THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Straight Outa Compton: Playing in Daphny's sandbox
U.S. national cyclocross champion Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) has been racing across the pond this fall, and successfully, too, taking a win and a runner-up finish in two World Cup races. She dropped us a note after Saturday’s race in Koksijde, Belgium; here’s what she had to say about how her race unfolded. — Editor
The race definitely wasn't pretty on my part (I spent more time swimming in the sand than actually riding it), but somehow I managed to just not suck completely and pull out a podium.
The course was fairly technical — there were five sand sections that were difficult to run, and two of them were harder to ride down than to run up the other side.
The most technical sections were the downhill sand sections and the sand straightaway, which had a chicane in it. A fast downhill pavement section transitioned onto the sand, did a quick right and left chicane and then took you into a set of barriers. About 20 meters after that there was a steep sand run-up. That was a good place to get a gap or maintain your gap if you didn't screw it up. I, of course, balled that section up on the first lap and lost some time.
The start was a super long straightaway ending with a left-hand turn onto the grass. We got off to a good start and I was leading when we hit the grass. Lyne Bessette had a good start, considering she was on the third row; she was able to move up and was on my wheel the first time through the pit.
There were a couple turns after the pit and then we hit the first sand section. It was a false flat and then made a 90-degree left-hand turn up a hill (all sand) followed by a U-turn at the top and a sandy descent. All was good until I hit the sand and dumped it.
I got up as quickly as I could and started running, with Daphny van den Brand, Maryline Salvetat and Helen Wyman right behind me. I continued to have a small gap after the downhill sand section and held that till we hit the next sand section, the one with the chicane, barriers and run-up. I proceeded to mess that up as well and crash in the chicane because I came in too hot (should have pre-ridden more) and that's when the three chasers closed the gap. We were all together through the second pit where I went in for a bike change because my brakes were rubbing from crashing, and that's when Helen passed me. I came out of the pit and fell in behind her.
The four of us rode another half lap together until the next sand run-up and downhill (the same place I crashed on the first lap) where I balled up the downhill and ended up running it as Daphny and Maryline rode it and opened up a gap on me and Helen. They pretty much dropped me from that point and I spent the next two laps chasing, trying to at least get a podium finish.
Helen dropped somewhere within those two laps, so it was just me trying to secure a third-place finish (Daphny and Maryline were up about 30 seconds by that point).
With a lap and a half to go, Daphny attacked Maryline on the barrier and steep sand-sand run-up section and opened up a gap that she maintained through to the finish. While Daphny was on her own, Maryline was starting to feel the effects of the hard race and was losing her advantage over me. Mark was yelling at me to keep chasing Maryline, and I started reeling her in with a half lap to go.
By the time we made the final left-hand turn onto the finishing straight I was about three seconds back. I sprinted as hard as I could out of the last corner in order to catch her, and when I finally did, I sprinted again for the finish line, which was still about 200 meters away.
So Daphny ended up winning by seven seconds and Maryline was three seconds behind me. It was an exciting finish and I'm happy to pull out a second after making so many stupid mistakes.
