That Shouldn’t Be a DQ in the National Championships. That’s Just Cyclocross
Rarely are Cyclocross National Championships a smooth affair: Often, there are crashes, near misses, issues with the course, or altercations between riders.
The stakes are the highest they’ve been all year—literally, on the course, and figuratively, for the racers. And this year in Lakewood, Washington, was no exception as Gage Hecht became the youngest champion in over a decade at 21 years old. He did so in a near-perfect race marred by a single bobble on course that led to one of his primary competitors crashing.
Internet armchair quarterbacks went to work the day after the race to discuss Hecht’s near-crash that pulled tape off of the course’s fencing and into his wheel after he hit a leaf-covered rut halfway down one of the gnarly descents. His opponent, Pan-American champion Kerry Werner, was only a few bike lengths behind and as Hecht recovered and rode on, pulling tape with him that essentially clotheslined Werner on the course and caused him to go over the bars and onto the ground. Hecht recovered relatively quickly and was caught by Stephen Hyde and Curtis White, while Werner was forced to pause to get untangled and chase from 10 seconds behind.
You can watch the moment happen on the replay here at 6:21:20 into the coverage, and from another angle here:
There are a few interpretations of the events:
First, that Hecht’s recovery was impressive and that if anything was to blame, it was the course designers for not putting stronger fencing or barricades in that spot. (It should be noted, though, that most of the course was impeccably fenced off.)
Second, that Hecht should have sat up and waited for Werner to catch up because he had caused the crash. It should be noted that in this case, chasers Curtis White and Stephen Hyde would have passed both Hecht and Werner.
Third, that Hecht should have been disqualified. Werner’s teammate Becca Fahringer, who finished second in the elite women’s race, tweeted to that effect, and the minor controversy around it ballooned shortly after:
I’ve been covering cyclocross racing for morethan a decade as a race reporter, and this isn’t the first time some argy-bargy has happened in a race—in fact, the gnarlier the course gets and the faster the speed, the more common it is to have racers causing crashes for other racers. (Remember the time Ellen Noble almost took out Marianne Vos in the barriers while leading a World Cup?)
In my opinion, watching the last four laps of the race play out, Hecht doesn’t deserve to have his national champ status called into question. The crash happened in the second lap of the race, with more than five laps to go. Most racers will crash at least once in a cyclocross race as technical and muddy as this one, so to say a crash cost a racer the win is… Well, it’s sort of the point of cyclocross to a certain extent.
As for if Hecht should have waited for him, it’s unlikely Werner would have been able to come back around Hyde and White, even if Hecht had slowed down to work with him. In the heat of the moment, it’s also unlikely that Hecht even realized exactly what had happened and was thinking clearly enough to make a decision like that.
With the exception of that small incident, Hecht rode a nearly-flawless race. He finished the race 17 seconds ahead of second place, and almost a minute and a half ahead of Werner. The crash absolutely cost Werner time—10 seconds from crash to pedaling again—but not 90 seconds. (Disqualifying Hecht would leave Curtis White with the title, with Werner in bronze position.)
Cyclocross racing, especially at the highest level, comes with some elements of risk: It’s part of racing to make the call to follow another rider’s line or choose your own, or to sit on a rider’s wheel to have the draft versus try to lead to avoid another rider’s mistakes. Choosing to ride behind someone has risk, especially on a course this technical. Had Hecht crashed there rather than managing to keep it upright, Werner would still have almost certainly crashed over him.
Lastly—and perhaps most importantly in the argument—Werner himself didn’t approach race officials to lodge a protest, and hasn’t complained about the incident. In fact, spectators in the finish area noticed that the two spoke after the race and were perfectly respectful.
“Thank you PNW! Y’all threw one hell of a bike party yesterday,” Werner said on Instagram. “A bit of unfortunate luck had me scrambling to regain the front group coming into lap 3 but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The course was too much fun and the spectators too loud to simply throw in the towel.”
The controversy around the crash hasn’t blown up as much as it may have if the conflict was between riders known for hot tempers and aggressive racing. But that’s simply not the case with these two. Both Werner and Hecht are among the most respectful athletes I’ve ever interviewed—and I’ve been interviewing both of them for the entirety of their respective careers—and I would guess that this isn’t the kind of talk that either of them want around how the race was won.
“That lap, I was really trying to hold on to things,” Hecht said after the race, adding that he slid after hitting a rut that had been hidden by leaves. “To see Kerry flip over his bike, I felt terrible, I hate seeing that happen. It messed with my head.”
Does it kind of suck for Werner? Absolutely. And it also sucks for Hecht, if we’re being honest. No national champion wants to spend his first few days of wearing the stars and stripes hearing rumblings that he should have been disqualified. Let’s just chalk it up to the fact that crazy things have happened, and will happen, in cyclocross races.
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