Under-23 World Champion Lars van der Haar and Katerina Nash win CrossVegas 2011 - Cycling News
Rabobank cycling team’s Lars Van der Haar won the extremely close three way sprint in CrossVegas 2011 on Thursday, September 15. The Under-23 World Cyclocross Champion easily beat Christian Heule (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld) and Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea)
in the final kilometres.
In the beginning of the race, the group of 18 cyclists remained clear while Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) was the first cyclists to attack and was joined by ten cyclists including, Van der Haar, Bart Aernouts, Todd Wells (Specialized), Heule, Tim Johnson and
Jamey Driscoll.
All of them worked well together and tried to gain a lead as Heule explained, “The strong riders keep going even if some attacks are happening and then you have the not-so-strong riders who lose a little gap and then they come back when the race becomes
tactical at the front again.”
With a few kilometers to go, Driscoll increased his pace and was able to open a ten seconds gap as Wellens launched an attack that after finishing the stage he admitted that he had made his move to soon.
In the final kilometers, Peeters showed a good effort and launched a counter-attack but failed and Van der Haar crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists with a time of 59 minutes and 4 seconds.
In the Women’s category, Katarina Nash of Luna Pro Team retained her second consecutive CrossVegas victory, in Las Vegas. Nash showed her tremendous abilities and covered the distance of the race in 37 minutes and 42 seconds.
Amy Dombroski of Crankbrothers Race Club was in second place with a difference of 12 seconds while Kelli Emmett of Giant Bicycles finished third with 13 seconds down to Nash. Her team-mate Georgia Gould lit up the first lap but she was unable to hold her
pace after an ill-timed mistake.
After finishing the stage, Dombroski said, “Katerina bridged and I kind of sat there hoping that other people would do the work. I realized that the two blueberries were riding away so I tried to bridge it myself and then everyone started working together.”
Meredith Miller (California Giant-Specialized), Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) and Lea Davison (Specialized Racing) were in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.
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