Bruno-Roy overcomes rain, mud, cold for win

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Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles) won the elite women's race of the first day of the Downeast Cyclo-cross Weekend. She overcame a nagging, persistent rain, deep slick mud and cold temperatures en route the victory.

A bit of chaos in the start left Mo Bruno-Roy and Amanda Carey (Kenda/trainwitheric.com) chasing from the back. Taking advantage, Natasha Elliott (Garneau/Club Chaussures/Ogilvy), Mary McConneloug (Kenda/Seven Cycles/NoTubes) and Minuteman Road Club riders Andrea Smith and Anna Barensfeld quickly formed a group and opened a gap on the rest of the field.

It appeared that there would be a repeat of the first two rounds of the series in Vermont as Elliott began to ride away from the group. Right at home in the mud, Bruno-Roy fought back to reach the chase group and she, McConneloug, Smith and Carey began to put pressure on Elliott. With some aggressive riding from Bruno-Roy, Smith was dropped from the chase group shortly before they brought back Elliott.

Once the catch was made, there was no stopping the mud-loving Bruno-Roy who came into the last set of sloppy off-camber turns with Carey and Elliott on her wheel. She managed to navigate the corners smoothly and put some space behind her as Carey muscled away from Elliott for second.

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