LAKEWOOD, Wash. (December 15, 2019) — After leading from start to finish, Park City, Utah’s Katie Clouse (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) takes the win in the Women’s U23 race at the 2019 US Cyclocross National Championships. Hannah Arensmen (J.A. King-Blue Ridge Cross) finished second, while Shannon Mallory (NWCX Project-Van Dessel) rounded out the podium in third.
Winner in the 17-18 division in 2018, Clouse crushed the Women U23 division to claim her third Stars-and-Stripes of the week, coming home more than two minutes in front of Arensmen and Mallory. Clouse also won the Women Collegiate Varsity and the Collegiate 4×4 Team Relay on Friday.
In a post-race interview with announcer Dave Towle, Clouse said “I really just wanted to ride a consistent race and do the best I could. It’s nationals, sometimes there’s mistakes that happen, so I’m really happy that I was consistent the whole time.” On her 31st national title, she said “The past two years I’ve had to train the most I ever have, and it’s just going to get harder from here.”
“This course has definitely been one of my favorites,” said Clouse, who now has 31 national championship titles across multiple disciplines. “It’s an awesome course, it’s really challenging. There’s not a lot of rest, there’s a perfect amount of running and power. It’s great.”
When asked about her Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com team, Clouse replied, “I got really fortunate this year. Stu [Thorne] reached out, and I was able to get on this team. It’s such a well-respected program and I’m really excited about it. Stu and Curtis [White] and Kaitie [Keough] and Stephen [Hyde] have helped me out so much. It’s definitely been a season of growing, and I’m really excited about what’s to come.”
With the support of USA Cycling Foundation’s MudFund, Clouse will be headed to Europe this next week. She’ll be racing the remaining UCI World Cup races, along with a few of the “Kerstperiode” UCI events, as part of her preparation for the World Championships in Switzerland at the beginning of February.
“The World Cups aren’t going to be easy. I got to race collegiate, then the relay, and this. I got some really good training in. it’s been a really hard week of racing, and I’m really excited for it.”
