McDonald shines in muddy Providence 'cross

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The second round of the Shimano NEPCX Series concluded with the UCI C2 events at the Providence Cyclo-cross Festival at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. In the UCI Men’s event, it was U23 US National Champion Zach McDonald (Rapha-Focus) who took one of the biggest wins of his career over 2nd place Ben Berden (Raleigh/Clement) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld).

Just when it looked as though weather would not play a role in the weekend’s races, the skies opened up just minutes before the UCI men’s and women’s races forcing riders to quickly make tire tread and pressure changes.

Ian Field (Hargroves Cycles – Specialized) was the first rider off the pavement with Johnson, McDonald, Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus), Ryan Trebon (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld), Dylan McNicholas (CyclocrossWorld) and Berden in tow.

It would be Field who would end up riding the greasy course to near perfection early on, with McDonald being the only rider able to keep pace. The duo were able to separate themselves from the rest of the field early and while they traded the lead, Johnson and Powers stayed just within reach hovering five to ten seconds behind. Further back, Trebon, Berden, McNicholas, and Tristan Schouten (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) tried to limit their losses early.

At the start of the third lap, Ryan Trebon suffered the ultimate loss when he went down hard in a crash that would break a shifter and cost him enough time for him to decide to pack his bags early and look to the next race in Fort Collins, CO.

On lap four, the halfway point of the race, McDonald and Field were still together at the front and it looked like Powers and Johnson would be able to make contact, but on the icy, off-camber section opposite the finish stretch, Powers pushed the pace a little too hard and ended up tangled in the Clif Bar fencing on the side of the course. Johnson capitalized on his mistake and moved into 3rd position. Behind Johnson, Berden was riding away from the rest of the chasers and moved to within 10 seconds of Powers, who was now in 4th spot.

“I saw I was within reach of Field and McDonald,” said Powers of his crash, “so I tried to push it a little on the off-camber. An extra mile per hour ended up being too much in that mud and next thing I knew I was in the fencing.”

McDonald’s superior bike handling and lack of mistakes on the day’s treacherous course eventually got the best of Field and by lap five he opened a lead of 10 seconds and this gap over 2nd place would only increase as the race wore on. Johnson, meanwhile, was slowly eating away at the gap to Field while Berden was also moving forward eventually passing Powers for 4th place on the sixth of eight laps.

On the seventh lap, McDonald grew his lead all the way to thirty seconds. Field, still riding in 2nd place at the time went down on a corner leading into the fly-over, and this allowed Johnson to make contact with the British Champion. Berden, meanwhile, loomed in the near distance, just ten seconds behind the pair of Field and Johnson.

A massive effort by Johnson on the 7th lap cut McDonald’s lead down to twelve seconds and distanced him from Field by six seconds and Berden by twelve, but by the halfway point of the last lap McDonald extended his lead back up to twenty seconds and Berden and Field connected with Johnson.

Johnson, Berden, and Field fought hard for 2nd position over the course of the last lap with Berden and Johnson bumping shoulders fighting to lead the way into the final wooded section of the course.

“It was totally clean racing,” said Johnson of his shoulder bumping with Berden on the last lap. “It made a big difference to get there first and we were both just trying to get there first.”

McDonald ended up crossing the finish line first after a flawless ride in the extremely slippery conditions. Berden was able to get around Johnson and leading onto the final 100 meters of paved finish stretch would prove enough to secure second place, 5 seconds behind McDonald. Johnson crossed the line eleven seconds behind Berden in 3rd place.

“When it started to rain,” said McDonald, “I changed my warm-up. Instead of warming up on the trainer I went and did a recon lap and a hot lap on the course just to see how the lines were changing. I think it helped me a lot. I don’t think anyone else was out there.”

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