FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 22, 2005; Wilmington, Delaware, USA: When Tim Johnson announced that he was leaving the European road racing peloton he shared with Lance Armstrong to return to his American roots, American cyclocross fans shed tears of joy. After all, Johnson has the distinction of being the first American to medal at the World Cyclocross Championships when he won a bronze in the Under 23 category in 1999. So, it was only appropriate when Johnson and his wife, Canadian Superstar Lynn Bessette, finally returned to the Verge Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Series, that Mother Nature would also shed tears of joy. Lots of tears. Too many tears. So many tears that the luscious Granouge Estate, just outside of Wilmington, Delaware, was turned into a slippery, muddy mess that made it difficult for some of the world‘s best bike racers to even stay upright. But, what some would call appalling conditions, others would call classic cyclocross weather. And those who braved the weather were treated to an epic, entertaining battle that will be long remembered.

America’s fastest ‘cross racers assembled on Saturday, October 22, for the first of two days of UCI sanctioned, internationally-ranked racing -- first at Granouge Estate in Delaware, then to be followed by Sunday’s event at Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show Grounds in Pennsylvania. And it was Canadian Lynn Bessette of Team Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau and Ryan Trebon of Kona Bikes who fired the first shots. Bessette, who has been dominant during the first part of the 2005 cyclocross season, did not get the holeshot at the start of the race -- but it didn’t matter because she had powered into the lead by the end of the first lap, accompanied only by Maureen Bruno-Roy of Independent Fabrications. Meanwhile, last week’s winner, Idaho’s Georgia Gould (Kona Bikes) got a slow start which was further compounded by a bobble on the treacherous off-camber downhill sweeper that is the defining feature of this course. Already dragging her inside foot like a motorcycle racer, Gould was surprised when her other foot accidentally unclipped causing her to daffy-duck her way to the bottom of the hill. “In the past, something like that would have ruined my race,” said Gould afterward. “But I’ve been working on that, and I just told myself that my whole race wasn’t going to go like that.”

Gould made steady progress through the field, eventually passing for second place before setting off after Bessette. As the last lap began, the light rain that had come and gone all morning turned into a downpour. Gould appeared to be the faster rider at the end of the race, but Bessette had already established a huge margin that just couldn’t be erased and won easily. In comments afterward, Bessette inadvertently gave insight into the inner workings of the mind of a top-level competitive athlete, “I liked the course. It was fun, but not at first. In training, I just didn’t like it. But in my mind, when you’re racing and the whistle blows to start the race, I can just feel how the course flows.”

Following the Women’s race, the Men’s half of Saturday’s Pro Double-Header lined up to great anticipation. Among the favorites were Bessette’s husband and teammate Tim Johnson, the bronze medallist in the Under 23 class in the 1999 World Championships. Other riders to watch were 2003 USPRO Road Race Champion and cyclocross legend Mark McCormick (Team Cliff Shot) and last week’s winner Ryan Trebon out of Oregon and representing Kona Bikes. At the start, it was Trebon and teammate Barry Wicks controlling the field with Johnson coming from the rear -- the penalty for having not scored any UCI cyclocross points for two years while he was road racing in Europe. Soon into the race, however, it became clear that it would that this year’s race would be a two-man battle, and a study in contrasts. Ryan Trebon is 6’5” tall, compared to Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau’s Tim Johnson who is all of 5”9”. And while there are many places where being built like a giraffe is an advantage for Trebon, this wasn’t one of them. Trebon’s size made negotiating the grease-like mud awkward, while Johnson’s low center of gravity and years of experience let him maintain his momentum in places where other riders were coming t