US Cyclocross Nationals: Ethan Brown races to solo win, secures men’s junior 17–18

Ethan Brown (Midwest NXT) soloed to victory to win the men junior 17-18 title in Fayetteville, Arkansas to open a full day of racing at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships on Sunday. The top-ranked rider in the field, Brown, improved on last year’s fourth-place finish.

After a fast start, Matthew Crabbe (Finkraft Junior Cycling Team) rode consistent lap times, and crossed the line 23 seconds later to secure the silver medal, while his teammate, Pan American junior champion Noah Scholnick, secured the bronze medal.

For the first two laps, Brown (17) and Scholnick (16) battled it out at the front of a splintered field, each taking turns at the front before Brown took advantage of mistakes by his rival to pull away by the end of the third lap. Brown continued to race cleanly, opening his gap and having time to high-five the fans before crossing the finish line.

“It was kind of willy-nilly the first lap. The first lap is always pretty weird, and then Noah went pretty hard. I was kind of dangling a little bit. I don't know, it’s good to be in the front because this is a pretty rocky course, and so it's easy to flat because you can't see what's in front of you, because there's a rider in front,“ Brown told FloBikes announcers Brad Sohner and Ellen Noble after his win.

“But there were just a few corners where it wasn't quite like the speed wasn't there for him and it was for me. And so I feel like I was really able to push through to get back to him, and then I passed, hoping that I could exclamation point on it, you know? And, yeah, it really worked out. I was pushing pretty hard, but it was great.”

Jacob Hines, the third Finkraft rider in the top five, took fourth place, 13 seconds ahead of Rylan Zacharek (Linear Sport Racing Team), who was fifth.

Sunny, colder, and windier conditions greeted the 46 riders on the final day of racing in Northwest Arkansas for the men's junior 17-18 race, slated to be 40 minutes long.

Crabbe set a fast pace straight from the gun, stretching out the field as Scholnick quickly moved to second spot with Brown following suit before taking over the front as they raced through the wooded section.

Scholnick made the first move on lap two, opening a brief three-second gap that Brown closed down on lap three. Brown then surged up the long stairs and capitalised on a small bobble by Scholnick on the following run-up to seize the lead. Brown ran smoothly over the barriers, the last feature before turning to the paved straightaway, as Scholnick had trouble hopping the barriers, creating a gap of 9 seconds by the start of the fourth lap.

“I was just really confident in my running technique and how hard I could go,” Brown said. “He's doing the barriers pretty fast that I went through one time with him. He's going really fast. And I was running, I had to push really hard. It was great.”

Meanwhile, behind, Crabbe powered away from his teammate Hines to chase the front pair and ultimately connected with Scholnick with two laps to go. Further behind, also chasing solo were Jack Billowitz (Donovan Racing) and Zacharek.

Crabbe pushed forward into the second spot, 13 seconds behind Brown on the bell lap. Scholnick continued to struggle and was a further 13 seconds back.