This morning as I clickity-click-clacked around the interwebnetsphere, I was reminded (pretty much by accident) that the U.S. has a national cross-country race series: USA Cycling’s Pro Cross Country Tour. A seven race series that is a combination of a few US Cup Pro Series races on the left side of the country, plus a race in the middle and one on the far right.
Once I was reminded of America’s dirty little cycling secret, I got to wondering who was dominating our great nation’s race series. It turns out, not many Americans. Take a look-see…
USAC Pro XCT Men’s Standings
Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing) 540 points Canada
Todd Wells (Specialized Racing) 475 points USA! USA! USA!
Max Plaxton (Cannondale Factory Team) 425 points Canada
Sergio Mantecón Gutiérrez (Trek Factory Racing) 330 points Spain
Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory Team) 330 points Germany
As you see, the Men have Canadian Geoff Kabush asserting his coolness and general mancrushablenss in the series lead, followed by American Todd Wells (who succeeded in not peaking too early for the Go Pro Games in early June, bravo!), another Canuck, Max Plaxton, is in third , followed by a couple of Euros tied for fourth who were no doubt looking to take advantage of affordably priced Levi’s, good weather and early season racing with UCI points in the States as they prepared for the 2014 UCI XCO World Cup series.
USAC Pro XCT Women’s Standings
Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Team) 700 points Czech Republic
Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) 650 points Canada
Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) 500 Canada
Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) 425 points USA! USA! USA!
Evelyn Dong (Backcountry.com) 345 points USA! USA! USA!
Katerina Nash of the Czech Republic is leading the Women’s standings followed by über Canadians Catharine Pendrel and Emily Batty. The U.S. DID fair much better amongst the lady folk, where we have two women in the top five: the always likable Georgia Gould in 4th and the increasingly impressive Evelyn Dong in 5th.
Not that it gets much press coverage, but the Pro XCT continues this coming weekend in Missoula, Montana. With the next round of the World Cup not happening until late next month in Mont-Sainte-Anne, it will be interesting to see who shows up amongst the elite Canadian and European racers. This could be a chance for the American racers to regain some points. USA! USA! USA! On the other hand if those racers do show up, the likes Catharine Pendrel–who seems to be back in form after an early season injury– could put a hurtin’ on any Americans winning the very race series USAC promotes. Maybe we should change it to the North American Pro XCT?
To tell you the truth, it makes no difference to me where the leaders are from, it’s just nice to see a national Pro series still alive and kicking in the U.S.. Even if most of it goes down on one side of the country, it doesn’t get much attention, and every year, more and more racers go out of their way not to even buy a USA Cycling license.
Photo: Stolen from USAC via a screenshot. Unlike many of the Euro races I read about (and have covered for XXC in the past), USAC and some promoters in the U.S. don’t go too far out of their way to provide pics. Something I always found odd considering how unpopular our sport is here in the U.S. compared to just about every other sport known to man. You would think they would be tripping over themselves to get coverage out tot he media and even to fat, old bloggers who feel the need to blather on about bike racing. Must be the whole ‘Murican free enterprise /capitalism thing.