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Compton slips, slides to muddy Superprestige win
Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) won the third round of the Superprestige cyclocross series on Sunday at the Aspere-Gavere race in Belgium.
World champion Hanka Kupfernagel skipped the race, run in wet and very muddy conditions. The hallmark of the course was a steep, muddy downhill chute that caused many falls, some of them race-ending, like the one that sent Niels Albert to the hospital with an injured spleen.
Compton got off to a comfortable start in third position after a front-row start, with Saskia Elemans leading and Daphny van den Brand in second.
The American briefly took over the lead before van den Brand got out front as they passed pit one, bound for the chute. Van den Brand crashed, taking Compton off the bike and giving Czech rider Pavla Havlikova the lead, which she held for the rest of the first lap.
Compton battled back from fifth position to the head of the race, dogged by van den Brand. But the chute took the Dutch rider down once again, on lap three, and Compton rode on alone to take the win by more than a minute over van den Brand with Belgian Sanne Cant (Selle Italia) third at 1:22.
Compton was happy with her performance during what was just her second race in the mud this season.
"I love the course here — it's really challenging in the mud and the downhill drops are freakin’ hard; it’s the most technical downhill I've ever raced on the 'cross bike,” she said.
Compton’s bike was equipped with top-mounted brake levers, which she said were crucial on the steep descents.
"The ’cross-brake levers let me stay further back on the bike and prevent me from falling over the bars easier than trying to ride in the drops,” she said. “Also they give me more leverage for braking. But I had to remind myself to get off the front brake on this course or you'll be doing a Superman off the bike."
Race note
Belgian Veerle Ingels finished fourth only to be disqualified for not taking a bike after entering the pit (her spare was still being washed as she entered pit lane). The DQ moved Pavla, the first-lap leader, into fourth.
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