Georgia Gould kills it in the cold!

November 18, 2007

Rain, 30-degree temps, and a course greased with mud is racing like a "real cross race". Sunday's fourth round of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross near Trenton, New Jersey foot the bill.

Gould wins another one, but not without some real suffering, a true agony of victory!

From what we know, her win never looked as painful as it did on Georgia immediately following the women's race. Cold painful icy hands that numbed the pain during the race gave way to agony as her fingers began to thaw, and "battle" was the word exchanged between Gould and runner-up Lyne Bessette.

"From the start there was a group of five or six of us and the lead was always kind of changing, gaps were opening and then closing up," said Gould. "It's just hard when someone else is riding in front of you - when they mess up, you mess up. I had a few mistakes and a couple crashes."

The Canadians - Wendy Simms, Alison Sydor and Bessette - led the way through the first two laps until Bessette escaped, Gould with her. Simms and Sydor steadied a pace just high enough to hold off a chase group of Kerry Barnholt, Maureen Bruno Roy and Georgia's teamate Katerina Nash , all of whom displayed finely tuned technical skills in the mucky conditions.

Gould called upon her own technical skills to get around slippery corners while Bessette dismounted and ran. Gould slid out a few times but managed to catch back on each time until Bessette went down late in the race and the Luna rider seized the opportunity to surge ahead with only minutes to go. A perfect balanced can make a difference.

Gould extended a narrow lead over Bessette by 24 seconds and, sprinting all the way to the end, finished in spectacular style to level the playing field with Katie Compton , who won the first two rounds of the USGP.

I think she is starting to learn how to sprint. Everyone best look out if she learns that. Ha!

U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross
Round 4, Trenton, NJ. Nov. 18

Women
1. Georgia Gould Luna, 36:05
2. Lyne Bessette (Can), Cyclocrossworld.com, at 0:24
3. Alison Sydor (Can), Rocky Mountain Haywood, at 0:29
4. Wendy Simms (Can), Kona-YourKey.com, at 0:35
5. Rachel Lloyd Proman-Paradigm, at 0:59