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Johnson and Nash dominate Providence ’cross races
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Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and Katerina Nash (Luna Chix) dominated the first day of the inaugural Providence Festival of Cyclocross in Rhode Island on Saturday.
The race was held under dry, fast conditions at Roger Williams Park, a sprawling in-town venue strewn with duck ponds, a carousel, a zoo and a Parthenon-like stage that made a perfect podium. The park, which hosted the national cyclocross championships in 2005 and 2006, also was home to the Interbike trade-only bike demo days Thursday and Friday and a public bike expo this weekend.
Nash holds off McConneloug
Nash is in the midst of her best cyclocross season ever and charged off the line and had a small gap by the end of the first lap.
Mary McConneloug (Seven-Kenda) had a more difficult start, and ceded about ten seconds on the first lap that she was never able to regain. In the second lap she freed herself from some traffic and bridged up to Amy Dombroski (Richard Sachs), who was the last rider to hold Nash's wheel.
McConneloug kept going past Dombroski and got to within about 10 seconds of Nash, but couldn't quite close the gap, passing through the course's crowd-lined corkscrew mid-section two or three turns behind the Luna rider for the bulk of the race.
Behind, Dombroski was joined by Meredith Miller (Specialized-Cal Giant). The two have shared the work in more than a few breakaways during the road season, and Dombroski hoped that the pair might be able to chase down the leaders.
But Nash and McConneloug were pushing each other to keep the pace up and with two laps to go Dombroski and Miller were clearly racing for the last spot on the podium. Dombroski let Miller do most of the work on the last lap and then jumped her with a bit less than a kilometer to go, jumping on a pavement section that led into some singletrack.
McConneloug appeared to gain a bit on Nash in the last lap, but Nash held on to the end to cross with 11 seconds in hand.
"I just wanted to go as hard as I could, so there was no taking it easy ... Mary pushed it pretty hard by the end, and that's good. They made me suffer, so that's a good race," Nash said.
Johnson schools the men's field
Johnson showed that his shoulder injury is behind him, taking the lead on the first lap and turning steady lap times all day to cross more than a minute ahead of teammate Jamey Driscoll.
Driscoll had what is turning into a typical race for him: he got caught in some traffic on the first lap, rode briefly with some stragglers, and then chugged off on his own. This time, Driscoll could not bridge up to his teammate (who had little need of help, anyway), but stayed about a half-minute behind most of the day, although the gap grew in the last two laps when Johnson seemed to find an afterburner.
Driscoll said he intends to work on his starts in training, and be a little less accommodating to competitors in the opening laps.
"I might be a little too lax and let people in, and it's like 'it's just one spot,' but it definitely adds up after a few people and the gaps grow," he said. "Once I was established in second, it looked like (Johnson) was going pretty good. I definitely missed the train today, so we'll try again tomorrow."
Chris Jones (Champion System), Driscoll's breakmate for his CrossVegas win, tried to hang with Johnson the first lap, but soon faded back and was joined and then passed by Driscoll.
Jones, still a relative newcomer to cyclocross, said he was struggling in some of the turns for the first lap or two, but after being dropped by Driscoll he switched to a bike with a more aggressive front tire and felt more comfortable. He rode with Jerome Townsend (Bikereg.com/Joe's Garage) and Nick Weighall (California Giant) for the bulk of the race, then dropped them on the last lap to grab the third spot on the podium.
Townsend and Weighall finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and Townsend was the first U23 finisher.
Race Notes
• Sixth place in the men's went to an unknown: Swiss racer Valentin Scherz (Pro Cycles-Scott-Newwork), 19, who is spending two months racing in the U.S. and working on his English before starting his military service this winter. Scherz got the holeshot and on the first lap he slotted in behind Johnson for a time. "I paid for that at the end of the race," he said. In the junior ranks, Scherz finished fifth in the European championships and second in the Swiss championships. Scherz was the second U23 finisher on Saturday.
• Nash, who has her sights set on the world ’cross championships in her native Czech Republic, cheerfully corrected several reporters on the proper pronunciation of the city where worlds will be held. Tábor is pronounced TAH-bor, she said, with a bit of a trilled 'r' that this reporter, at least, will never be able to reproduce.
• While speeding from the finish area to the podium, Johnson collided with five-year-old Ryjder Essenfeld, who was zipping around the venue on a FMF BMX bike. No one was hurt and Johnson invited Essenfeld onto the podium with him and gave him his first-place medal.
• McConneloug is coming off a long mountain bike season and jumped straight into ’cross at CrossVegas, then took a few weeks off. Now, she says, she has "really good fitness from the mountain bike, and I'm motivated and not tired." She's planning a low-key cyclocross campaign, however, sticking to races around New England for the most part. She said she is tempted to attend the nationals in Bend, Oregon, because that's where she did her first race.
• Jones, who races on the road for Team Type 1, has been racing ’cross since the 2007-2008 season. The national cyclocross championships in Providence in 2006 was the first ’cross race he ever saw. Despite some top finishes, including a second at CrossVegas, Jones said it's OK to call him a roadie, at least until he wins his first major ’cross race.
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