Kings CX: Manon Bakker wins fourth C1 race in US and pays tribute to fellow USCX champion Tofik Beshir

Manon Bakker (Alpe d'HuZes) and Andrew Strohmeyer (Competitive Edge Racing) earned the top spots Saturday in C1 elite races at Kings CX in Mason, Ohio.

The Dutch rider wasted no time in continuing her streak of success on a fall US swing, coming into the weekend at Kingswood Park with five wins in six races, including all three C1 races and the overall at the USCX series.

Bakker broke free from a front group of six riders by the third lap and quickly built a seven second gap, leaving Canadian Sidney McGill to battle against a throng of US riders Lauren Zoerner, Ada Watson and Alyssa Sarkisov.

In the last two laps, Manon used crisp cornering to extended her lead. McGill managed to get some distance from CXD Trek Bikes teammates Sarkisov and Watson, but could not close the gap to the Dutch rider and finished 20 seconds back for second. Alyssa Sarkisov took third and Watson fourth. Zoerner trailed for fifth.

Bakker planned to compete in the C2 race on Sunday, then travel back to Europe. As she crossed the finish line of the C1 race, she held up a bracelet bearing the name of Tofik Beshir, who also won five races earlier this year to secure the men's USCX title. Beshir had competed at Kings CX last year, but remains in a Tennessee hospital after a head-on collision with the driver of a motorized vehicle.

Heavy rains dumped on Kingswood Park for the two days leading into racing, making the course tacky for the elite women and drying under full sunshine with just a few sections of mud for the elite men.

Calvin Conaway charged to the front from the hole shot and pushed the pace with CXD Trek Bikes teammates Miles Mattern and Dylan Haynes straight away, but then suffered a flat on the opening lap and never saw the front of the race again.

A big group of a dozen riders formed early at the front as the first three laps clipped away, Mattern and Haynes joined by Ryan Drummond, Tyler Clark, Tom Scott, Ethan Brown and Dylan Zakrajsek. Strohmeyer suffered a rear derailer mechanical and immediately dropped out of the top 20, and seemingly out of the race.

Mattern and Hayes worked with Drummond and Clark on the middle laps to gain a gap on chasers, while Stromeyer put in negative split laps to claw himself back to the front on the final two laps still to go.

The Pan Am Champion reached the leaders on the penultimate circuit and went clear for the win on the final half lap, scoring the victory in his first race of the season.

Mattern and Hayes rolled across the line together in the second and third, respectively, four seconds behind Strohmeyer. Then Strohmeyer's teammate Drummond outsprinted Canada's Clark for fourth, another 11 seconds later. Conaway recovered for eighth place.

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