Sundt, Knapp trade cyclo-cross wins in Washington

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By Kip Mikler , VeloNews Editor

Cyclo-cross season is officially underway in the state of Washington, where local pros Jonny Sundt (K2) and Dale Knapp (Kona) went toe-to-toe over the weekend in two races held in the span of less than 24 hours.

Sundt took round 1, a prime-time under-the-lights affair just outside of Seattle on Saturday night, where he rode away from Knapp and the rest of the men’s A field at the K2-Widmer Brothers Star-Crossed Cyclocross event. Knapp, the 38-year-old veteran ’cross legend, got even the next day when he scored his first win of the year at the second race of the Microsoft Seattle Cyclocross Series at South SeaTac Park.

Sundt co-promoted the Saturday night event, which was held on a tight and twisty course in and around the Marymoor Velodrome in Redmond. With a DJ spinning tunes for the crowd gathered in the both the velodrome bleachers and the course-side “beer garden” tent, Sundt bunny-hopped his way to the win as Knapp finished second.

“This event is for all those people who have come out to ’cross races and stood in the mud,” Sundt said of the spectator-friendly format. “It’s for the girlfriends, the wives, the husbands — all the long-suffering fans who support this sport and just love cyclo-cross.”

The men’s A race began in the darkness of the south side of the stadium just after 7:45 p.m. Spectators seated in the bleachers watched the racers stream across the grassy embankment opposite them, disappear into the darkness, then enter the stadium to negotiate a series of twists and turns, including two barrier sections.

After the first set of triple barriers, Sundt moved into the lead and stayed there for the remainder of the race.

“I wish it could have been closer,” said Knapp, who closed the gap to 17 seconds before the final lap but couldn’t quite reel in Sundt. “I wish I could have made the hair stand up on everybody’s neck in the beer garden, but I just couldn’t find that extra gear.”

Knapp found it the next day, however, on a rougher course at South SeaTac, where he put on a display of power to pull away from Sundt and the rest of the field and take the series lead. Early in the race, Sundt and Knapp were part of a four-man break that got a gap over the field on a cool, breezy afternoon.

Featuring rough single-track, run-ups and tricky sand pits, the woodsy Sea-Tac course resembled a mountain-bike course. With four laps to go, the terrain did Sundt in as he flatted his front tire and had to run to the pits for a change. “I wacked a rock really bad,” Sundt said.

From there, Knapp opened it up, as his teammate Eric Tonkin chased, followed by Shannon Skerrit (Trek) in third position. The order remained that way through the final laps to the finish.

“With Jonny flatting, it was sort of a gift,” Knapp said. “But that’s the way racing goes. You gotta take the luck when you get it.”

Seattle’s top two pros on the national scene have different programs outlined for the rest of the cyclo-cross season. While Knapp said he wants one last shot at making the U.S. world championships team, he will focus on racing in the West, including the three-race Redline Cup.

Sundt, on the other hand, will travel to UCI races in the East and the Midwest. Both were pleased to take a win over the weekend, and Sundt was just as happy with having pulled off his Saturday night experiment.

“I think I was more nervous for that than I was for nationals,” he said. “We put the event together in just six weeks and we worked really hard at it. I even built the podium.”

With Sundt’s girlfriend Robyn doing duty as one of the podium girls handing out prizes, he was relieved that things went off without a hitch. “Yeah, I’m just happy the podium didn’t fall down.”

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FILED UNDER: Cyclocross