Sunday's round four of the USGP of Cyclocross was everything it was hyped up to be. The sun came out in full force and dried up yesterday's soggy track into a thrilling cyclocross speedway. Elite women left the line at 1:45 local time, and at 1:46 Katerina Nash left the rest of the field on her way to another dominating victory in Kentucky. Three groups followed in her wake. Nash's teammates Georgia Gould and Alison Dunlap joined up in second and third. Sue Butler and Alison Sydor chased together in fourth and fifth, while Vermont's Amy Dombroski led a large group of sixth through eleventh. While the rest of the top ten seemed to stand still, Dombroski leapfrogged her way from group to group, eventually joining Dunlap and Gould in the fight for the podium. With a lap to go, Dombroski overcame the two on one of Luna and capped off her best ever weekend of cyclocross with a second place finish ahead os Alison Dunlap in third, and Gould in fourth. Syder finished fifth and Butler sixth.
The men got underway in what most predicted would be a long, tactical race fought out in large groups of riders on day two's faster track. This was looking like the case, until Kona's Ryan Trebon took a hard face plant on lap number two and opened the door for the Cannondale/ Cyclocross World team to play it's team tactics. Tim Johnson was first to throw down and quickly had a 15 second gap on lap three. Soon after, Powers shot across the gap to join him at the front. Jesse Anthony and Barry Wicks tried valiantly to close the gap, but could only manage to delay the inevitable. When it was clear that nobody had the legs to chase, the third and final teammate made his move. Jamey Driscoll left the pack in pursuit of the leaders. He joined up with a struggling Jeremy Powers while Johnson showed his form alone at the front. The chesers splinterd into solo persuits for the remaining half of the race, led by Geoff Kabush in fourth, Chris Jones in 5th, Barry Wicks 6th, Nick Weighall 7th, and Jesse Anthony 8th. Johnson easaly held on to win while Driscoll took a strong second place to catapult him into the series leaders jersey. Trebon was an eventual DNF afetr suffering a second crash in his fight to rejoin the race.
Nash and Driscoll will next get a chance to defend their lead when the series resumes in New Jersey November 14th and 15th.
For photos, post race interviews, and race footage, see the complete coverage page here.
