Wyman wins season opener for new team Kona

by Ben Atkins at 11:18 PM EST

With the road season coming to a close, the cyclocross season is just beginning and the first few races in the US are going to form for many of the English-speaking stars of the sport. British champion Helen Wyman has replaced Wendy Simms at the Kona-FSA team as the Canadian takes a break from the sport to start a family, and things could not have started better.

In the Seattle Star Crossed race – the first event in the NACT series – Wyman escaped a group including Sue Butler (Movanie-Cannondale) and Alison Dunlap (Luna Chix) on the second lap and stayed away to finish 30 seconds clear. This was despite a slip in the wet conditions towards the end of the fifth lap that almost gave the chasers sight of her.

The next race in the series – the Rad Racing GP – run the very next night, saw the same faces at the front. Luck was not on the side of the British champion this time though, as a puncture just past the pits saw her slip to last place before she could change her bike. Butler was able to take full advantage and finished alone, once again a head of Dunlap, with Kari Studley (Velo Bella) in third. A storming ride from Wyman was only enough to pull her back up to fourth.

The next big race on the women’s North American calendar is this weekend’s Cross Vegas, at the Interbike show in Las Vegas, Nevada.