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Hurricane-like conditions expected during Day 1 of the KMC Cyclocross Festival fail to slow competition

After yesterday's first day of competition at the KMC Cyclocross Festival at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, Canadian riders once again managed to break into the top 10 standings of a major event in the fall-friendly cycling discipline.

October 4, 2015
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The Elite women's podium. (Image: KMC Cyclo-cross Festival/Twitter)
The Elite women’s podium. (Image: KMC Cyclo-cross Festival/Twitter)

After yesterday’s first day of competition at the KMC Cyclocross Festival at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, Canadian riders once again managed to break into the top 10 standings of a major event in the fall-friendly cycling discipline. The top three podium spots, meanwhile, were held by Katerina Nash of Luna Pro Team, Katherine Compton, riding for Trek Factory Racing, and Amanda Miller, whose strong season brought the Boulder Cycle Sport/Yogaglo rider to a third place finish.

The Canadian women with the top standings, after day one’s competition wrapped up, were Nash’s teammate Maghalie Rochette with a 10th place finish, and Mical Dyck of Naked Factory Racing, whose time of 03:17 behind Nash’s winning time put her in 16th place.

Riding for Centurion Next Wave, Canada’s Ruby West clocked a time of 0:05:53, putting her across the finish 26th.

Both cyclists and spectators, no doubt, anticipated a messy, decidedly unpleasant day of racing, with hurricane-like conditions expected to mire the course with mud and soaking rain. From the beginning, though, the UCI Elite women’s race was a fast-paced, aggressive competition, starting with Noble taking the hole shot among a flurry of riders including Trek Factory Racing’s Compton and Nash herself, who recently won the Cross Vegas world cup. Close behind was Miller, with Cyclocrossworld Devo Team’s Emma White — who recently took silver at the UCI road world championships in the Junior division — forming the other half of the chase. For Nash, though, keeping a solid lead on Compton proved to be no difficulty whatsoever, with a clean, steady race devoid of crashes, mechanical issues, or any other hang-ups keeping her confidently out front.

For Nash, that trend held out, propelling the Czech rider to the win. After the race, the experienced rider — Nash is familiar with courses in both North America anid Europe — said, “I really like the course layout; it was very different than the last time I raced here two years ago. It was nice to use a larger portion of the course with more variety. That was really great.”

Raphael Gagne leads Canada’s pack in the Elite men’s competition

In the Elite men’s race, meanwhile — and to the surprise of very, very few observers — Jeremy Powers, riding for Aspire Racing, took the win on his home country’s soil. Also continuing trends seen in this year’s cyclocross season thsu far, Cannondale’s Stephen Hyde and Curtis White, respectively, held down the second and third-place spots on the podium.

At the beginning of the men’s competition, though, the makeup of the group was a little different. Maxxis-Shimano Pro Cyclocross rider Daniel Summerhill led a large pack of chasing riders early in the competition, putting heat on a lead maintained from the starting whistle by White and Powers. The tempo of the race was complicated by stiff Rhode Island winds blowing in from the ocean, but a few laps later, Powers and Hyde — forming a new lead duo together — found themselves using that to their advantage.

Working together, the two gained time, all but daring the group behind to keep up. Before long, of course, their dynamic changed, with both riders alternating attacks and counter-attacks to decide the lead. Eventually, Powers opened up a 16-second gap on Hyde, with the latter finishing close behgind in second place. For the coveted third spot on the podium, Curtis White and Summerhill duked it out to the finish. White had lost a little time earlier in the race with a crash, then lost a little more due to shoe issues, but managed to prevail to take third place despite a strong chase from Summerhill.

“The course layout made the race very hard today,” the third-place finisher said. “And then there was the wind. But it was probably the most difficult course I have ever seen here in Providence. It was unfortunate about the crash and the shoe, but it was a great course that led to a harder style of racing. We’ll see what [day 2] brings.”

As with the Elite women’s race, Canadian riders powered into the field’s top 10 competitors. Riding for Garneau p/b Easton, Canada’s Raphael Gagne finished in 8th place, clocking a time of 1:02:16, while teammate and compatriot Michael Van den Ham shadowed him to a 1:02:23 finish.

Farther back was Canada’s Jeremy Martin, riding for Louis Garneau, who finished 37th with a time of 1:06:11 and William Elliott of Team NCCH p/b DEC Express, who rolled to a 44th-place finish with a time of 1:08:08.