Compton secures solo win

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Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant Offroad Team) stormed to a win in front of her home-state fans at the UCI C2 Colorado Cross Classic held at the Boulder Reservoir on Saturday. The US National Champion and UCI world standings leader rode away from her competitors on the second lap leaving second place to Caroline Mani (SRAM) and third place to Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team).

“The race was great,” Compton told Cyclingnews. “I love racing close to home and everyone is super supportive and cheering loudly. Boulder is such a nice place to be in the fall, even after a snow storm which made things a little trickier today. My form is getting better and I've been able to get some good training in these last couple of weeks so that makes me feel better too. I'm excited for the rest if the season.”

A highly competitive women’s field lined up at the starting gates that included US National Champion and UCI world cyclo-cross leader Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant Offroad), who returned to her home in Colorado to resume domestic racing after a recent win at the first World Cup in Plzen, Czech Republic.

Her competitors included Gould and Mani along with Sue Butler (River City Racing), Nicole Duke and Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com). Mani was the fastest off the line and led her rivals through the first half of the opening lap of the Elite women’s 40-minute race. Recent snow fall melted and gave way to sections of mud on what is typically a dry and dusty course at the Boulder Reservoir.

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.

“The course was totally different than in years past,” Compton said. “There was more mud because of the snow melt and some good sand sections and a lot more turns with hard accelerations. I loved the course and think the designers and promoter did a really great job with it. It was hard and you had to focus all the way around.”

“I don't think there is anything course like Koksijde but this one did have some good sand elements and hard sections that made it challenging and you had to ride the ruts well in order to ride smooth and fast so that part was similar to Koksijde,” she said. “I've raced this race many times and this year it felt completely different, but in a good way. Initially I would have liked a little more beach time but with the mud and the dismounts each lap it was plenty hard and plenty fun.”

It seemed only a matter of time before Compton would put her proven ‘cross strengths at the front of the race. She opened a near 30-second lead on the second lap leaving Gould, Mani and Duke in a desperate chase. A second chase group formed that included Butler, Alice Pennington and Amanda Carey, among others.

“The course was great but I have not raced it since 2007,” Butler said. “I’ve avoided it because of the altitude and last year I got really sick and couldn’t come. I thought it was fun and snow made it nice with some muddy and slippery stuff, it was not a dry or fast race. The start was a little bit jumbled because we were misinformed about the start.”

“After the start, Katie was off the front and there were a few people and I was sitting in fourth,” she said. “Knowing how to race at altitude, I settled into my own pace. Alice got around me, so I was in fifth, and I focused on riding my own race. There were no groups together, everyone seemed to be singled out. I rode with Carey for a while but made a small mistake and I got away.”

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