Lopes tries his hand at cyclocross

By Fred Dreier

World four-cross champion Brian Lopes won the Men’s Open category at the January 20 Championship race of the 2007-08 Fresno Cyclocross Series at Woodward Park sponsored by Sportsmobile. It was the first time the 36-year-old Lopes had entered a cyclocross race.

“I knew one of the racers in the race who was leading the series so I basically just followed his lead,” Lopes told VeloNews. “With a ton of turns and even a few berms and table top jumps, the course was really fun and allowed for little spots to recover if you were good on the obstacles, which was right up my alley.”

Lopes was part of a three-man breakaway including Keith DeFiebre, the series leader and two-time series winner. Lopes took the lead when DeFiebre slipped a pedal with two turns remaining and took the final sprint by a sizable margin.

“I didn’t look back until I was about 100 feet from the finish when I found out I had a big lead and could just cruise in,” he said.

Lopes has a history of proving his abilities as an all-around bike racer: in 2000 he dusted some of the nation’s best roadies at the Redlands Classic sprint prologue, on his mountain bike. In 1995 he bunny hopped his bike 49.2 inches in the air. And in 2002 he tried his hand at track cycling, competing in a World Cup race in Monterey, Mexico.

FILED UNDER: Mountain