Powers gets his revenge as Trebon fades in finale

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Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) secured a hard-fought solo win at the UCI C2 New Belgium Cup p/b Poudre Valley Health in Fort Collins, Colorado. He powered into the lead during the closing few hundred metres of the race leaving second place to the Exergy Cyclo-cross US Gran Prix series leader Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt). Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) rode much of the race in no-man’s land finishing in third place on the day.

“Yesterday was in the mud and it wasn’t my best ‘cross scenario at altitude,” said Powers, who placed third to Trebon and Kabush the previous day. “Today the ball was more in my court on a fast track with the railroad ties and the barriers, I was able to jump and take time. Some features were also good for Ryan with a longer uphill climb. It was a very equal match today.”

The Elite men’s field lined up under a sunshine and dry weather conditions at the New Belgium Cup on Sunday. Powers took the hole-shot onto the grass for a total of $250. Much like the previous day, he headed the race with a roughly five-second advantage. Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), who placed second the day before, led the chase ahead of Christian Heule (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) and series leader Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt).

Chris Jones (Rapha-Focus) led a group of four riders that emerged at the end of the first lap and included Kabush, Trebon and Powers. Tristan Schouten (Cyclocrossracing.com-Blue), Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) and Ben Berden (Stoemper) almost joined the front group by the end of the second lap.

“Chris did great today but unfortunately it affected the way he was able to ride at altitude later on,” Power said. “But that really took a lot of wind out of Ryan’s sails because he had to chase Chris. It really set me up to launch my first attack. It was great to have Chris there today and a good moment in the race.”

Powers bunny hopped the barriers and moved to the front of the lead group. He pushed the pace through the technical sections and opened a small lead ahead of the chase group led by Trebon.

Trebon caught and passed Powers, who crashed on course with five laps to go. The series leader continued to push the pace and increased his lead to roughly 15 seconds. “I crashed pretty good and Ryan came back up and got a gap,” Powers said. “I grabbed my next bike in the pit and he got a 15-second lead and I had to chase him down.”

“At altitude you have to gage how you are going and can’t be in the red,” he said. “I had tunnel vision and didn’t hear a lot of things because I just wanted to catch Ryan. He was standing up sprinting and was forced to sit down going as hard as he could go. It was a real fist fight out there. I felt good at the end, which I am happy with, and glad that I waited earlier on and didn’t do too much too soon.”

Trebon’s lead started to dwindle to under 10 seconds with two laps to go and down to five seconds with one lap to go. Powers jumped the railroad ties and moved ahead of Trebon with half lap to the finish line. He pushed the pace through the twists and turns heading into the final set of barriers, however, he chose to play it safe and run the barriers instead of ride them as he had done on previous laps.

“Jumping the barriers is just my style,” Powers said. “That is what’s great about cyclo-cross, there is some panache to it and some technical skill that you have to have to be able to do that and that is what I capitalize on. Today it benefited me, I don’t know if it was faster but I could do it clean and for me it was better.”

“I ran the last set of barriers on the last lap because it would have been a little bit too dangerous in the moment and I didn’t want to risk anything,” he said. “I was at 105 percent of my capacity and didn’t want to try and do technical stuff there. I played it safe there and I felt like I didn’t need to hop the barriers because I already had a couple seconds.”

Powers led the pair into the final straightaway with a small advantage and soloed into the finish line with the win ahead of Trebon in second place and Kabush in third. The long line of chasers included Heule, Jones, Berden, Sheppard and Schouten. Tim Johnson (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), who was having a slower than usual start to his season, moved into the top five positions during the closing laps.