’Cross Stars Fine Tune Fitness at Windham World Cup

Georgia Gould showed great form, looks ready to rock the cyclocross bike (file photo) © Rob O'Dea

by Jamie Mack

Many of the top ’cross racers that we’ll soon be rooting for on courses around the country spent this past weekend on a small ski mountain in upstate New York. The World Cup stopped at Windham Mountain for the sixth round of cross country competition. With this being the first time in five years for a World Cup in America, and almost 20 years since the East Coast hosted one, the best of the best of American racers came out to see how they stacked up. The mountain bikers were seeing the end of their season, as this was the final World Cup, but the ’crossers in the crowd were out to see how the fitness was coming along as their season is about to begin.

The racing got underway with the young ‘uns hitting the slopes. From the ’cross persepctive there was a shining light in the USA colors. Skyler Trujillo, a Euro ’Cross Camp alumni, fought into the top 10 with a ninth place finish. Trujillo seems to be in a good place at the moment, time will tell if he can hold that form into ’cross season.

American Willow Koerber had been moving toward the lead in the World Cup coming into Windham, but an off day saw her finish in sixth which gave the day’s winner Catharine Pendrel the overall title. For the ’cross fans in the crowd there was a lot to look at as several of the top American elite women ’cross racers were in attendance. The highlight was Georgia Gould, who is flying coming into ’cross season, finished third on the day. Katie Compton was in the top 20, finishing 15th and her fans are likely hoping that this trip bodes well considering the issues that kept her out of Worlds competition last season.

The men weren’t as well represented from the ’cross perspective. The Wells brothers were in attendance, with the elder Todd taking the highest place for a ’cross racer in 24th. Todd reported having a poor start, followed by a flat tire. By the time he got rolling again, he’d dropped back to 75th and had to claw back through as many riders as possible.

Sam Schultz plans to race more cyclocross events this season, so we’ll include his 22nd in our wrap-up. And sometimes ’cross racers Adam Craig and Carl Decker were in attendance as well, rounding out their seasons as they look forward to a much needed break. Geoff Kabush had a mechanical and pulled out after a lengthy stop in the pits. As Kabush summed it up on Twitter, “It was going pretty solid today until I had to start running. Running doesn’t work so well at a bike race. Went for a road ride instead.”

Elite Women Results

Elite Men Results