Compton rode to a fifth consecutive US title (Image credit: Mitch Clinton)
Katie Compton goes into this weekend's World Cyclo-cross Championships in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands as one of the hot favourites. Cyclingnews' Ben Atkins has been speaking to the US champion as she builds up for her best chance yet of a rainbow jersey.
Despite an early season injury, copious travel and conditions that haven't always suited her, Katie Compton has taken three rounds of the World Cup – including arguably the two toughest in Roubaix and Koksijde – and rarely been out of contention in any of the races she's entered. Throughout the 2007/08 season, this rider from Colorado Springs, Colorado was a regular on the podium of the biggest races; in 2008/09 it has been unusual for her not to be there.
Remarkably, Compton has excelled in the toughest conditions – where sand or thick mud slows riders to a crawl – like those in Nommay, her second World Cup win, or Gavere, her first European victory of the season. "Yeah, definitely gotten faster this year," she agreed, "definitely feeling stronger. I like the mud and sand better because it's more just power and there's less tactics involved, so I definitely like those courses over [others] where it's really fast and tactics are involved; positioning and sprinting and stuff."
