The USA Biking Cyclocross Nationwide Championships return to Louisville, Kentucky for a 3rd time this week, from December 12-15 with a harder course, reside webcast and elite fields as unpredictable because the climate.
Greater than 1,400 rivals are anticipated to descend on Joe Creason Park, with the distinguished UCI classes for ladies and men – junior 17-18, under-23 and elites – headlining the schedule on Saturday. All six races that day will likely be broadcast reside by FloBikes.
“Cyclocross is sort of a distinct segment sport, however there are lots of people throughout the nation who love the game and wish to watch. So the flexibility to broadcast reside from Louisville is terrific for us, terrific for the game. It is a terrific wholesome, way of life sport,” Greg Fante, CEO and president of the Louisville Sports activities Fee, advised Cyclingnews.
“We’re completely satisfied USAC [USA Cycling] have been capable of strike a cope with FloBikes and have the ability to present the content material on Saturday. That could be a step up from earlier years, a greater manufacturing and pleasurable expertise. Louisville has a protracted, sturdy historical past in biking. We’re lucky to have the partnership with USAC, Medalist Sports activities, FloBikes.”
A reside broadcast on FloBikes is out there for subscribers, with evaluation and commentary made by Brad Sohner and former U23 US champion Ellen Noble, who got here out of retirement this yr with JAM Fund/NCC and positioned sixth within the girls’s Singlespeed occasion on Thursday. The junior males lead off the live-streaming broadcast of six races at 8:40 a.m. EDT Saturday. Awards for elite ladies and men shut the printed at roughly 17:30 native time. FloBikes subscriptions vary from $29.99 a month or $150 a yr.
On Friday at 14:00 native time, a free preview present will likely be offered on the USA Biking YouTube channel. The pre-show, On Course with USA Biking: Offered by goodr, will function course previews, athlete interviews and occasion highlights.
Louisville is a sports-centric metropolis identified for fast-paced, internationally-acclaimed competitions – from the Thoroughbreds who compete at Churchill Downs within the Kentucky Derby to the runners and climbers who now traverse by Joe Creason Park for cyclocross glory.
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Louisville made sports activities historical past in February 2013 when the ‘Gateway to the South’ turned the gateway for cyclocross in North America, serving as the primary host metropolis outdoors Europe for the UCI Cyclocross World Championships. The occasion was staged at Eva Bandman Park on the banks of the Ohio River, which gained fame when huge rain and rising water led to a compression of two days of occasions onto one Saturday, thus avoiding the cancellation of races.
The identical park hosted the Singlespeed World Championships the following yr, and in 2017 a transfer to Joe Creason Park, a 61-acre park away from the river and close to the Louisville Zoo, was made to accommodate the Pan-American Cyclocross Championships. That is now the third time the US nationals have been held on the identical venue.
“The course is at all times climate dependent. In 2018 we felt we had a terrific course, however had six inches of rain over the occasion, so it was very laborious, very muddy, very lengthy and numerous working needed to occur,” Fante mentioned concerning the first US Nationals held on the park.
“We did shorten the course just a little bit final yr, after which we didn’t have any rain. It was very dry and so the lap instances have been just a little too quick. We have toughened it up with extra size this yr. If it will get muddy, we are able to shorten it just a little. The riders are going to should take what Mom Nature provides them and what the course provides them and plan accordingly.”
The beginning/end space will stay alongside Sheridan Avenue, a flat stretch on the west finish of the park, and the route will likely be accomplished in a counterclockwise course. An prolonged descent on the base of a giant naturalised meadow past the ‘mansion’, a Metro Parks administrative constructing, will carry again climbing sections utilized in 2018. There may be solely 70 ft of elevation acquire on every lap, however it’s targeting the open discipline part.
“I used to be an even bigger fan of the outdated Pan Am course than the Nationals course final yr. From what I’ve heard, there may be going to be considerably extra climbing this yr. The course goes to a a lot decrease level on the hill earlier than climbing again up, so it is going to be just a little higher for me this yr,” defending elite males’s champion Eric Brunner (Aggressive Edge Racing) famous.
“One factor I used to be stunned about final yr was that gaps did not actually get that huge. I feel if it is dry, it could possibly be extra of a gaggle race as a result of the course wasn’t fairly so selective. However then once more, with extra elevation, that might assist to interrupt it up.”
There may be solely a slight forecast of rain on Saturday, which might make the off-camber sections tough, make the laps instances slower and disperse the sphere. No matter Mom Nature brings, it’s a course that calls for technical abilities with numerous energy sections to make strikes.
“I might completely love for it to rain for our race! Fingers crossed,” mentioned Katie Clouse (Steve Tilford Basis Racing), who was second final yr within the elite girls’s race.
Saturday contenders
5-time elite girls’s champion Clara Honsinger has retired, so the highest step is there for the taking. Seven-time junior and U23 cyclocross champion Clouse will compete alongside her Steve Tilford Basis teammate Raylyn Nuss, each seeking to enhance from second and third, respectively, from final yr.
What makes the elite girls’s race very fascinating is that the reigning U23 nationwide ‘cross champion Lizzy Gunsalus (CCB p/b Levine Regulation Group) and final yr’s junior girls’s champion Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear CX Nationwide Staff) will transfer into that class. And two-time US gravel and two-time Pan-American street race champion Lauren Stephens will give ‘cross a attempt.
The elite males’s race will function defending champion and four-time Pan-Am winner Brunner towards the highest 4 riders from the 2024 USA Biking Cyclocross Nationwide Sequence – Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD Trek Bikes), Scott Funston (Cervèlo/Orange Residing), Kerry Werner, Jr., (Groove Off Street Racing) and Curtis White (Steve Tilford Basis).
Wildcards within the elite males’s combine will likely be 2019 US elite males’s champion Gage Hecht, who has centered on street biking since 2021, and former US criterium champion Ty Magner, who has 4 ‘cross races below his belt this yr with a pair of high 10s at Nash Sprint in Georgia.
Within the different girls’s division, Lidia Cusack (CXD Trek Bikes) is the favorite to defend her girls’s junior 17-18 title. The 17-year-old comes into Louisville together with her first World Cup victory, profitable the junior race in Dublin. Trying to take the win will likely be Alyssa White (FinKraft Junior Biking), who was second ultimately yr’s nationals.
There is a log jam of high riders within the girls’s U23 class, led by Ella Brenneman (CXD Trek Bikes), Cassidy Hickey (CCB Racing) and Lauren Zoerner (Aggressive Edge Racing) as all three completed within the high 5 final yr. Zoerner is available in because the U23 Pan-American champion.
The lads’s junior 17-18 discipline has greater than 50 riders searching one jersey, with the highest contenders being Benjamin Bravman (Bear Nationwide Staff), Jack Bernhard (FinKraft Junior Biking), Dylan Haynes (Boulder Junior Biking), Porter Melvin (Staff Stampede), and Aidan Vollmuth (FinKraft Junior Racing).
Defending U23 males’s winner Jack Spranger (Bear CX) returns, together with final yr’s silver medallist Dylan Zakrajsek (Aggressive Edge Racing). They will see competitors from former high juniors Henry Coote (Aggressive Edge Racing) and Miles Mattern (CXD Trek Bikes).