Katie Compton wins Exergy USGP of Cyclocross #5, Katerina Nash wins overall Derby City Cup 2011- Cycling News
Rabobank-Giant-Off-Road Team’s Katie Compton exhibited her strong ability in the women’s field on the first of two days at the Exergy Prix of Cyclocross Derby City Cup 2011 in Louisville.
The 32-year-old American bicycle racer beat Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Team) in the last kilometres and took a total of 45 minutes and 11 seconds to cover the distance of the race.
Previously, the American took the USA Cycling MTB Short-track National Championship and five races of UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup series in 2010.
The US Under23 champion, Kaitlin Antonneau of Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com also displayed a good effort and grabbed the third place.
Caroline Mani (CC Etupes), who had been battling with Nash in all the laps of the race, suffered a crash in the last lap and ultimately landed in the fourth place, 1 minute and 5 seconds down to Compton.
Nicole Duke (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), along with Mani, rode at a rocket’s speed from the start-line to gain a lead. Mani gained momentum later during the first lap.
In the first two laps, Mani managed to join the four leading cyclists, Compton, Laura Van Gilder (C3 p/b Mellow Mushroom), Duke and Nash.
All of them were rode brilliantly but the seven-times US champion, Katie Compton, picked up her pace and got away from the leading group in the second lap.
Compton told the media, "I wanted to kind of wait a little but I had good legs and felt pretty good. I noticed after the end of the first lap that there was a little gap between riders. I think Katerina [Nash] was sitting on third or fourth wheel, and I
had a little gap so I figured I'd accelerate and make her chase”.
Nash tried her luck to outclass Compton but she failed to attain the required pace. Nonetheless, she was happy with her performance and claimed that she was running a little fever that may have hampered her performance.
After three laps, Antonneau followed Nash and Mani by 13 seconds. There were considerable prospects for Nash and Mani to elongate the gap between them and Antonneau, especially when she failed to close in any further in the final circuit.
Unfortunately, Mani crashed and Nash gained a few more seconds over Antonneau.
After finishing the stage, Antonneau said, "I made a few mistakes on the first lap that separated me from the lead group. I kept chasing, except I kept making mistakes, I think because it was so fast and I was on the whole time. I just kept picking people
off, pushing and chasing as hard as I could".
In the technical section, Compton controlled the whole situation because she did not make any mistakes and crossed the finish-line ahead of the other cyclists.
After five rounds, Nash took the USGP series, standing with 230 points ahead of the stage winner, Katie Compton with 140 points. Mani was in the third place with 138 points ahead of Georgia Gould (Luna Pro).
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