Heule overpowers Powers in Gloucester

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Swiss National Champion Christian Heule (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) brought his new team a victory at the UCI C1 Great Brewers Gran Prix of Gloucester held at the Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He out-paced runner-up Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) in a two-man sprint to the line, while Ian Field (Hargroves Cycles) rode in for a close third place.

“It was a very hard race, especially the last three or four laps and I was fighting to stay at the front,” Heule told Cyclingnews. “I entered the last lap in first position and Jeremy attacked, it was hard fighting for me. I believe his chances were better than mine but he made a couple of little mistakes which gave me a chance to come back. I think that was the main reason I got the win today. Jeremy was stronger than I was today, I believe.”

“I really wanted to win,” Powers told Cyclingnews. “I wanted to win because I felt like I was riding the strongest, but when we came into the finish, Christian was on my wheel with Jamey a bit further back and so he wanted to wait. It was waiting game and I had to force it. He kept with me, even though we were both on the rivet. It was hard to lose in a sprint but that’s how it goes. I tried my best and second is not all that bad.”

The event marked the opening round of the newly established Shimano New England Professional Cyclocross Series. Heule will lead the series heading into round two held at the Gran Prix of Gloucester on Sunday.

Top riders in the Elite men’s category included Jesse Anthony (World Bicycle Relief), Ben Berden (Ops Ale-Stoemper), Tim Johnson, Christian Heule and Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), Chris Jones, Zac McDonald and Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus), Ian Field (Hargroves Cycles), Barry Wicks (Kona-FSA), Jesse Keough, Nick Keough and Luke Keough (Champion System-Keough Cyclocross), Ted King (Liquigas-Cannondale), Tristan Schouten (Cyclocrossracing.com p/b JRA Cycles) and Tim Van Nuffle
(DCM-GB Vorselaar).

New to the course this year was a fly-over and a steep set of stairs, however, traditional course challenges included an ocean side run up, a lengthy sand pit and an off camber hillside that forced many riders to get off their bikes and run.

“They did a really good job with everything this year,” Powers said. “It wasn’t your typical Gloucester and the course had a lot of twists and turns, fast sections, and it was really well done. It was raining at the beginning of the day and then it got pretty tacky. The course was great, I loved it and I wanted to win on it.”

Johnson secured a strong presence at the front of the race from the opening lap. He was followed by a series of talented ‘crossers including Field, Powers, Anthony, Heule, Berden, Schouten and Mike Carrigan (Lapierre Canada). Field and Heule established a short-lived lead together slightly ahead of Powers, Berden, Driscoll and Johnson. However, Johnson was forced into the pits with a mechanical and lost several seconds to the lead group in order to switch to a new bike.

Anthony, who committed to competed to the Gran Prix of Gloucester as his only cyclo-cross race this season, was caught in no-mans land slightly further back. He used the event as a means of raising funds for the World Bicycle Relief (grassroots.kintera.org/active/jessecx). Powers was one of the most aggressive riders during the race, attacking on several occasions. However, with one lap to go the lead group was established with Powers, Driscoll, Field, Berden and Heule.

“It was a hard day for me,” Powers said. “Today was a big day because it was a C1 event and I didn’t want to risk having riders come back up to us who weren’t originally in the front group. I felt like I did a lot of work to get the group what it was by forcing things consistently. I wanted to win the C1 because these are the big races.”

Powers jumped on the run up and Heule went with him. The pair approached the final stretch of pavement together. Heule had the upper hand in the finishing sprint for the victory, leaving Powers with second place. Field hung on for third place ahead of Berden in fourth.

“I went hard up the run up two times in a row and Christian was the guy that followed,” Powers said. “It seemed like we were both really dragging each other out. It was a good race and hopefully a good race to watch.”

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