Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) won the Trek CX Cup C1 event held on Friday in Wisconsin. The US Champion finished 22 seconds ahead of runner-up Helene Clauzel (AS Bike Racing) and 23 seconds ahead of third-placed Manon Bakker (Crelan-Fristads).
“It was a race to test the waters. Honestly I felt pretty good. I was holding my own pace and I thought everyone was being pretty patient. Nobody was throwing any big attacks. Those first two laps we really played that game of trying to hold second and third wheel,” Honsinger said.
“I think it was the third lap, Helene made a move into a corner and really tried but I held the line and kind of shut her out and it caused a little bit of a hold up behind me. So when I came out of the corner and looked back, I had a little bit of a gap, just a few seconds.
“Eventually the gap held at four or five seconds for a very long time and I thought they’d catch me. Then it [the gap] was 30 seconds and I held it to the finish.”
The race took place on property adjacent to Trek Bikes’ headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Off the tarmac, there the field entered the grass park space where they were challenged to short, steep run-ups, twisting tracks through the woods, off-camber sections. The mild and dry weather made for fast racing.
Hélène Clauzel (AS Bike Racing) led the elite women’s field from the holeshot to the uphill grassy corner to begin the Trek CX Cup C1 contest on Friday in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Austin Killips (Nice Bikes) rode in second and Sidney McGill (OneBike Racing) in third.
On the back side of the course with a first pass of the barriers, Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) led a group of five – Manon Bakker (Crelan-Fristads), Maddie Munro (Trek Factory Racing CX), Clauzel and Killops, with a group of four chasing behind.
On the second lap Honsinger took the lead by just a few seconds, while Caroline Mani (Alpha Groove Silverthorne) caught on the back of the other quartet. The wind began to whip around on the open areas of the course, causing a challenge.
At the start of the third lap, Lauren Zoerner, who had been riding in the top 10, had a mechanical and had to run to the pits, which ended her day near the front, but she would fight on to finish 20th.
Honsinger held her lead for the next few laps, riding at a consistent pace. On the fourth and fifth laps a solid group of six were chasing, Raylyn Nuss (Steve Tilford Foundation) making the catch to Bakker, Munro, Clauzel, Killops and…
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