Nash victorious on Cycle-Smart International's first day

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Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Team) soloed to victory during the UCI C2 Cycle Smart International held at Look Park in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Czech national champion out-paced Laura Van Gilder (C3-Mellow Mushroom) in second and Sally Annis (Crossresults.com-JRA Cycles) in third.

“It is nice to be back in New England,” Nash said. “The main reason why I came out here was to teach a cyclo-cross clinic for the Boston Luna team and we tied that into the weekend of UCI racing here.”

The event marked round five of the Shimano New England Professional Cyclo-cross Series that is currently led by Van Gilder. “I’m very committed to finishing up this series,” Van Gilder said. “But, it wouldn’t take much to mix things up again because the points fall typical to a UCI event, so if you have one bad day you can lose the lead. I won’t assume anything because I’ve been that person who gets a flat tire or has had a bad day before.”

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The Cycle Smart International was once again held at its traditional location in Look Park. The terrain offered a perfect combination of hills, wooded track and open grass sections. Some of the main features of the course included two steep run-ups, dual descents, a set of hurdles and rail road tracks.

“There were a lot of corners on the course and I think that was my biggest struggle today,” Nash said. “I didn’t ride the course very well and I was trying to clean up my lines during the race.”

Van Gilder lined up as the series leader, however, the odds-on favourite to win the race was Nash, who recently won the round two UCI World Cup in Tabor. Her competitors also included Annis along with included Nicole Thiemann and Carolyn Popovic (Team CF), Andrea Smith and Crystal Anthony (LadiesFirst Racing) and Arley Kremmerer (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes).

“These races are all hard, it doesn’t matter who attends but it was nice to race up here against Katerina,” Van Gilder said. “Katerina set the early pace and I was the next rider on her wheel. She gradually increased her gap to 15 seconds and three of us were chasing her.”

Van Gilder led the chase ahead of her companions Annis, Anthony and Smith. The four riders worked together during the following three laps, however, their combined efforts were not enough to close the gap to Nash.

“It seemed like the kind of course where if we worked together we might have been able to close the gap a little bit,” Van Gilder said.

“We traded pulls and tried to take advantage of the course in particular areas.”

Nash secured a solo victory on the day, however, the race for second remained between her chasers. Van Gilder gained a small advantage on one of the steep hills on the last lap. Although she suffered a flat tire on the lower half of the course, she had enough time to exchange bikes in the mechanics pit and solo in for second place ahead of Annis and Anthony.

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