The Berries finished the USA Cyclocross National Championships as they started, with another strong ride and a fourth-place finish for Teal Stetson-Lee in the Elite Women’s race on Sunday.
“It’s been an awesome season.” said Stetson-Lee who was happy to see her form get better as the season went on.
“I would have loved to have finish by squeaking into that third or second spot but I’m really happy with the way my form is come together towards the end of the season. It’s a big confidence booster for where I’m going to go in the future, I feel like I have quite a few years ahead of me so I’m pretty excited.”
With a second row start, Stetson-Lee found herself chasing the front of the race early on on sunny and relatively warm day in Madison, Wisconsin.
“I started behind Nicole because she’s always a fire cracker off the line which was good but really the first half of the lap, I was trying to get to where the race was happening and by the time I got up there, it was already getting strung out.” she explained.
After an overnight freeze, the icy ruts and mud were starting to thaw out in certain spots for the late morning race, making the course greasier.
“It didn’t soften up enough to be any smooth lines out there at all, so every lap you’d come through and the lines were getting mixed up and they were just shooting you all over the place.” Stetson-Lee said of the technical sections. “There was never a clear defined path to take, and it stayed hard but slightly soft the whole race so it wasn’t very easy to navigate through there but it was fun. You just had to be smart and be on your toes, be willing to put a leg down if you needed to.”
Three riders were ahead of her, eventual winner Katie Compton (Rabobank Giant) was off the front and on her way to win her eighth National Championship in a row. But, closer were teammates Nicole Duke and Kaitie Antonneau (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com).
“I could see Kaitie and Nicole and I was just chasing them down for a long and they were just out of reach.” said Stetson-Lee who made contact with Duke more than halfway through the race while Antonneau had taken off.
“I finally passed Nicole on the climb, and I was like ‘alright I got here, I’m feeling strong’. And I was able to maintain that for that second to last lap. “ said Stetson-Lee. “Then on that final lap, my quad started cramping up on the climbs, I didn’t have enough left in the tank as I thought I would, and she did. She was super smart, she just picked me off and opened the gap right in the techie stuff where she was super strong.”
Stetson-Lee held on for fourth. Teammate Meredith Miller finished sixth.
In the final race of the 2012 National Championships, silver-medalist in the U23 category Cody Kaiser put on another strong ride to claim 14th in the elite men’s race. Justin Robinson was 31st.
