Noble wins another national cyclo-cross championship

Ellen Noble is making a habit of winning national championships. And she'll likely not be breaking that habit anytime soon.

The 21-year-old cyclist from Kennebunkport raced to her second straight Women's U23 Cyclocross title on Sunday in Asheville, North Carolina. Her time of 44:09 bested runner-up Sofia Gomez VillaFane of Durango, Colorado. She set the pace early on and she distanced quickly distanced herself from the other 37 competitors who started the race.

“It’s been a focus for the whole season," said Noble about winning another national title. “My strategy varies from race to race. (On Sunday) my goal was to go out as hard as I could."

Noble is in her second year as a member of the Jam Fund Cycling Team and that group's website described the beginning of Sunday's race this way: "Noble and Emma White (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com) took the early lead in the first lap in extremely slippery conditions after a night of steady rain. White came off the first major climb on Heckle Hill in front of Noble. Villafane wasn't far behind. But Noble wouldn't let White get away for long, and by the time they hit Bonk Breaker Hill, Noble was out front with no one else in sight. Noble dominated the rest of the race, riding solo up front for the last three laps to victory.

"This is a huge win for me going into worlds in a couple of weeks," Jam Fund quoted Noble as saying immediately after the race. "Winning it last year felt really good, but to win it with our own race and going into worlds means so much more. It's such an amazing feeling. Doing it on a mud course is an extra bonus."

She's currently preparing for the upcoming world championship event on January 30-31 in Belgium where she'll compete in the Women's U23 race. As the national champion, Noble is one of 31 cyclocross racers who will represent the United States at the 2016 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. She'll be one of six competitors on the Women's U23 team.

She says she’ll be extremely happy if she can race well enough in Belgium to get on the podium (top three) at the upcoming world championships. And she’s honored to be among the riders competing in the first ever women’s U23 race at that event.

Including Sunday's noteworthy victory, Noble has placed first or second in seven of the last eight events she's competed in.

On November 1 she won the Pan Am Cyclo-cross Women's U23 championship at Covington, Kentucky. She won the Women's Elite race at the Cycle-Smart International in Florence, Massachusetts, on Saturday, Nov. 7, and she took second in another race in the same division one day later.

Noble won the Women's Elite race at the NBX Gran Prix of Cross in Warwick, Rhode Island, on Saturday, Dec. 5 and finished as the runner-up in the next day's race.

She then started the new year by taking second in the Women's Elite category at the Kingsport Cyclo-Cross Cup in Kingsport, Tennessee, on Jan. 2. And that race helped prepare her for Sunday's national championship.

She credits a lot of her recent success to the Jam Fund Cycling team she's a part of. “They’ve been an integral part of my development," she said about her current training regimen which includes work both on and off the bike.

And so far she's managed to be both a world class cyclist and a college student all at the same time. Noble admits it's sometimes difficult to juggle the time necessary to be a top cyclist while going to school full time as a student at UMass.

“My teachers are super supportive," said Noble. "This is something I’ve worked for for a very long time. It means a lot to be able to do both and I think my professors understand."

The sport of cyclocross

Cyclocross is a fall/winter sport that generally runs from September till late January. It is a form of mostly off-road bike racing that requires competitors to make their way over and through various obstacles and on varying terrain. Some obstacles may force the riders to hop off and carry their bikes. A muddy course may also force the rider to carry his bike instead of attempting to ride through it. The races are based on a number of laps instead of a set distance. In order to be USAC sanctioned, the courses do have to be at least 2.5 km long and not longer than 3.5 km. And generally speaking, races last from 30 to 60 minutes. For more information, visit usacycling.org.