Stairway to the Jersey: Kevin Day Hops the Stairs and Wins Masters 35-39 in Reno – Report

If Kevin Day is not a Led Zeppelin fan, he is after Thursday’s Masters 35-39 race at the 2018 Reno Cyclocross Nationals.

Day survived a tough group of four and was on the ropes a bit when Caleb Thompson unleashed an attack heading into the bell lap. Day recovered and then made his move on the Belgian Stairway to Heaven, with heaven in Reno being the top step of the podium and the Stars-and-Stripes jersey.

“It came down to the staircase on the back side,” he said. “[Thompson] was running it every lap and I was hopping it. From the top of the stairs I was able to get a little bit of a gap and punch it.”

After 40 tough minutes of racing, the open space ahead of Day gave his legs one last championship kick. His lead was eight seconds when he hit the climb at the start of the technical section and held on to capture his first career national championship.

With his victory, Day joined an impressive list of ginger national champions that includes Stephen Hyde and Don Myrah. Day said his victory was a bit of an omen for his fellow ginger racing Sunday. “I can’t get the facial hair like [Hyde] does, it’s not in me, but it’s all about the gingers this weekend, so let’s do it Stephen.”

Banging the Drum All Day

Chris Drummond (SPCX p/b R.K. Black) of Tulsa, OK headed to the start line looking to repeat his national championship and continue the okey-dokey Oklahoma day after Brandon Melott won the Baby Masters race before his. Early on, Drummond started like a man on the mission. He hopped the Little Loenhout ditch and ripped off the front to a lead that was pushing 15 seconds halfway into the first lap.

Drummond held his lead into the second lap as the riders behind him took turns trying to bring the bright yellow-clad rider back. By the latter part of the second lap, the chase of Day, Mitchell Trux (Portland Titanium) and Caleb Thompson had materialized.

Thursday morning brought a respite in the wind that made the false flat extra grueling on Wednesday, but it was still Drummond versus three very strong riders. By the midpoint of the third lap, they had more or less brought the leader back. A bike race was a foot.

“When he got off the front, I just thought, as Chris does. I kind of thought that was it, but I was like, no, I’m here to be it. I was pumped and I felt positive I could hopefully bring it back. I think all of us really worked to bring it back together as a group.”

Punches Were Thrown

The fourth of six laps featured the four riders together. “The pace was hot, punches were thrown,” said Day about the group racing. With two to go, it was still a group of four.

Inside the penultimate lap, the first half of the lap is where things started to move in the lead selection. Day and Thompson broke off the front and Trux and Drummond were resorted to chasing. With the pace hot, there was no hiding on the drying course that got faster as the morning progressed.

Things started to come back together after the descents and off-camber, but another attack helped break things up again. Thompson unleashed an attack on the start/finish straight and Day got a gap taking up the chase. Thompson had eight seconds on Day with one to go, even if it was a bit of an accident.

“I actually kind of messed up because I didn’t realize it was the last lap,” Thompson said. “It was a little early.”

Thompson’s attack proved to be a bit early. Day began to reel him in and made the catch shortly before the Belgian stairs located in the far side of the course. Thompson ran the stairs while Day hopped them. When Day accelerated out of the wooden feature, he had a gap on Thompson and the stairs became his personal Stairway to Heaven.

Once he had a gap, Day’s legs got an extra shot of adrenaline. “He was riding really good technically, I was here and there, but I figured if I could hold that gap, I could get enough energy to hold it,” Day said.

Day dug deep and found his technical legs on the climb and descent and held on to win the first Stars-and-Stripes jersey of his career.

Thompson’s consolation was an impressive second-place finish against a tough field. “It was a good feeling,” Thompson said about being up in the lead group. “I never really peaked this year, so to be up there in the lead group was amazing. I saved it all for Nationals and it was a good course.”

Trux held on and beat out Drummond to take third.

See interviews with the top finishers and race results below.

Masters 35-39 Results: 2018 Reno Cyclocross Nationals

Place	Bib	LAST	First	Team	City ST	Time	Gap
1	233	DAY	Kevin	Team Endurance 360	Farmington UT	47:32
2	248	THOMPSON	Caleb	Bicycle Racing Association of C	Bayfield CO	47:39	7
3	252	TRUX	Mitchell	Portland Titanium	Portland OR	47:43	11
4	226	DRUMMOND	Chris	SPCX p/b R.K. BLACK	Tulsa OK	47:54	22
5	265	WHITNEY	Josh	Salt Lake City UT		48:38	1:06
6	260	BOUCHARD-HALL	Kevin	Team Placid Planet	Wadhams NY	48:55	1:23
7	246	COE	Andrew	Portland Titanium	Portland OR	49:01	1:29
8	261	CHAPIN	Scott	Santa Cruz Factory Racing	Santa Cruz CA	49:05	1:33
9	249	GRITTERS	Brandon	Southern California Nevada Cycl	Dana Point CA	49:29	1:57
10	268	FLIS	Mark	Squadra Flying Tigers	Park City UT	49:50	2:18
11	240	FOSSELL	Eric	COS Racing	Colorado Springs CO	49:54	2:22
12	228	OLSEN	Daniel	Seattle WA		50:13	2:41
13	241	LOGAN	Benjamin	Bishop CA		50:25	2:53
14	242	ROTHE	Stefan	787 Racing	Austin TX	50:30	2:58
15	247	WULFKUHLE	Andrew	717 Cycling club	Lancaster PA	50:32	3:00
16	258	KELLER	Breeze	Kennebunkport ME		50:33	s.t.
17	259	DEPPE	Bruce	Utah Cycling Association	Salt Lake City UT	51:02	3:30
18	254	RINN	Ryan	San Francisco CA		51:29	3:57
19	232	IAIA	William	Groove Subaru Excel Sports	Littleton CO	43:03	@1Lap
20	253	ALLEN	William	Feedback Sports Racing	Golden CO	43:07	@1Lap
21	238	DAKIN	Christopher	Air Assurance Devo P/b Spoke Ho Bixby OK		43:26	@1Lap
22	231	MCNICHOLAS	Dylan	POLARTEC	Stratham NH	44:11	@1Lap
23	236	SHARKEY	Mike	Rally Sport Cycling Team	Broomfield CO	44:25	@1Lap
24	266	MONGAN	David	San Francisco CA		44:31	@1Lap
25	230	HOWRY	Keyth	Edmond OK		45:55	@1Lap
26	244	DIONNE	Lance	CS Velo	Gladwyne PA	46:11	@1Lap
27	237	WOOD	Jim	HiFi Sound Cycling Componets	Hood River OR	46:27	@1Lap
28	234	WARBURTON	William	Bend Endurance Academy	Bend OR	46:30	@1Lap
29	229	PICKELS	Robert	Boulder Junior Cycling	Boulder CO	46:46	@1Lap
30	267	JONES	Matthew	Layton UT		46:49	@1Lap
31	235	CLAASSEN	Clinton	Northern California/Nevada Cycl El Dorado Hills CA		46:52	@1Lap
32	251	GESLANI	Van	Dons Bikes	Loma Linda CA	47:01	@1Lap
33	245	LEIZINGER	Matt	All-City X Fulton Racing	Richfield MN	47:20	@1Lap
34	256	JOHNSON	Shane	Redmond OR		47:25	@1Lap
35	264	HODGES III	Clinton	Anchorage AK		47:26	@1Lap
36	239	DODGE	Ben	SunPower Racing	San Jose CA	48:20	@1Lap
37	227	DALEY	Timothy	Watertown MA		50:34	@1Lap
38	250	BILLINGS	Brett	Groove Subaru Excel Sports	Colorado Springs CO	52:52	@1Lap
39	269	WILMETH	John	Cantu Cycling Wheels	Newwaverly TX	44:21	@2Laps
DNF	257	MCALLISTER	John	UCI CT: Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling	Weatherford TX

For more from Reno, see our continuing coverage of the 2018 Reno Cyclocross Nationals on our dedicated Nationals page.

Photos from the races and reports are available to license here, with more to be added throughout the next week.

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