Nash makes it two wins in a row in Wisconsin

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Katerina Nash showed no signs of struggle through the wet and muddy circuit and she went on to win her fifth consecutive cyclo-cross race at the Planet Bike Cup day two, the second round of the  Exergy Cyclo-cross US Gran Prix. She soloed to the finish line with a one minute advantage ahead of her teammate Georgia Gould in second and Nicole Duke (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) in third.

"I had another good race today," Nash told Cyclingnews. "The conditions were very different, muddy and slippery. I was fighting with the course more than anyone else today. I tried not to make mistakes and stay on my bike. It was a great weekend for Luna."

The elite women’s race was challenged by a technical circuit that progressed to a mud pit due to late morning thunderstorms that swept through Sun Prairie. The conditions were likely welcomed by the field of talented cyclo-cross specialists who were given the opportunity to test their mud skills for the first time this season.

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"I was excited about the rain but we had patches of sunshine and then rain again during the race," said Mo Bruno Roy who placed fourth on the day.

"The damage had been done and the terrain was incredibly slick. It helped me that it wasn’t such a pack race like yesterday. Today was definitely more spread out and it helped that I was able to get to the front quickly and make my own race instead of fighting with so many people around me."

Nash and Gould took the early race lead ahead of chasers Bruno Roy, Duke and her teammate Kaitlin Antonneau, Kathy Sherwin (Stans NoTubes Elite) and French National Champion Caroline Mani (SRAM).

"I latched on to Georgia and Katerina at the beginning and then they pulled away," Bruno Roy said. "I was dangling off of them by myself and Nicole Duke caught up to me and passed me. We rode with in seconds of each other for most of the race. The girls riding in fifth and sixth place, behind us, really motivated me to keep on pushing."

Nash used her early season fitness and strong technical skills to push through the mud and around the corners, opening up a gap ahead of Gould.

Duke followed closely behind in third place ahead of Bruno Roy in fourth, Mani in fifth, Sherwin in sixth, Meredith Miller (Cal Giant-Specialized) in seventh and Antonneau in eighth.

"The bikes were getting really heavy by the end of the race," Bruno Roy said. "Not only are the bikes heavy but you have to run with them, or push them, up the hill. So it was a good idea to swap the bikes out twice to keep them nicer, the drive trains a little cleaner, and keep the grass from doing damage to the derailleurs."