Trebon brings winning form to Colorado

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Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt) powered his way to a convincing victory at the UCI C2 Colorado Cross Classic held at the Boulder Reservoir on Saturday. The current number one ranked ‘cross racer in the country soloed to victory ahead of US National Champion Todd Wells (Specialized Racing) in second and Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) in third.

“It was a good race and I felt like my fitness was good, felt good physically, although I didn’t feel that comfortable on the bike for the first couple of laps.” Trebon said. “It took me a while to find a rhythm and once I did, I was able to get an advantage over Todd and hold it to the finish. I’d like to win tomorrow as well.”

Swiss National Champion Christian Heule (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), who is currently ranked 11th on the UCI world standing, and teammate Tim Johnson pulled out of the race just prior to its start. However, the field was full of strong riders including Trebon, Wells and Driscoll along with Ben Berden (Stoemper) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain).

“Tim made the decision not to race a while ago,” Driscoll said. “Christian was planning on racing but he crashed in Tabor. He thought the injury was gone during the week but something made it flare up again after pre-riding the course so he decided not to race.”

According to event promoter Aaron Bouplon, parts of the course were cut out with a Bobcat and led through sandier sections of the beach in an effort to resemble the terrain of this year’s UCI World Championships held in Koksijde, Belgium.

“There was snow on the course this morning,” Trebon said. “But, when we raced there was only one section of the course was muddy and the rest was sort of dry with good traction. It was a little soft but nothing too muddy. Koksijde is so much more technical and has real beach sand. As much as they could, they had sand today, but it was nothing like Koksijde.”

A lead group formed through the first lap that included Wells, Berden, Kabush and Trebon along with youngsters Yannick Eckmann (Pearl Izumi-Shimano-Focus) and Danny Summerhill (Chipotle Development). However, the front group almost continuously changed faces during the opening laps as riders gained and lost positions.

Wells pulled to the front of the group on the fourth lap, however, Trebon quickly regained the race lead with Summerhill and Wells in tow. Trebon powered through the straightaways on the course and gained a some 20-second lead heading into the fifth lap. Wells moved into a solo second place after Summerhill lost contact.

“Todd is a really good bike racer and I think his fitness is still good from doing some ‘cross racing and training for La Ruta,” Trebon said. “I think he is going pretty well. I wish he was out there doing more ‘cross racing this year but I understand where he is coming from. He is a good bike racer and I never discount him at a race.”

With two laps to go, Driscoll and Berden gradually moved their way into third place contention, passing Summerhill who slid further into fifth place. “Once I worked my way up Ryan was already solo,” Driscoll said. “I passed Ben for fourth place and I caught up to Danny and maintained my place on the podium. I was glad to be up there because I wasn’t racing the way I wanted to before. I was happy to get a podium.”

Some of the riders who made it into the top ten included Berden, multiple time US national mountain bike champion Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (USA), Troy Wells and Mitchel Hoke (Clif Bar).

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