Garrett Beshore (Boulder Junior Cycling) and Lidia Cusack (CXD Trek Bikes) won the junior 17-18 titles in Louisville, Kentucky to open a full day of racing at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships on Saturday morning.
A total of 63 junior men lined up first for five laps on a slippery course at Joe Creason Park on the third day of racing, while 31 junior women followed over four laps. No rain was in the forecast on a cloudy day with a few glimpses of sunshine, but moisture locked in the ground from freezing overnight temperatures created a thin, slippery surface once the junior men burst from the hole shot.
Benjamin Bravman (Bear National Team) replicated his Pan-American finish from a month ago in Missoula, Montana with the men's silver medal, riding just three seconds behind Beshore in a tight contest. Dylan Haynes (Boulder Junior Cycling) secured the bronze.
In the women's junior 17-18 contest, Cusack soloed to victory with a swift domination of the course on the opening lap. Her CXD Trek Bikes teammates Alyssa Sarkisov, the reigning Pan-Am champion, and Ada Watson completed a sweep of the podium, the duo going second and third, respectively.
Junior Men
Wearing the white and multi-coloured markings as the men's junior Pan-American Cyclocross champion, Beshore pushed the pace straight away. In the early tight corners, a traffic jam caused several crashes as the field settled in.
Aidan Vollmuth (FinKraft Junior Cycling) took over at the front before the initial pass of the stairs at 'mansion hill' in the technical section of the course, followed closely by Braveman, Haynes and Ethan Brown (Midwest Devo). Vollmuth lost his position when he crashed over the barriers, and with a mechanical issue he had to run part of the course and try to re-engage his chain. Bravman then surged to the lead.
Each lap was marked with chaos as many slip-outs left a front group of five setting the pace - Bravman, Beshore, Haynes, Brown and Desmond Mohr (Boulder Junior Cycling).
After the race, Beshore said the corners were very slippery, as the dirt and grass from freezing temperatures overnight began to melt with the high speeds and traffic on each lap. The multiple lead changes finally saw the the Boulder Cycling duo of Beshore and Haynes at the front, with Beshore charging away on mansion hill.
"It's really slick out there. I had a few crashes because I was pushing it too hard," Beshore told FloBikes announcers Brad Sohner and Ellen Noble after his win.
"My teammate Dylan Haynes got a gap off the front and I bridged him and looked back at the start-finish straight, and I realised we had a little bit of a gap. I told him we should just 'hem it'. From there I got a little bit of a gap and just held it from there."
Bravman never let the duo out of his sight and he would surge past Haynes for the silver on the final technical section. Vollmuth recovered for seventh place.
Junior Women
Cusack, a winner at the Dublin World Cup two weeks ago, said the Louisville course was similar with a "good balance of technical and power sections." She demonstrated her skills by grabbing a 40-second advantage on the rest of the field after the opening lap.
"I'm on such a high. I'm feeling so great for the season," Cusack, who was 11th in the same race last year, told FloBikes at the finish. "I think we (CXD Trek) went one, two, three, four, so it cannot be any better. I am so proud of everyone on the team."
At the halfway point of the race, Cusack was free and clear. Her CXD Trek Bikes teammates trailed in second and third, with Rachel Lev-Tov (Boulder Junior Cycling) fighting against CXD's Lyllie Sonnemann for fourth place. With half a lap to go to the finish, Lev-Tov slipped out of a corner and lost her position, allowing Sonnemann to move away.
"It was a pretty risky season; I waited to race until Dublin, pretty much, so I was watching everyone else race and get their points, my ranking in the world going down, down, down. I did well at Pan-Ams. I just trusted the process, showed up at Dublin, got a third-row call up. Being able to build up properly, it's obviously paying off."
She said she was 'shocked' with her victory in Dublin, especially since she didn't have a large build-up to the World Cup event.
"I was definitely shocked. I was going into the race with a goal of a top-10. I was able to trust the legs and come away with first place."
Last year's junior winner, Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear CX National Team), elected not to defend her title and moved to the elite women's race, to be contested Saturday afternoon.
