Powers prevails at muddy Cyclo-Stampede

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Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) displayed his top form during a solo ride to victory at the opening round of the Cincy3 Cyclo-cross Festival’s Cyclo-Stampede held at the Devou Park in Kentucky. Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) might have had a slower start but he later captured second place on the day ahead of Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt) in third.

“I’m happy with the win today,” Powers told Cyclingnews. “The great thing about this year is that there are a lot of guys that can win races. Between Ryan Trebon, Ben Berden, Christian Heule and a bunch of others, there are more guys that are able to win, making it harder to win races this year.”

The Elite men raced a 60-minute UCI C2 event for a prize purse of $2068 that was split amongst the top 25 riders. Executive Director Mitch Graham commented on the main features of the course as having continuous twists and turns along with several lengthy straightaways where each rider’s power played a large factor in the outcome of the race.

“The Devou Park course is held on a hilly, rugged bowl course that favors the skilled, confident off-road pilot,” Graham told Cyclingnews. “Lots of off-camber and twists and turns mixed in with the climbing and descending.”

Powers drove the pace at the front of the race during the opening laps of the men’s race. His nearest rivals included Trebon, Driscoll and Tim Johnson (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com). He increased his early lead to a healthy 30 seconds during mid-race and into the closing laps.

“I got away pretty early, maybe the second lap,” Powers said. “The race had about 500 feet of elevation gain per lap so it was pretty hilly and a lot of terrain change. There were three or four mud sections from all the rain yesterday and that made it interesting. I thought Ryan would ride away because it was a good course for him with sections that he could motor on. But it was a good race overall.”

The race behind Powers separated into ones and twos with Driscoll riding into a solo second place ahead of Trebon in third and Johnson in fourth. “Jamey was riding the same lap times that I was but he had a slower start,” Powers said. “I knew that if he had caught on to me I would have had to work harder to try and get rid of him later on in the race. There are two more races coming up and so I wanted to try to focus on winning today. I took the gap that I had and went with it.”

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