Katie Compton heads home to heal wounds after crashes at Colorado Cross Classic, Boulder Cup
Two days of hard falls have national champ Katie Compton looking forward to another kind of down time.
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Katie Compton (Planet Bike) knew as soon as she remounted from a crash three laps into Sunday’s Boulder Cup that she would not make it to the finish. What she didn’t know was how long the injuries she sustained in two crashes this weekend would linger.
“I’m thinking maybe I could go, but as soon as I started pushing the pedals I knew there was no point in riding 50 percent,” said Compton after she abandoned the race that Georgia Gould (Luna) went on to win in high fashion.
The winner of the opening World Cup in Aigle, Switzerland, cleaned wounds on her left arm and leg, grimacing with the pain, at her car.
“I think it’s just bruised and swollen and sore,” said Compton, who walked with a visible limp when she arrived at the race venue Sunday morning. “I think the damage will go away soon enough. I have three weeks at home so I have time to recover.”
Compton crashed hard midway through Saturday’s Colorado Cross Classic when wind bent course tape into a high speed straightaway. The tape caught Compton’s right brake hood and sent her flying. She clutched her arm at the finish after winning the race handily over Gould and hoped the soreness would ease overnight.
It did not, and Compton started Sunday’s race in a tentative mood, hoping to avoid another crash. She speculated at the car that stiff, defensive riding might have contributing to her sliding crash on the steep, slick switchbacks on the side of a grassy hill.
hen she arrived at the run-up leading to the start/finish a minute later, Compton dismounted and walked the climb.
“I just wanted to get back to the car,” she said.
Compton took the impact of her Boulder Cup crash directly on her wounds from the previous day.
With a lull in the national elite calendar next weekend, Compton will take a week off the circuit, then hope to start at the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross November 13-14 in Fort Collins, Colorado. After that she will take another week at home before returning to Europe for the sand of the Koksijde World Cup Thanksgiving weekend.
Injuries and a recurring, recently diagnosed thyroid disorder have plagued the seeming worlds contender in recent years and Compton was hopeful to avoid that pattern as she builds for a run at the world championship in January.