Driscoll wins Jingle Cross opener

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Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) soloed to victory at the UCI C2 Carousel Volkswagen Jingle Cross Rock 1 held on Friday night at the Johnson Fairgrounds in Iowa City. Barry Wicks (Kona-FSA) narrowly held on for second place ahead of a chasing Chris Jones (Rapha-Focus) in third.

Organizers of Jingle Cross offer three days of cyclo-cross racing. Rock 1 was held at the Johnson County Fairgrounds under bitterly cold temperatures and the darkness of twilight. The course was well lit with festive lighting and additional flood lights courtesy of sponsor, Musco.

“The organizers had some flood lights set up so even though it was dark outside there weren’t any dark spots on the course,” Wicks said. “It was really cool and a lot of fun. It was freezing cold, probably 25 degrees [Fahrenheit] at the start and windy. It was horrible.”

The course offered several challenging sections including an opening spiral followed by the Grinch’s Lair sand pit and the Mt. Krumpit run-up with a set of barriers located at the bottom. The men were taken through several switchbacks around the building structures and back to the finish line.

Chris Horner (RadioShack) joined round one of the Elite men’s UCI C2 event at the Carousel Volkswagen Jingle Cross Rock. Ryan Trebon (Kona-FSA) and his teammate Wicks led the opening lap with a long line of riders in tow including Driscoll, Brian Matter (Gear Grinder), Troy Wells (Clif Bar), Todd Wells (Specialized), Nick Weighall (Cal Giant-Specialized), Zach McDonald (Rapha Focus) and Mark LaLonde (Cal Giant-Specialized).

“I like courses that separate the race,” Wicks said. “It’s hard for me to ride in a group tactically. This course had a 40-second climb every lap and a super sketchy, icy and rooted descent and that was really nice.”

Wicks made the early move and opened up a 20-second margin to his chasers. However, his teammate Trebon crashed out of the race early on. Wicks held that lead through the following four laps until Driscoll bridged across from the chase group.

“It was kind of an accident because there was a gnarly descent and went down it at the front and got a gap,” Wicks said. “I just figured I would ride it to see what happened. It was a little too long to stay off the front by myself but when opportunity presents itself you should take it.”

A tired Wicks was hoping for a bit of camaraderie from Driscoll however as soon as he made contact with Wicks he attacked for what turned out to be the winning move. “I ended up riding in second place for the rest of the race alone,” Wicks said. “Jamey was riding good.”

Driscoll won the race nearly 30 seconds ahead of Wicks. Jones, who had a slow start in about 20th place, managed to work his way through the field and regained contact with Weighall and Wells who were riding for third position. The pair fell off the pace as Jones continued on in pursuit of Wicks. He caught Wicks on the last descent with half lap to go however, an untimely puncture forced him to settle for third.

“I just had to ride through people all night long,” Jones said. “I saw guys crashing and blocking the line and sliding down the hill. It was frozen and super slick and guys were crashing everywhere, it was crazy. I flatted on the last lap and was close enough to the pits that I could grab a spare bike and rolled in for third. There was only a half lap left at that point so I couldn’t get back up to Barry.”