From C-Ville to Belgium

(left, Deidre on elite women's nationals podium. Photo by K-Dogg.)

Charlottesville, VA resident Deidre Winfield is heading to Belgium for the world cyclocross championships. She earned a place on the U.S. world championship team and will race January 28.

Here is an article about the top women at Nationals last week. Her 4th place finish earned her the place on the world team. Katie Compton won the race.

I tried to piece together some cool info about Deidre. First thing you have to see is this video of her winning a Pennsylvania race. Watch it till the end and you will see the congratulations hug from her 2-year-old daughter.

Next thing is some history. This article was published in UVA's staff magazine in 2003. I am pretty sure Deidre is training full time now, so I think UVA is a former employer now.

Here are 2 photos published on cyclingnews.com, one at Henderson, NC and another in Reston, VA.

Her team Velo Bella has an excellent blog. Her nickname "Grasshopper" I assume comes from her flat-back, elbows-up position on the bike. This section of Velo Bella's blog has race reports, several of which Deidre wrote.

A master of the 45-minute cross discipline, Deidre still did not hesitate to participate in 100k Ironcross, a race that she won with a time of 4 hours and 38 minutes. I had the priviledge of lining up on the same start line which naturally was the only time during the race that I saw her. I am a better groupie than racer, so I approached her after the race to ask all the dumb questions I am sure she gets. Her husband Buck was there and it was clear that this run up to worlds is also a result of excellent family support.

She placed 2nd to Betsy Shogren in the Verge Mid-Atlantic series this year. It appears she divided her time between that series and the US Gran Prix series that Lyne Bessette won.

I find it interesting that she was named "rookie of the year" in several articles like this one. She has not been a "rookie" in terms of ability for several years. I guess this was the first year of her full dedication to cyclocross and she sure has proven herself.