Eric Brunner dominates Saturday elite men's C2 contest at Nash Dash CX
Dillman takes second, Hildebrandt third
Eric Brunner (WTB Pivot) won the opening round of elite men’s C2 racing on Saturday for Nash Dash CX in Hampton, Georgia. He was 3:34 faster than second-placed Andrew Dillman (Ignition p/b Rigd-Leitner) and another 1:11 better than Casey Hildebrandt (Broken Spoke / TNR Tape) in third, an all-US podium.
“I went out hard, took the hole shot, and kind of buried myself to get a gap,” Brunner said at the finish.
He found that gap part way through the first lap and never looked back.
“I just time trialled it for the full hour. It was mentally pretty tough because there’s a ton of pedalling on this course, it’s quite bumpy and just staying on it and remembering what each of the corners were like, remembering where the little mud patches were. Then, every time getting to the long straightaways before the finish line, I knew that would be a couple of hard minutes.”
It was a sixth year of cyclocross racing at Nash Farm Park, south of Atlanta, and a first time with a UCI inscription. The course was a short distance away from the Atlanta Motor Speedway, host of motorsports racing.
Brunner, who is from Colorado, said it felt ‘weird’ to come closer to sea level at the Georgia race, but wanted to get in a final weekend before the US Cyclocross National Championships, the elite races on December 10 in Kentucky.
“It was a nice mix of straightaways and corners, tight twisty stuff in the woods as well as faster straightaways," Brunner said. “I like to race the week before an important race or championship.”
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Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
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