Clara Honsinger takes solo win at elite women's Trek CX Cup

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Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) won the Trek CX Cup C1 event held on Friday in Waterloo, Wisconsin. The US champion finished 22 seconds ahead of runner-up Hélene Clauzel (AS Bike Racing) and 23 seconds ahead of third-placed Manon Bakker (Crelan-Fristads).

“It was a race to test the waters. Honestly I felt pretty good. I was holding my own pace and I thought everyone was being pretty patient. Nobody was throwing any big attacks," Honsinger told Cyclingnews after her first cyclo-cross race of the season was completed with a victory. "Those first two laps we really played that game of trying to hold second and third wheel.

“I think it was the third lap, Hélene made a move into a corner and really tried but I held the line and kind of shut her out, and it caused a little bit of a hold up behind me. So when I came out of the corner and looked back, I had a little bit of a gap, just a few seconds.

“Eventually the gap held at four or five seconds for a very long time and I thought they’d catch me. Then it [the gap] was 30 seconds and I held it to the finish.”

The race took place on property adjacent to Trek Bikes' headquarters in Wisconsin. Off the tarmac, the field entered the grass space where they were challenged to short, steep run-ups, twisting tracks through the woods, off-camber sections. The mild and dry weather made for fast racing.

Clauzel led the elite women’s field from the holeshot to the uphill grassy corner to begin the race. Austin Killips (Nice Bikes) rode in second and Sidney McGill (OneBike Racing) in third. 

On the back side of the course with a first pass of the barriers, Honsinger led a group of five - Bakker, Maddie Munro (Trek Factory Racing CX), Clauzel and Killips, with a group of four chasing behind.

On the second lap, Honsinger took the lead by just a few seconds, while Caroline Mani (Alpha Groove Silverthorne) caught on the back of the other quartet. The wind began to whip around on the open areas of the course, causing a challenge. 

At the start of the third lap, Lauren Zoerner (Alpha Bicycle Co.-Groove Silverthorne), who had been riding in the top 10, had a mechanical and had to run to the pits, which ended her day near the front, but she would fight on to finish 20th. The US champion held the lead through a series a turns, holding off an attempted pass by Clauzel that would prove to be significant and allowed Honsinger to open a small gap of three or four seconds.

Honsinger held her lead for the next few laps, riding at a consistent pace between 6:24 to 6:20 on the middle laps of the eight-lap race. On the fourth and fifth laps a solid group of six chased, Raylyn Nuss (Steve Tilford Foundation) making the catch to Bakker, Munro, Clauzel, Killips and Mani.

On the sixth lap, Honsinger pounded out another circuit of 6:22, just two seconds slower than the fifth lap, and a noticeable gap of 35 seconds developed and she held it to the line. The fight behind would be for second and third.