Familiar territory but different approach for US cyclocross champion Honsinger

Three-time US cyclocross champion Clara Honsinger begins her UCI cyclocross campaign in Waterloo, Wisconsin this weekend. In familiar territory with the stars-and-stripes pattern on her jersey, the ‘cross star will debut a throwback look for her 2023-2024 season.

In early October, Team S&M CX announced that Honsinger would rejoin the women’s roster for the ‘cross season. The Oregon native began her pro cycling career at the S&M pro cyclocross team when it was launched in 2017 by the owner of Portland’s Sellwood Cycle Repair. She was a freshman in college at the time. 

Fast forward seven years and Honsinger is back having ‘an absolute blast’ with Team S&M, back in school to finish her Bachelor’s degree in nutrition health science, and taking a new approach to cyclocross. Earlier this year she was left searching for a new team when her women’s WorldTour squad EF Education-TIBCO-SVB announced it would close the doors after the road season. Still, it gave her a reason to ‘focus on cyclocross’.

“So I'm taking quite a different approach this year. Instead of going over to Europe this fall, I'm going to be staying home in the US. I'm actually trying to finish up my bachelor's degree. And so I'm doing school during the week and running two races on the weekend. It's quite a busy term-bike race season,” Honsinger told Cyclingnews the day before the Trek CX Cup and World Cup Waterloo weekend.

“It is such a shared enthusiasm and great energy to be back [with Team S&M CX]. This past summer, as I was pondering where I wanted to go next, the move was clear. Clouded by uncertainty of European teams and limited US programs, S&M was grounded and driven. The idea of returning made me feel genuinely happy.”

It was with Team S&M in 2017 that she took silver medals in the U23 Women’s race at both the Pan-American Championships in Louisville, Kentucky and US Cyclocross Nationals in Reno, Nevada. 

After local ‘cross races near home in September, she makes her fourth career appearance in Wisconsin. Friday’s tuneup will be the C1 Trek CX Cup, which she won on a perfect fall day last year. She was seventh two days later to open her World Cup campaign, going on to score four more top-10 finishes in the series, but a World Cup win is still a homework item to be completed.

“Winning a World Cup would be the top-tier goal. I see that within range and feasible. But honestly, looking at who’s on the start list [for Waterloo], probably a top five, I’d be satisfied to get that. With some of the top European riders making the trip over to the US it means a lot to us as Americans, to have our home event recognised as something worth travelling to. I was a bit surprised given that there’s only one World Cup in the United States.”

The start list for the elite women on Sunday for World Cup Waterloo includes the top trio of Dutch riders Fem van Empel (Jumbo-Visma), Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Trek Lions). Also racing will be former World Champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck), former junior World Champion Zoe Backstedt (Canyon-SRAM) and MTB Olympic champion Jolanda Neff (Trek Factory Racing).

US and beyond as focus fixed on cyclocross

Following the pair of weekend contests in Wisconsin, Honsinger will head to the UCI C1/C2 races in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 16-17 and then back to the western US for the Pan American Championships in Missoula, Montana, November 5. The icing on the cake for the calendar are the US Cyclocross National Championships, with the elite women’s race on Sunday, December 10 at Joe Creason Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The last time Honsinger raced in Louisville for the 2018 ‘cross nats she won the U23 title.

“Yeah, happy memories in Louisville back then. It's funny, talking to Fred [Iversen], our mechanic, who's like ‘I still have nightmares’. For me that was just such a wild race, mud up to probably our knees. I think we were riding probably 60 percent of the course and slipping around on our feet that other part,” Honsinger said about the massively-muddy conditions from Louisville five years ago. But she added, “I love the mud.”

Honsinger closed out her road season, and her time with the folding WorldTour team, at the Tour de Romandie. At the three-day race in Switzerland she was in the breakaway on the third and final stage and finished top 10 in the points classification. She has left the road behind and told Cyclingnews she is not actively looking for a road team in 2024. If someone calls her with an offer she’d listen, but now it is all about 'cross.

“I’m putting my focus on cyclocross, and enjoying it,” Honsinger admitted. “After Nationals, I also finish my school term which truly opens me up to travelling. I’m heading back to Europe and really making a push through to the World Championships, then potentially staying over a little bit longer for some races I’ve never done before, the post-Worlds races. It’s a whole different atmosphere, the races are a bit more fun and easy going, since everybody’s pushed through that big goal.”

And about that mud. It is supposed to rain for two days in Wisconsin, so she’s ready with her new team behind the fences on Sunday – ‘friend, teammate and boss’ Breanna Wrye-Simpson, team owner and co-manager Erik Tonkin as well as Fred the mechanic.

“We’ve raced in Waterloo so often in the dry [conditions]. It’s so fast and all the off-cambers are kind of full gas. So when it’s muddy, nobody knows how to ride it. It’s so technical and hard. I love this,” she laughed.