The USA Cyclocross National Championships are underway in Reno as we speak to crown the next set of US Champs. Elite races are over the weekend, so let’s have a look at the bikes and setup of the current champs. First up, the carbon Trek Boone of 13x champ Katie Compton…
Trek Boone of current US Champ Katie F’ing Compton
We last featured the bike of multi-time women’s champ KFnC last January in Connecticut. Not a lot has changed since then, but the champ’s 52cm, otherwise production bikes have gotten a facelift.
Her 2017/2018 race bike gets a new national champion blue fade paint job with red & white flag stripes on the fork & chainstays, plus a new toptube decoration celebrating her Pan American championship. The PanAm stripes also make it onto her Knight Composites wheels as well.
The 600 series OCLV carbon Boone of course now features Trek’s IsoSpeed decouplers, both at the seat cluster and headtube to stop jarring vibrations before they make their way to the rider.
Bike setup & tech
Compton’s picks her mostly Shimano Dura-Ace R9170 Di2 drivetrain herself, not being primarily sponsored by Shimano. That allows her and husband mechanic Mark Legg-Compton to swap in Compton’s preferred WickWerks chainrings for a more muddy cross friendly 42/34T setup, that still gives her tight gearing ratios. Compton also rides relatively long (for a shorter woman) 175mm cranks in the previous generation Dura-Ace, topped with XT Race pedals. And spins on a black & red DLC coated KMC chain.
Both Katie & Mark put a big focus on attention to detail, and work closely at races to get everything perfectly dialed. The pair will both hope to add another star to the chainstays this weekend. There’s currently 13 – one for each of KFC’s national championship wins.
Finishing details
One new detail this season – custom printed heat shrink tape to keep that Di2 wire installation tidy for Katie Fn Compton, with bartape wrapped all the way to the stem.
Just behind the Enduro bearing headset & headtube IsoSpeed decoupler, Compton’s bike gets an icon of her pup Pixie to keep motivated. That red headset goes nicely with the other red ano bolts throughout, but paired with stainless Enduro bottom bracket and derailleur pulley bearings, they also go a long way to making it easier to keep Compton’s bikes running smoothly all season.
Like we see on some pro bikes, the easiest way to differentiate one race bike from the next can be as simple as another color of bar tape.
Compton has been a Clement sponsored rider for a while now. With the rebranding this season to Donnelly, we’ve sometimes seen her black out the old logos on her tubulars. But with so many wheelsets (some carried over in last season’s alternating red on-one-side, blue on-the-other decals) some still carry the old branding.
And then there are always some tires that aren’t sponsor correct. We spotted Compton doing some muddy racing on these cotton team edition Challenge Baby Limus TE tires, when she was looking for a bit more traction in sloppy European course conditions.
Oh yeah, and see that front brake cable? Yeah, it’s tied on with real gold wire for a classy but secure fit. Much better than any plastic zip tie.
