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CrossVegas preview: pros struggle with early date for a must-do race.
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For most cyclocross pros — almost all of whom make their living racing mountain bikes or road bikes during the "off season" — CrossVegas is an odd confection: one of the most visible races of the North American season, with arguably the best field.
Yet it comes so early in the season, and is on such an unusual course, that many racers enter it with something of a hit-or-miss attitude.
"It's like the Tour of California for cyclocross," Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) said Wednesday.
Many of the top men and women spent the first half of Wednesday on the Interbike show floor, signing autographs, meeting sponsors and, in some cases, handing out résumés.
More than a few riders said they had not yet ridden a ’cross bike this season. Georgia Gould, who was third at CrossVegas last year, was having her two new Luna Chix Orbea bikes assembled Wednesday afternoon. Maxxis rider Geoff Kabush, like Gould fresh off a long mountain bike season, has yet to mount or dismount a ’cross bike.
"I'm looking forward to (CrossVegas)," Kabush said. "I just wish I had a little more time off before the season started."
Many of the favorites, however, raced in last weekend's Star Crossed and Rad Racing GP in Washington. They've worked the kinks out of their equipment and technique, and got a feel for who might be favored in Vegas.
Among the favorites for the men are Swiss star Christian Heule, who won Star Crossed, and U.S. star Jonathan Page (Planet Bike), who won Sunday.
"It's a different kind of course," Page said Wednesday. "It's the kind of course that favors power, so that's what I've been working on."
The Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com team enters CrossVegas coming off a successful campaign in the Northwest, where Jamey Driscoll was third at Sunday's race and Jeremy Powers was second on Saturday. Teammate Tim Johnson hurt his shoulder in a crash Saturday and skipped racing on Sunday. He said he suffered a small separation or torn rotator cuff.
"It feels fine now," he said, conceding that he would likely be racing with some pain Wednesday night.
But this year, the shoulder aside, Johnson feels better prepared than at previous CrossVegas editions. In prior years, when CrossVegas preceded any other major races, "it was such a brutal opener of the season," he said.
This year, however, the Washington weekend helped, as did the Tour of Missouri, which ended September 14 and which Powers and Johnson each raced for their road teams, Jelly Belly and OUCH-Maxxis, respectively.
Among the women, defending champ Katie Compton (Planet Bike) is primed for a repeat win. She raced a relatively limited mountain bike season, and enters the cyclocross season with one of the best sponsorship packages she has enjoyed in her career. She raced (and won) several local Colorado ’cross races in recent weeks.
Another favorite is Gould's teammate Katarina Nash, who skipped some of the end-of-season off-road races to spend some relaxed weeks training in California. Nash is planning a long cyclocross campaign, culminating with the world championships in her native Czech Republic.
British champion Helen Wyman (Kona) is a new face to many Americans, but wowed the crowd in Washington last weekend, winning in a dominating fashion Saturday and coming in fourth despite an ill-timed flat on Sunday.
