Road to Nationals Starts At Chicago Cyclocross Cup New Year’s Resolution

Posted on 30. Dec, 2011 by lyne in race

The inaugural Chicago Cyclocross Cup New Year’s Resolution are the last two UCI races to provide one more chance to fine tune the form and get more UCI points  before the USA Cyclocross Nationals Championships next weekend.  The Elite men’s race looks to be a showdown between  Jeremy Powers (Rapha Focus) and Ryan Trebon (LTS/Felt). Trebon has been recovering from a knee injury sustained on November 13 at USGP in Louisville. In the meantime, Powers has been racing, a lot, and winning, a lot, including the overall USGP title. Is Trebon close to his top form again? Can Powers sustain his fitness and mental sharpness over all these months of racing and traveling?

Follow @podium_live for all the action from the Elite races – hashtag is #cccnry

Ryan Trebon (LTS/Felt) and Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) at Cincy3

We’ll find out this weekend at the New Year’s Resolution races held at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, Illinois. The course, mostly grass, uses many sections of the  golf course including fairway, rough, cart paths, gravel paths, and sand traps. By all accounts, it’s a power course. Conditions could come into play, with rain falling most of Friday forcing the organizers to modify the course late on Friday afternoon. Sun is expected on Saturday with temperatures relatively warm in the mid 40s.

CCC’s UCI New Year’s Resolution Tentative Course Map - courtesy of Chicago Cross Cup

Powers will be joined this weekend teammate Chris Jones, who is looking for that win after picking up a podiums earlier this season. The New Year’s Resolution start list also includes Barry Wicks (Kona), a decorated cyclocross veteran currently residing in Illinois who owns numerous top-ten finishes at the cyclocross and mountain bike National Championships, Tristan Schouten (cyclocrossracing.com) and Justin Lindine (BikeReg.com/Joe’s Garage) who is fresh off a second-place showing at the New England Regional Cyclocross Championship on Dec. 18. Also interesting to see Jeff Bahnson (Van Dessel) on the start list. After winning the Jr 17/18 title in 2010, Bahnson has been fairly quiet in his first year as a U23 rider.

For some of the Elite Women lining up, it’s a chance to finally get a UCI win and the points needed for the call up at Nationals. The list to watch include Sue Butler (River City Bicycles), Andrea Smith (Ladies First Racing), Sally Annis (crossresults p/b JRAcycles) and Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom). Or will Amanda Carey (Kenda/Felt) pull out that UCI podium after coming close multiple times?

List of pre-registered riders available on bikereg.com

Elite Women start at 12:30pm CT and Elite Men at 1:30pm CT on both Saturday and Sunday.

Tags: cccnyr, chicago cyclocross cup new year resolution, cross, cyclocross