The U23 racers followed the Juniors on Sunday at the 2022 USA Cycling Cyclocross Nationals. See how the U23 Women’s racing played out below, with reporting by USA Cycling and CXM.
The U23 Women had a fast start. Newly-crowned Collegiate Varsity champ Madigan Munro (Boulder, Colo.; Trek Factory Racing CX), 2021 U23 Champ Katie Clouse (Grand Junction, Colo; Colorado Mesa University), Lizzy Gunsalus (Dudley, Mass.; Steve Tilford Foundation Racing), and Lauren Zoerner (Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Alpha Bicycle Groove Silverthorne) were leading the first lap until the field spread out through the technical sections where Munro was able to get a sizable gap on the rest of the field.
Clouse chased hard but went into this season with fewer races under her belt than Munro , which could have played a role in her race fitness. Clouse has had a short but sweet cyclocross season. This year, she turned her focus to road racing but came out just for the National Championships taking silver in both the Collegiate and U23 races.
“It was a really good race. Maddie is so strong right now. All the girls are so strong, Lauren and Lizzie rode super well today. It’s one of my first ’cross races back this season, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew it would be a hard race, and I knew I just had to be consistent, and I knew the people who went down the least seemed to do the best.” said Clouse .
Unfortunately for fourth-place finisher […]
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