Elliott ends Toronto 'cross with a victory

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Natasha Elliott (Garneau Club Chaussures-Ogilvy) secured the victory that she travelled to southern Ontario for on day two of the Toronto Cyclo-cross in Centennial Park. The Ottawa native took a convincing solo victory ahead of Alberta mountain bikers Katy Curtis (CMC BOW- Cycle) and Pepper Harlton (Juventus).

“I’ve never gotten a better place, ever, on the second day of ’cross racing,” Elliott said. “Coming in second yesterday and then winning today is my best result in two days of racing.”

The Elite women competed on a completely new circuit that included a set of barriers followed by a technical wooded section, a steep hill and a drop off that brought the riders back around to the finish line through an off camber slope and a sand pit.
Harlton took the hole shot that followed the gravel finishing straight and led her competitors through the first set of barriers. She was quickly overtaken by Elliott, who displayed the strong start she lacked the previous race.

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“My initial start wasn’t that good because my foot popped out,” Elliott said. “I was relentless and by the time we got to the uphill I had a gap.”

Similar to the previous day’s race three leading women that included Elliott, Harlton and Curtis opened a sizable lead heading into the second lap. “I really tried to correct everything I did wrong yesterday,” Elliott said.

Perhaps equally impressive was the valiant effort put forth by the lone chaser Melissa Bunn (Stevens Racing-The Cyclery). Bunn remained in no man’s land between the leaders and the next chase group for the entirety of the race and finished in fourth place.

Behind Bunn were teammates Amanda Sin and Laura Bietola (3 Rox Racing), Leigh Hobson (Hub Racing) and Marne Smiley (Scott-Ollett Coaching). Hobson lost her place in the line when she rolled a tire in the opening laps of the race.

The race for the podium was between the three leading women. Elliott made her winning move on the gravel straightaway at the start of the second lap. Her gap grew from five seconds to nearly 15 seconds by the end of the race.

“I got a gap by just a couple of seconds and then it grew,” Elliott said. “I think I was riding a little bit scared lately and not really emptying it, so today I wanted to go as hard as I could and finishing knowing that I couldn’t go a second or two harder.”

Curtis and Harlton worked together to try and reduce the gap but they were not successful. When it became apparent that they were racing for second place, Curtis attacked Harlton on the off camber hillside with on the last lap and opened a five-second advantage.

Curtis bobbled and crashed just before entering the sand pit but that did not put a dent in her second place finish ahead of Harlton.

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