Hurricane Ida makes for a muddy Mercer Cup

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Words and Photos by Colin Meagher

The U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross edged closer to conclusion last weekend, with the rain- and mud-filled action of the Mercer Cup in Mercer County, New Jersey. Katerina Nash dominated both Saturday and Sunday’s elite races, while Ryan Trebon and Tim Johnson split the weekend’s events.

It was a rock ‘n’ roll weekend in Mercer County Park for everyone attending the fifth and sixth races of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross race series. The days leading up to the races saw the end of Hurricane Ida wreak havoc with the venue; high winds hampered course set-up, and constant rain thoroughly saturated the grounds. This, combined with a full slate of races leading up to the elites promised to make for a pretty sloppy dance floor for the big guns of US ‘cross racing.

Day one saw a completely trashed course for the elites. The Mercer Cup is a pretty flat affair; the only elevation gain is a hump of turf that snakes its way about the venue, lending the course a bit of off-camber punch. Consequently, the course favors racers able to gas it, coast into a hairpin turn, and then gas it again. In the men’s division, that’s usually Trebon’s game; for the women, that’s what Nash considers to be meat and potatoes. But add in the power-sapping mud, and then Johnson gets the nod for the men. For the women, it’s still Nash—she excels in pretty much all conditions.

Day one hole-shot honors for the women’s race go to Alison Sydor of Rocky Mountain/Maxxis, but halfway through lap one, Nash took the lead and it was pretty much game over after that. Without Katie Compton in the mix, a healthy and motivated Nash is unbeatable. By the end of lap two, she had a nearly insurmountable lead—and one she was unwilling to relinquish, leading to a battle for second place between teammate Georgia Gould and Meredith Millar, with Gould’s superior handling skills deciding that contest. Fourth went to Alison Dunlap, nearly making for a Luna sweep of the podium.

The men’s race saw Canadian National CX racer Geoff Kabush take command of the race by the end of lap one, only to get caught and passed in the third lap by Trebon, who then went full gas for the remainder of the race to take the win in conditions that traditionally favor Cannondale’s Johnson. Kabush was also caught by Johnson and then had a rear derailleur get sucked into his wheel, courtesy of the gobs of mud clogging his cassette. That mechanical mishap eventually relegated the Canadian champ to eleventh place on the day. Meanwhile, Jamey Driscoll, Johnson’s teammate, put his stamp on the race with aggressive and timely attacks that saw him move up from twenty-seventh position to third place by the end of the day.

Racers arose to sunny skies for round two of the Mercer Cup, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida had cleared out. This also meant that the course—slightly tweaked to offer racers a bit of a new look—was considerably drier and much faster.

The women’s field was a virtual repeat of the previous day’s affair. Again, Sydor got the hole shot, and again, Nash seized command of the race and rode away from the field. However, Amy Dombroski of Clement-Primus Mootry grabbed her wheel during the decisive break and hung on for most of the rest of the race. And while she never challenged for the lead, she pushed Nash a fair bit. Gould, meanwhile, was again battling with Millar for the final podium spot, but midway through the third lap, Millar had edged away from Gould.

“I had decent legs,” chuckled Gould after the race, “but it was more of a little four cylinder engine than a V6 today. Another podium would have been great, but I’m glad to be able to get some good, fun racing in to be honest.”

For the men it was Johnson coming out on top on a heavily rutted, but mostly dry track—conditions that typically favor Kona’s Trebon. A great start was pretty much the deciding factor in his win.

“I was able to get to the front quickly and set a tempo that forced the rest to chase hard, which lends itself to mistakes; a dab here, a blown corner there,” said Johnson. “I was able to hold that for four laps, then gas it in the straights to get well and truly clear. But you can only do that when you get a great start.”

A poor start saw Trebon forced to chase the Cannondale rider, but Johnson seemed to have recovered better from the previous day’s slugfest.

“I just burned way too many matches trying to catch back up,” lamented Trebon after the race, “and Tim was just too far off the front for me to reel in by the time I got through traffic.”

The big show of the race, though, was Specialized’s Todd Wells. Unable to race since CrossVegas nearly six weeks ago, Wells showed up in New Jersey with almost no UCI points to his name, but managed to battle his way up to third.

With the Mercer Cup in the bag, all eyes turn to the Stanley Cup on December 5-6 in Portland, Oregon.