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This past weekend the US cyclocross season came to a close with the National Championships in Kansas City, KS. It was a highly anticipated event, with defending champion Katie Compton fresh off a win at the last UCI World Cup in Holland, and LUNA's Georgia Gould, winner of three USGP races and the North American Cyclocross Trophy going head to head for the first time in months. After 37 minutes of racing, Katie Compton was the new National Champion, with Georgia 45 seconds behind in 2nd, and Rachel Lloyd another 10 seconds back. Georgia had a tremendous cross season, winning three of the US Gran Prix races along with teammate Katerina Nash. She also won the newly formed North American Cyclocross Trophy Series, placing 1st in four of the eight events. Standing in her way of a cyclocross national title was Katie Compton. Katie, for those of you that don't know, has been racing since she was in middle school, winning her first national title on the track when she was 13. Since then she has won multiple national and world championships on the road, track, mountain bike, and even a gold medal at the Athens Paralympics in tandem cycling. Needless to say, her technical skills and tactics are the best in the world. In cyclocross, the race is obviously a test of strength. But it is also about mistakes, and who makes the least of them. Georgia and Katie are both unbelievably strong riders, but it was Katie who had the perfect race on Sunday, allowing her to slowly pull away from Georgia for the win.   "My cyclocross fitness and skills are the best they've been this year, and I knew that it was possible for me to win Nationals," said Georgia. "I went into the race feeling good and hoping for the best, but Katie was riding very strong, and I wasn't able to hang with her. I raced hard the whole time, but it was only good enough for second place. Not too shabby, but not what I was hoping for either. Now I am looking forward to two weeks of racing in Europe. I will be racing in the next two UCI World Cup races and a couple of other second tier races as well. Then I will come home for a few weeks before heading back over to race in my first cyclocross World Championships the end of January. "   Most riders would be thrilled with second place at Nationals. I know Georgia wants better and won't be satisfied until she takes home another stars and stripes jersey. A rider at her level always wants to win. I know that the experience she'll gain by racing over in Europe is going to help her next year and I wouldn't be surprised to see the blue and yellow of LUNA on the top step at Nationals in 2009!
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Michael Hopkins from the U.S. Cycling Report dropped by our booth at Interbike this year. After browsing our new products, he took a genuine interest in our new lighting system. So to satisfy his curiosity, we sent him a NanoLux light for him to test and review.
He spent a month testing the light and was very happy with the light for commuting. Check out his review below!
http://uscyclingreport.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1010&Itemid=1
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Here's Danelle's report on her experience at XTERRA Trail Run World Championship:
While my triathlon season officially ended after the October 26th World Championships in Maui, I decided to keep my running legs going a few more weeks in preparation for the inaugural Xterra Trail Run World Championship which took place on December 7th in the beautiful Kualoa Ranch on the east side of Oahu (Site of Jurassic Park movie, I was sure I would run into a dinosaur around any corner!). Check this link for some beautiful photos of the venue: www.xterraphotos.com/08trworld
Although I was back in Hawaii to race, it felt like the first real vacation I've had in awhile - just focusing on run training takes a little less time without all that biking and swimming! My parents, Zoe, and I spent the week in Turtle Bay, up on the North Shore. When not running along the lush golf course next to the turquoise sea crashing onto the white sandy shore, we spent a good amount of time watching the World Cup surf contest at Sunset beach and the daredevil surfers at Pipeline - it was rippin! Zoe also enjoyed lots of playtime in the sand and surf! She went from whimpering in fright of the ocean to running straight in by the end of the week!
While I was feeling pretty acclimatized to the heat, race day was a nice "cool" 75 degrees or so with even a few rain showers. Roughly 450 runners set off at 9:00am for the 21km championship race. I settled into my pace and made my way up to the first woman, Cynthia Anderson. I ran with her for awhile and then pulled away at the end of the first 5km loop. With no shortage of hills on this course we went out on to a bigger 11km loop which was a constant up and down. Cynthia kept me in sight and we entered the slippery steep uphill which turned into a greasy steep downhill (good thing for the rope on the sides at times!). Once back down the valley on the double track I tried to take it up a gear and get ahead again. Cynthia quickly fought back for the lead and was dangling out in front of me as we headed back through the start-finish area for one more 5km loop. Again I made a surge towards bridging the gap but the carrot in front of me couldn't be caught. She ran tough and finished 32 seconds in front of me. I crossed the line in 1h40 min, and was proud of the effort for such a hilly off-road course - also lucky 13th overall. Now it is one more day in the sun before heading back to Calgary (where 15cm of snow fell today - that should get me in the Christmas spirit) for a few weeks of real down time from training. Then it will be regrouping and getting ready for the 2009 season of XTERRA racing again with the LUNA Pro Team. . |
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Congrats to the Hincapie Cycling team!!
They took 2 wins tonight at the Harrisburg Mountain Bike Night Races! Adam Little won the Super Sport division for the second time in a row, and Lori/Lisa took 1st and 2nd together. The team also took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Men's Expert/Pro Division.
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Georgia Gould and Katerina Nash dominated the final weekend of racing in the US Grand Prix Cyclocross Series, going 1-2 both days and in the overall. The 5th and 6th rounds of the USGP were in Portland, OR, with Saturday boasting warm sunny weather, and Sunday showing the aftermath of torrential rains. The LUNA girls have gone 1-2 in every event, with Georgia winning three events and Katerina winning three events. Her victory in the final event gave Katerina the edge in the overall standings. With the series over, Georgia is now focusing on the US National Championships this coming weekend in Kansas City and the World Championships in Holland the end of January. Katerina is officially on vacation and will take some time off and then focus on the 2009 mountain bike season.     "I went into the last weekend of racing with a positive attitude and some great training rides at high elevation on my full suspension bike," said Katerina. "Tahoe doesn't have snow yet and that has been great for mountain bike riding and long training rides. Racing in Portland is always fun with good crowds and challenging courses. I had two awesome races and won by a very small margin over Georgia. It was a battle all season between me and Georgia, with one of us winning every single race for LUNA. I'm taking a road trip back from Portland and checking out the coast, some red woods and especially some great road rides. The 2008 season is done for me and I'm very happy to come back in '09 with my LUNA teammates. Thanks Clif Bar and all our team sponsors!"     Angela Mysliwiec, winner of the 2008 Breast Cancer Fund Auction and honorary LUNA team member also raced with the pro women. While not riding for the win, Angela has come a long ways from the Sport category races at the Sea Otter Classic in April. Great job Angela!!
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