Bruno-Roy overcomes rain, mud, cold for win

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.

Results