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by Ken Getchell

Louisville, KY – Beautiful weather and a revised courses greeted cyclocross racers and spectators as the Zipp OVCX Tour presented by Papa John’s made it’s first of several trips to Louisville this year for the Tour de Louisville on Sunday. The race which is held annually at Fisherman’s Park rather than the more-frequented Eva Bandman or Champions Parks.

Coming less than a week before the Tour’s big three-day UCI weekend in Cincinnati, race promoter Steven Webster was happy with the turn-out of nearly 300 entries. He was happier still about the rave reviews to the revised course.  The park’s hilly terrain has given the race the reputation of an extremely hard climber’s course in the past, something that was addressed this year. “It was less of a death march,” said Webster. “We really paid attention to the flow of the course and recovery zones to make it a more balanced course. Everybody I asked said they loved the new layout.”

One advantage of the new layout was improved viewing, and several hundred spectators were seen watching the races at the picturesque venue throughout the day. Those that stayed to the end saw Ryan Knapp (BikeReg.com) and defending Zipp OVCX Tour champion Mitch Kersting (Bob’s Red Mill-Rocky Mountain) put on amazing displays. Knapp, who has been racing at the front of the UCI races he’s competed in this year, averaged over 19 miles-per-hour for the duration of the race on the hilly, and still-difficult, course. Behind him, Kersting had to start in the sixth row after missing the season opener in August. Battling through the pack, Kersting took second, just 39 seconds back of Knapp.

Louisville is known for its Junior development programs, and Team Red Zone was selling a lot of food to raise money to send its Junior riders to this year’s National Championships. Junior racer Andrew Dillman gave his Red Zone teammates something to scream about when he toed the line in the Elite Men’s race and promptly destroyed most of the field in the ten lap race to take third behind Knapp and Kersting. It created an interesting scene at the podium as Louisville’s own Bluegrass Brewing Company was awarding six-packs of their award-winning beers to the top three finishers of every senior class, but Dillman was under-age. Needless to say, Dillman’s father had no problem accepting the award in his son’s behalf.

Another rider with an interesting ride in the Elite Men’s event was Niki Dallaire (Alderfer Bergen). After winning the Elite Women’s race by more than five minutes and nearly lapping the field – only second place Nicole Borem remained on the lead lap – Dallaire immediately rode back to the starting line to for the Elite Men’s race where she finished 24th, only one lap down to winner Ryan Knapp on the relatively short course.

The next races on the Zipp OVCX Tour presented by Papa John’s are this weekend’s trio of races at the Cincinnati UCI3 Festival, followed by the Tour’s first trip to Indiana this year with Bloomingcross in Bloomington on October 17. For more information about all the races on the Zipp OVCX Cyclocross Tour presented by Papa John’s, see www.OVCX.com.

See results after photos.

Photo Gallery:

Race Results:

Elite Men:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd
1 14 Ryan Knapp 10 56:35.6 19.08 05:29.2 19.69
2 21 Mitchell Kersting 10 57:15.0 39.4 18.87 05:30.5 19.61
3 13 Andrew Dillman 10 58:19.8 01:44.3 18.52 05:38.2 19.16
4 2 Erik Hamilton 10 58:53.2 02:17.6 18.34 05:38.3 19.15
5 1 Josh Johnson 10 59:09.6 02:34.0 18.26 05:41.0 19
6 11 Zachary Edwards 10 59:48.6 03:13.0 18.06 05:51.0 18.46
7 5 Chris Nevitt 10 00:24.7 03:49.1 17.88 05:53.9 18.31
8 18 Luke Haley 10 00:31.0 03:55.4 17.85 05:52.1 18.41
9 19 John Francisco 10 00:55.7 04:20.2 17.73 05:53.1 18.35
10 3 Rob Kendall 10 01:26.4 04:50.8 17.58 05:47.0 18.68
11 15 Jason Karew 10 01:32.5 04:56.9 17.55 05:54.8 18.26
12 22 Joshua Prater 10 01:45.1 05:09.5 17.49 05:59.6 18.02
13 23 Chad Salla 10 01:57.1 05:21.5 17.43 06:06.1 17.7
14 20 Ryan Gamm 10 02:15.0 05:39.4 17.35
15 6 Adam Rodkey 10 02:42.5 06:06.9 17.22 05:59.2 18.04
16 28 Nathan Roberson 9 56:37.4 1 Lap 17.17 06:03.0 17.85
17 9 Aaron Hubbell 9 56:51.6 1 Lap 17.09 06:14.0 17.33
18 12 Stefan Swecker 9 57:02.9 1 Lap 17.04 06:00.1 18
19 7 Jacob Virostko 9 57:18.2 1 Lap 16.96 06:07.8 17.62
20 31 Ryan O’Connor 9 57:18.6 1 Lap 16.96 06:11.3 17.45
21 27 J Skiles Keith 9 58:10.5 1 Lap 16.71 06:09.1 17.56
22 30 Joshua Nagode 9 59:01.6 1 Lap 16.47 06:19.1 17.09
23 24 Michael Chewning 9 59:23.3 1 Lap 16.37 06:10.2 17.51
24 25 Annajean Dallaire 9 59:57.6 1 Lap 16.21 06:25.2 16.82
25 16 Travis Mullen 9 00:19.3 1 Lap 16.11 05:52.6 18.38
26 29 James Walter 9 00:23.4 1 Lap 16.1 06:26.3 16.77
27 17 Isaiah Newkirk 9 01:58.2 1 Lap 15.69 06:36.6 16.34
28 32 Gregg Shanefelt 9 02:41.1 1 Lap 15.51 06:27.2 16.74
DNF 8 Christopher Chartier 5 33:16.1 DNF 16.23 06:16.3 17.22
DNF 4 Mike Kennedy 4 28:53.7 DNF 14.95 06:04.2 17.79
DNF 26 Carlos Matias Mendigochea 2 13:26.2 DNF 16.08 06:30.4 16.6
DNS 10 David Hauber 16.2 DNS
DNS 114 Joe Bellante DNS
DNS 112 Corey Green DNS

Elite Women:

Rank in Class No. Name Class Laps Total Tm Diff Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd
1 326 Annajean Dallaire Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 7 47:44.1 05:33.2 15.84 06:37.2 16.31
2 327 Nicole Borem Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 7 49:23.4 07:12.6 15.31 06:45.7 15.97
3 329 Amanda Virostko Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 6 42:47.9 1 Lap 15.14 06:44.9 16.01
4 328 Gerry Schulze Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 6 43:47.8 1 Lap 14.8 06:57.8 15.51
5 332 Rebecca Finley Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 6 45:25.2 1 Lap 14.27 07:11.9 15
6 330 Bridget Sempsrott Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 6 46:41.5 1 Lap 13.88 07:23.4 14.62
7 331 Malissa Petrov Cat 1/2/3 Elite Women / U23 6 48:20.6 1 Lap 13.4 07:04.0 15.28