Lance Armstrong put in a surprise appearance
Ryan Trebon took the win
15,000 people = noise
Some racers may have been taking things more seriously than others
Cyclocross is meant to be about mud and cold, which makes some football pitches out in the Las Vegas suburbs seem like an unlikely location for a 'cross race. But after debuting in 2007, Cross Vegas has become a major event on the US 'cross calendar, and with what the commentators reckoned was 15,000 people watching it must be the best-attended. For further novelty, the racing was held in the dark, but unsurprisingly the Desert Breeze Soccer Complex is well-served with floodlights. It's also got some handy short, steep banks, supplemented for the race with the traditional cyclocross hurdles - riders got extra cheering for bunnyhopping them, although dismounting was clearly faster.
Racing got underway at 6.30pm with an industry race, although it was only open to those people in the industry who held race licences. We've no idea who won that one, we were still having dinner. As indeed we were for much of the women's race. We did catch the end, but not attentively enough to actually know who won.
9pm was the time for the main event, the Elite Men's race. An already frighteningly-strong men's field was bolstered by the presence of imminently-retiring Thomas Frischknecht and MTB World Champion Christoph Sauser. Oh, and some chap called Lance Armstrong, who having announced that he was joining the Astana team for an eighth stab at the Tour de France then showed up to do a bit of 'cross racing.
But the pace at the front was relentless. A group of fourteen riders led the charge, but most of them were clearly just hanging on. Attacks and reactions came from Ryan Trebon, Todd Wells, Geoff Kabush, Adam Craig, Tim Johnson, Frischknecht and Sauser at various times, but after a frantic hour of racing it was Ryan Trebon who took the win for the second year.
With riders completing a lap every few minutes there was plenty for the spectators to see and plenty of noise. Clearly Lance Armstrong's popularity in the US remains fanatical, with mighty cheers (and no small amount of cowbell) every time he passed. He did OK, too, despite a crash, coming in somewhere in the 20s. Thomas Frischknecht finished 5th, very impressive considering that, at 38, he's quite a lot older than most of the people in the race. That said, this was his last international 'cross race, with a retirement party kicking off in the Scott pit area after the finish.
