier Bruneau, SAS MACOGEP, in 47:58
- 2. Cassandra Maximenko, VANDESSEL/ATOM COMPOSITE WHEELS, at :53
- 3. Kathryn Cumming, JALAPENO CYCLING, at 1:14
- 4. Regina Legge, TREK CYCLOCROSS COLLECTIVE, at 1:50
- 5. Ruby West, CANNONDALE CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM, at 2:23
- 6. Stacey Barbossa, MIDATLANTIC COLAVITA WOMEN’S TE, at 2:35
- 7. Julie Wright, TEAM AVERICA, at 2:59
- 8. Christa Ghent, AMY D FOUNDATION, at 3:16
- 9. Natasha Elliott, GARNEAU-EASTON P/B TRANSITIONS, at 3:41
- 10. Natalie Tapias, JAM / NCC, at 3:44
- 11. Rebecca Gross, ZERO D RACING, at s.t.
- 12. Erin Faccone, TEAM AVERICA, at 4:14
- 13. Katie Carlson, LADIES FIRST P/B MILTON CATERPI, at 4:15
- 14. Laura Van Gilder, MELLOW MUSHROOM/VAN DESSEL, at 4:52
- 15. Brittlee Bowman, HOUSE IND/NOKIA HEATH/SIMPLEHUM, at 5:21
- 16. Leslie Lupien, TEAM AVERICA, at 6:03
- 17. Vicki Barclay, STAN’S KENDA WOMEN, at 7:05
- 18. Taryn Mudge, FEARLESS FEMME RACING, at 7:21
- 19. Sophie Russenberger, DAHÄNGER, at 7:38
- 20. Gabriella Sterne, VANDERKITTEN ENTOURAGE RACING, at 8:05
- 21. Heather Richard, LADIES FIRST P/B MILTON CATERPI, at 8:39
- 22. Meghan Owens, UVM CYCLING
- 23. Alex Carlson, CYCLE-SMART
- 24. Elizabeth Huuki, WEST POINT CYCLING
- 25. Jenny Wojewoda, PEDALPOWERTRAINING.COM
- 26. Paige Williams, FUJI CROSS CREW
- DNF Marianna Williams, FUJI CROSS CREW
- DNS Melissa Seib, UVM CYCLING
Men’s results
- 1. Kerry Werner Jr., KONA FACTORY CX TEAM, in 59:21
- 2. Curtis White, CANNONDALE P/B CYCLOCROSSWORLD, at :40
- 3. Cooper Willsey, FURMAN UNIVERSITY, at s.t.
- 4. Justin Lindine, APEX / NBX / HYPERTHREADS, at 2:03
- 5. Max Judelson, VOLER/CLIF/HRS/ROCK LOBSTER, at 2:54
- 6. Jeremy Powers, ASPIRE RACING, at 3:42
- 7. Michael Owens, HANDS-ON CYCLING P/B GUERCIOTTI, at 4:03
- 8. Dan Chabanov, HOUSE IND/NOKIA HEALTH/SIMPLEHU, at 4:26
- 9. Derrick St John, VAN DESSEL P/B HYPERTHREADES, at 4:31
- 10. Nick Lando, UVM CYCLING, at 4:36
- 11. Andrew Borden, X-MEN, at 4:45
- 12. Jonathan Anderson, FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, at 5:16
- 13. Michael Landry, YALE UNIVERSITY, at 5:24
- 14. Zachary Curtis, BRIDGEWATER STATE UNIVERSITY, at 5:51
- 15. Adam Myerson, CYCLE-SMART, at 6:11
- 16. Trevor Raab, at 6:38
- 17. Ian Gielar, NCC / JAM FUND, at 6:44
- 18. Andrew Nicholas, RPI, at 7:17
- 19. Kyle Murphy, LUDWIG & LARSEN RACING
- 20. Evan Murphy, LUDWIG & LARSEN RACING
- 21. Patrick Collins, MINUTEMAN ROAD CLUB
- 22. Matthew Bruno, TEAM SOMERSET
- 23. Travis Wold, WPI
- 24. Chris Niesen, JAM / NCC
- 25. Kale Wenczel, JAM / NCC
- 26. Trent Blackburn, JAM / NCC
- 27. Sam Hedlund, UVM CYCLING
- 28. Matt Owens, UVM CYCLING
- 29. Bryan Banducci, KING KOG / SUN AND AIR
- 30. Cameron Scott, COMPETITIVE EDGE
- DNF Patrick Torpey, CRCA/TO BE DETERMINED
- DNF Gerald Adasavage, LUDWIG & LARSEN RACING
- DNF Kevin Bouchard-Hall, WRENEGADE SPORTS/TEAM PLACID PL
- DNS Travis Livermon, MAXXIS/SHIMANO
- DNS Keith Garrison, KING KOG / SUN AND AIR
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