Kona's Ryan Trebon won the second annual CrossVegas, with US champion Katie Compton (Spike Racing) winning the women's elite event. Lance Armstrong made good on his promise to race in Las Vegas after flying from his press conference in New York City earlier in the day Wednesday.
CrossVegas attracted huge crowds to a soccer complex west of the Las Vegas strip, easily surpassing last year's numbers. And the thousands were not disappointed in their trek into the real Las Vegas, with fast racing from an intense field of men and women. In the men's race, it was Trebon going solo with 2.5 laps to go, notching his first win of the season, following two seconds last weekend, and repeating as winner of the event. In the women's race Compton upgraded her second place from last year thanks to strong riding and a little bit of lady luck.
"Some people are just going to try to be opportunistic and so I wanted to make the race," Trebon told Cyclingnews about his decision to attack alone. "I saw every time we went hard it was just me, Tim [Johnson] and [Jonathan] Page with nobody else wanting to work, so I had to try something."
On the previous lap, Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) launched his own attack, lasting an entire lap – however, it seemed to be too early and the leading group of 12 chased him back. "It's what you have to do, you have to try your move," said Trebon about Kabush. "Nobody was doing anything out there. I think Page and Johnson did some work, then Geoff went and people were willing to sit-up. I was more frustrated, and then getting more power because of all the negative racing!"
"When Kabush went it was great because it gave us a rabbit to speed up to," said US champion Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale). "He was giving it all he could to nail a spot on the podium because I don't think he though he had the legs at the end if it was going to be a sprint. But it definitely made the race hard and it definitely wasn't going to be twelve guys coming to the line."
"I had a good lap of recovery [then] so I just punched it on the bumpy section," said Trebon about Kabush's lap off the front. "I figured as long as I could keep it hard I could go faster for like ten minutes – try to bring a couple of people with me and then set-up for the sprint."
For a complete report with results and photos, visit Cyclingnews.com.