Bishop wins cross country on home turf

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Jeremiah Bishop (Cannondale) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) won the cross country at the Triple Crown finale in Virginia on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon.

"It was awesome having the hometown crowd out supporting me here," said Bishop after victory on his home course. "I was stoked to have a good day at home. The course was also in as good condition as I can imagine. It was dry and fast."

"It's always going to be hard to beat JB in his backyard," said Sid Taberlay (Sho-Air / Specialized), who was third on the day and second for the weekend.

On the first of two total laps, Bishop rode away from Nick Waite and Taberlay on the main climb.

"On the technical part of the climb, near the top, I got a little bit of a gap, and then I just pushed it anaerobic to force it. I know how that climb rides and if you're pacing it fast, you're anaerobic anyway," said Bishop. "On the rocky ridgeline, I could hear Sid, and I knew he wasn't far behind."

The two chasers stayed together until one lap to go.

"Sid wanted me to pull during the first lap, but I didn't really want to," said Waite, who now spends most of his time racing on the road despite coming from a mountain bike background, especially as a junior and under 23 rider. He sometimes trains with Bishop although the two are on different teams and weren't "officially" working together today.

"It's basic friend etiquette not to throttle it and drag Sid back up to Jeremiah," said Waite, who brought plenty of rocky, West Virginia riding experience to the technical course at Massanutten. Waite heads next weekend to the Canaan Mountain Bike Festival and then to Fitchburg for a weekend of road racing.

"The awesome thing about riding for Kenda is that they've encouraged me to stay fresh and go race my mountain bike when I can," said Waite, who got away from Tablerlay unintentionally in the feed zone at the half-way point of the race.

"I went to grab a messy bottle and my hand was soaked with sweat, and I dropped the bottle in the feed, so I had to stop and pick it up," said Taberlay. "I lost Nick there, then I just rode my own pace until the end."

"I didn't really have it today," said Taberlay. "I can't remember the last time I did a rocky uphill like that and my body's just not used to it, so I was suffering, and I was wasting a lot of energy out there not knowing where I was going. Local knowledged helped JB a bit, but at the same time, he's a good rider, so full credit to him."

Taberlay, who travelled to the race from California, was feeling not just the rocks, but also the humidity.

While Bishop charged off the front and felt better and better as the race progressed, Waite defended his second place until the finish, and Taberlay took third.

Waite wasn't the only active roadie on the podium. Andy Guptil, who races for Jamis Sutter Home presented by Colavita, finished a strong fourth place.

"I'm a road rider by trade and I had a free weekend. The start was great for me with the wide open road section," said Guptil. "The guys punched it when it got steep and got away. Then I just picked them off one by one after to pull them back."

Guptil is no stranger to off road racing, and he wasn't intimidated by the technical course. "I started in mountain biking as a junior. Nick Waite, Adam Craig and Walker Ferguson and I used to race together." But it was only his fifth mountain bike ride of the year after beginning to ride it again two weeks ago.

Fifth place went to Travis Livermon, who spent much of the race with Guptil and the rider in sixth place. "We rode together most of the race," said Livermon, "but at the bottom of the second big climb on the final lap, we all broke apart."

"I liked the course, it was more typical to what we're used to here in the Southeast," said Livermon, who is based in North Carolina.

Emmett solos to the win

Kelli Emmett rode in the top 20 of the men's field for most of the race and dominated the women's race to finish first. Anina Aaron rode to a strong second, and Sue Haywood was third.

The women experienced a chaotic start as all of several hundred cross country racers were started at once. For the elite women, who were unable to get to and stay at the front like the elite men, it meant battling with the amateurs from the gun.

"It was a crazy start. Most guys are usually like ok, you can get in, but not today," said Emmett. "The guys weren't budging. It was like a World Cup women's start with that many people and them all being that aggressive. It was great - it's good to practice those starts."

Haywood, a retired World Cup racer, didn't share the same feelings about the start. "That start was not cool. Only Kelli had the fitness to do that. If that's old school, I think we should bury the old school."

Emmett and Anina Aaron had the best start of the women, and the two spent the initial part of the first lap together. Then Emmett put the power down and rode away from Aaron. Both ladies, who spent most of the day racing on their own, were content with their races.

"It was so fun, such a good course," said Emmett. "It was hot out there. I had to be strategic and be steady and consistent and not go out too hard. That worked well for me in the heat."

Emmett noted the relatively longer duration of the HooHa! cross country race than is typical for national-level women's races. "I was out there for over two hours, but I didn't even realize it, I was so focused on getting through rock gardens. This was a long race for us, we often only do 1:20 or 1:30 races. A 1:40 would be a long race for me, so I had to meter my efforts to grind it out over the climb and over the rocks."

Emmett kept tabs on Aaron after noting her strong ride in the short track on Saturday. The latter never gave up and finished just under nine minutes behind Emmett.

"The longer it went on, the better I felt," said Aaron. "I'm used to the heat because I race in the Southeast, so this was like a normal race day for me. I was in second the whole race and I fought hard to keep it. I hammered it out, standing out whenever I can and picking off the guys one by one."

Haywood battled with Johanna Kraus for third. The two rode most of the race together and both wore big smiles after the finish.

"It was awesome riding with Johanna. I attacked her on the final steep climb. I had to," said Haywood, standing next to Kraus after finishing ahead of her by 25 seconds.

"I knew you were going to do that," said Kraus to Haywood. "I tried to conserve to be ready for it."

Krista Park (Incycle / Cannondale) was in the top three early in the race, but suffered mechanical shifting issues and finished fifth.

Tallying the Triple Crown

Bishop and Emmett won the Triple Crown for the weekend. Bishop defeated Taberlay, Waite, Livermon, and Alex Ryan while Emmett finished ahead of Aaron, Haywood, Park and Kraus.

When all three weekends of racing were tallied to determine overall final Triple Crown series results, Taberlay and Emmett took the titles. Schultz and Bishop rounded out the top three for the men, and Park and the absent Heather Irmiger completed the podium for the women.

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