Johnson and Compton Bring Home USA Cycling Elite Cyclo-Cross National Titles

Culmination of event takes place in front of epic crowds in Bend‏.

One hundred and fifty elite men took to the start of the 2009 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships final race in Bend on Sunday. Photo credit: Ben Ross

BEND, Ore. - More than 5,000 fans watched Tim Johnson upset hometown favorite and reigning national champion Ryan Trebon (Bend, Ore./Kona-FSA) to win the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships elite men’s national title.

The number one ranked cyclo-cross rider in the world Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Planet Bike) reeled in her sixth consecutive cyclo-cross crown in the elite women’s race. Four Collegiate national titles were also awarded on the final day of competition at the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships in Bend on Sunday.

“The crowd was just unbelievable the whole time, just going nuts,” said Johnson following his victory. “Bend really loves their bikes and this was a great place to have a national championships.”

Johnson, Jonathon Page (Northfield, N.H./Planet Bike) and Jeremy Powers (Niantic, Conn./Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) were able to get out front early. After Page was forced to make a pit stop and Powers went down, Johnson soon found himself all alone on the front. Much to the delight of the crowd, Trebon surged to within a dozen or so seconds of the leader with around two laps to go. The powerful Oregonian however couldn’t close the gap, leaving Page to ride solo to his third elite national title.

“It’s such a bummer that Jeremy had to crash like that in the off-camber,” continued Johnson. “That took away a great chance for him. There was still 45 minutes to go at that point and you can’t count on anything in Cross. After watching all these lead changes the last few days I just really tried to keep it as clean as possible. Anything can happen to take it all away.”

Compton soloed to a comfortable one minute win in the elite women’s contest, leaving the battle to last summer’s elite women’s road race champion Meredith Miller (Fort Collins, Colo./Cal Giant) and U23 road race champion Amy Dombrowski (Boulder, Colo./Schlamm p/b Primus). Dombrowski, along with former mountain bike world champion Alison Dunlap (Colorado Springs, Colo./Luna) went out hard, keeping Compton in sight for the first few laps. Both however suffered from spills on slick, icy sections allowing the powerful Miller to pass with around three to go.

“After I crashed I thought maybe I could get her back,” said Dombrowski. “I kind of got a second wind on that last lap but I didn’t have enough real estate to work with.”

Dombrowski was able to close the gap to less than five seconds on Miller, but couldn’t reel her in allowing the road race champ to add a cyclo-cross silver medal to her repertoire. Dunlap followed around a minute later in fourth and Laura Van Gilder (Cresco, Pa./Mellow Mushroom) grabbed the final podium spot. Check out USA Cycling’s Mountain Bike and Cyclo-cross Development Programs Director Marc Gullickson’s quick re-cap of the elite women’s race.

USA Cycling Development Programs Dir. Marc Gullickson describes the elite women's race

Ashley James (Delafield, Wisc.), who went on to grab the silver in the Collegiate DII women’s race an hour later, grabbed the U23 national title with a 29th- place finish in the elite women’s race.

Compton, who had already locked up an automatic nomination to the World Championship squad with two World Cup victories this season, looks to be heading to the Czech Republic to contest the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships on Jan. 30. Johnson also locked up a nomination with his win as did yesterday’s U23 champion Danny Summerhill (Englewood, Colo./Garmin-Felt) and junior 17-18 national champion Cody Kaiser (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Cal Giant). The remainder of the 20 total nominations for elite men, elite women, U23 men and junior men will be announced later this week.

In the day’s earlier action the USA Cycling Collegiate individual and team titles were decided for both Division I and Division II. After losing last year’s cyclo-cross omnium title to rival Lees-McRae College (Banner Elk, N.C.) in a heart-breaking tie breaker Fort Lewis College (Durango, Colo.) displayed their dominance in the 2009 competition. The Colorado mountain school grabbed first, third and fifth places in the DI women’s race along with second, fourth, ninth and tenth to rack up 188 total points.

For the second year in a row, Appalachian State University (Boone, N.C.) claimed the Division II team championship, ahead of last year’s winner, Western Washington University (Bellingham, Wash.). The competition was close however, as Appalachian State claimed 159 total points ahead of Western Washington’s 138. Perennial division II stalwarts Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed the third place on the podium.

For complete results visit this link

The Collegiate Division I men’s contest was an epic battle between last year’s junior 17-18 national champion Zach McDonald (Bainbridge Island, Wash./University of Washington-Seattle) and last year’s collegiate silver medalist Benjamin Sonntag (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis). Sonntag built an early lead, but McDonald slowly chipped away and caught the powerful German national. The final pair of laps were two of the most exciting of the event with McDonald and Sonntag battling back-and-fourth to the delight of the crowd. Into the final straight away the pair were neck-and-neck with the smaller McDonald surging at the line to take the exciting victory.

Ryan Leech (Savannah, Ga.) of the little known Savannah College of Art and Design surprised the 27-rider Division II field by riding comfortably to his first national title. Steve Fisher (Bellingham, Wash./Western Washington) outdueled Mitchell Hoke (Colorado Springs, Colo./Colorado College) to grab the silver.

Teal Stetson-Lee (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis College) provided a dramatic finish to the DI women’s race, running her bike across for the win following a mechanical on the final lap. Lindsey Wilson College’s Ashley James (Delafield, Wisc.) was able to close the more than two minute gap on Stetson-Lee to nearly ten seconds on the final lap to earn the silver before Magen Long (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis College) edged Kristin Markham (Banner Elk, N.C./Lees-McRae College) for the bronze.

In an evenly matched DII women’s contest, Arielle Filiberti (Wooster, Mass./Dartmouth) earned a nearly one minute win over the University of Montana’s Lindsy Campbell (Missoula, Mont.).

As a part of a testing demonstration UNOFFICIAL results and lap information via MyLaps Sports Timing ChipX timing system is available for select races via the USA Cycling website at: usacycling.org/events/2009/cxnationals/cxresults.php.

After awarding 30 national titles in four days, the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships wrapped up in Bend on Sunday. With over 1,800 unique participants the 2009 Bend event has set the precedence as the largest ever.

2009 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships Bend, Ore. December 10-13

Sunday’s National Champions:
Elite Men: Tim Johnson (Beverly, Mass./Cannondale-Cyclo-cross World)
Elite Women: Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Planet Bike)
Collegiate Men Division I: Zach McDonald (Bainbridge Island, Wash./University of Washington-Seattle)
Collegiate Women Division I: Teal Stetson-Lee (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis College)
Collegiate Men Division II: Ryan Leech (Savannah, Ga./Savannah College of Art and Design)
Collegiate Women Division II: Arielle Filiberti (Wooster, Mass./Dartmouth)

COMPLETE RESULTS

Recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the Union Cycliste Internationale, USA Cycling is the official governing body for all disciplines of competitive cycling in the United States, including road, track, mountain bike, BMX, and cyclo-cross. As a membership-based organization, USA Cycling consists of 64,000+ licensees including 1,500 coaches, 4,000 student-athletes, 2,200 officials, 1,800 clubs and teams, 350 professional cyclists, 200 certified mechanics, and 34 local associations. The national governing body sanctions 2,500 competitive and non-competitive events throughout the U.S. each year and is responsible for the identification, development, and support of American cyclists through various initiatives and programs. Additionally, USA Cycling conducts national championship events for all categories of amateur and professional cycling. To learn more about USA Cycling, visit www.usacycling.org.

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