CX Madness 2018: Katie vs. Ellen, Noble vs. Compton – It’s Down to Two

CX Madness started 2 weeks ago with 32 cyclocrossers—16 women and 16 men—and after 4 rounds of voting, the bracket is down to 2. One is a living U.S. cyclocross legend, the other is one of the sport’s brightest young stars.

Voting is open for the championship round through Monday, April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Make sure to vote for your favorite and definitely encourage your fellow cyclocross fans to do so as well.

As always, before we get to the voting, we take a look at the Fiets Vier CX Madness round.

Who Run the (CX) World?

After we re-seeded the final eight athletes, the CX Madness bracket provided some tough match-ups, the closest of which was the tight one between Mathieu van der Poel and Sanne Cant. The people spoke and the bracket gave us two U.S. female stars against the two biggest names in Men’s ’cross in Van der Poel and Wout van Aert.

The two U.S. women rolled to victory over their European counterparts in the Fiets Vier round. After a tough first round, Noble continued her roll and scored an easy victory over Van Aert, and Compton coasted over Van der Poel as well. If you are looking to read the tea leaves for the final round, Noble garnered 250 more votes than Compton, making her the favorite for the last round of voting despite her number 7 seed.

The CX Madness final is now a repeat of Reno Nationals, with Noble and Compton off the front battling for the gold. One is a living legend and the other is one of the heir apparents to Compton’s crown as the best U.S. cyclocrosser. Both are Trek riders, meaning CX Madness will end with a #podiumboone.

A quick look at social media or any of our posts about these two women—or the CX Madness bracket!—makes it clear they are both incredibly popular with U.S. cyclocross fans. After perusing the Twitter chatter, we asked our followers if they wanted “both” to be an option should Compton and Noble make the final match-up. To make the choice a little easier, because we are nice like that.

Theoretically speaking, if the CX Madness voting gives a championship of @KatieFnCompton and @ellenlikesbikes, should "both" be an option?

— Cyclocross Magazine (@cyclocross) March 28, 2018

The response was definitive:

pic.twitter.com/R8EugxWZw2

— JBV (@jverheul) March 28, 2018

And so it is Katie vs. Ellen. Compton vs. Noble. KatieFnCompton vs. EllenLikesBikes. It will be a good one.

Championship Bracket

Championship Voting

Cast your vote for Ellen or Katie below. Tell your friends! As the gif above says, there can be only one. Voting is open through the end of the day Monday.