Two-time US women’s elite cyclo-cross champion Clara Honsinger will make her ‘cross debut for 2022-2023 for a doubleheader in Waterloo, Wisconsin, which includes the opening World Cup race of the year on October 9. She then plans to take in a pair of races in Fayetteville, Arkansas the next week before departing for Europe.
After an intense six months of road racing on the WorldTour level for the first time, the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB rider said she’s more than ready to reboot for the next four months and focus on her cyclo-cross campaign. That starts with racing, not resting, for both C1 days prior to the World Cups, the C1 Trek Cup in Wisconsin on October 7 and C1 OZ Cross race in Fayetteville on October 14, rather than resting.
“I may be starting the season a bit late, but I plan to race all the way through January,” Honsinger told Cyclingnews. “These races [Trek Cup and OZ Cross] are important to me because I haven’t competed in a UCI CX race since Worlds last year. While I have been doing lots of group CX practice and local races in Oregon, I want to use these races as preparation for the first World Cups.
“The ‘home’ World Cups are really important because it’s our rare opportunity as North Americans to race in front of our race community and fans. I realise that it’s a long season, but I would like to put on a good show at these US races.”
Honsinger’s 2021-2022 ‘cross season covered 25 days of racing, with a second elite US title and an 11th place at Worlds in Fayetteville. She then moved directly to the road with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB and took on 25 more days of racing, where she earned top 30s at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes and Paris-Roubaix Femmes and finished fourth in GC at UCI 2.2 Joe Martin Stage Race.
“I had a long road season beginning last March and just finishing up in late August. While I love to race on home soil and support the growing USCX series, I really needed the rest and time to train at home in Portland.”
Honsinger’s delayed ‘cross start this year caused her to miss three of four race weekends with US Cyclocross Series (USCX), the third stop taking place October 1-2 in Baltimore at Charm City Cross. Last year, Honsinger competed in four of the USCX races, winning the C1 contest at Charm City and adding a trio of second-place finishes.
She’ll be followed from the road to off-road by EF Education teammate Zoe Backstedt, who signed as a trainee with the US-based Women’s WorldTour team for…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…