With only one race in the U.S. Cup CX series before the massive $10K payout is delivered to the top man and woman in the standings, there was a shakeup in the men’s field over the weekend.

Now it looks like Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld.com will be taking the men’s and women’s payouts. Stephen Hyde leapfrogged Tobin Ortenblad into first place, while Kaitie Keough retained — and increased — her lead in the women’s field.

The conditions at Devou and Harbin parks this weekend at the Cincy CX Festival were the first truly “cyclocross-y” of the season: gray, rainy, a bit muddy, and downright chilly. Racers who have been doing well in warm and dry conditions all season suddenly found themselves in trouble. Mud-lovers rejoiced.

Ahead of the final race in the U.S. Cup-CX series and the Pan American championships in Louisville — on November 4 and 5, respectively — we take a look at what we learned in Cincinnati.

Stephen Hyde Crushes All Conditions

After two full weekends away from racing — allowing for nearly three weeks of no travel or competition — current national and Pan American cyclocross champion Stephen Hyde is back. Clearly, the break did him good. Hyde said he felt recharged, and it shows. He took the win on both race days at the Cincy CX Festival, going solo early in the competition.

On Sunday, only 19-year-old Gage Hecht was able to stay with Hyde until the last lap. That course, in Harbin Park, featured more road racer-style tactics in comparison to the technical nature of Saturday’s race at Devou Park.

With completely different courses, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see different winners each day. The fact that Hyde won both races in Cincy says that he’s growing into an all-around strong cyclocross racer. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. After Pan-Ams, Hyde heads to Europe for a few weeks of World Cup racing ahead of Nationals.

The Youth Are Gaining Ground

Between Gage Hecht’s amazing ride to second on Sunday and Spencer Petrov’s silver medal on Saturday in the elite men’s race — both only 19 years old — it’s obvious that the kids are coming for the older riders. They’re ready to step onto the podium.

The level of cyclocross in the U.S. is rising, thanks to efforts like Geoff Proctor’s cyclocross camps and the European programs that he runs for juniors and under-23 racers through USA Cycling. Rather than entering cyclocross as older riders, like Hyde did in his 20s, racers are being brought up from the age of 15 and able to race against the best in the world, not just their best in the neighborhood.

Results like Hecht and Petrov’s show that these junior development programs are being done correctly.

Three-Deep Payout Makes For Tougher Racing

With the U.S. Cup-CX payout now going three deep — and rumor has the winner potentially taking home $12,500, rather than $10K — racers in the top six are making calculations and taking risks. Riders like Becca Fahringer, who sits in the top five, are aiming to unseat riders like Ellen Noble.

Despite strong results throughout the series, Noble has one race day DNF, which cost her a lot of points. After her win on Sunday in Cincy, she sits in third overall, but with fourth through sixth place close behind. In both the men’s and women’s overall series, one bad day for any of the top three racers could still prove disastrous.

Despite the huge Pan-Am Championship race on Sunday in Louisville, Saturday’s final U.S. Cup-CX race will likely be an intense affair.

Ellen Noble And Kaitie Keough Continue To Dominate

This weekend, we saw that Kaitie Keough isn’t just a grass crit racer: she’s one of the most technically skilled riders — and runners — in the country. On Saturday, she proved the point with a huge win in the most muddy, technical race of the year.

On Sunday, though, we saw Ellen Noble make a return to the front of the race after a third-place finish on Saturday left her feeling a bit down. The 21-year-old has had a roller coaster of a season, scoring stellar results — including third at the Waterloo World Cup — as well as a handful of less-than-optimal finishes.

Noble and Keough have played to their different strengths the last few weeks: Keough’s consistency and calmness during a race is second to none, while Noble’s more emotionally charged racing often helps her deliver amazing results.

The rivals’ differing styles, duking it out at the front of the field, makes for dynamic racing.

Courtenay McFadden Is Back

One surprise for the weekend was seeing Courtenay McFadden not just back to racing, but back to racing at the front of the pack. She’s had stellar results and plenty of podiums in past years, but a hip surgery at the end of last season has slowed her progress.

Following her fifth-place finish in Saturday’s run-heavy race, McFadden said her surgically repaired hip handled the conditions just fine, but that her other hip was in a world of hurt. We’ll see how her season progresses, knowing she’s now a racer to watch at upcoming events.

Pan-Ams Are Going To Be Wild

Stephen Hyde is obviously the man to beat, but the course in Louisville is a completely new venue for UCI racing. It’s hard to know what to expect. A lot of Hyde’s top competition, including Hecht and Petrov, will be racing in the under-23 field rather than the elite men’s race.

Jeremy Powers has been Pan-Am champ in the past and is gunning for a win this season, but Kerry Werner and Tobin Ortenblad are also contenders.

In the women’s race, Emma White won’t be on the start line since she’ll be contending for the under-23 title, while Kaitie Keough, Ellen Noble, and reigning national and Pan-Am champ Katie Compton are going to be vying for the title.

Compton will be tough to beat. Though her early season wasn’t ideal, she’s been winning races in Europe and is a force to be reckoned with in any conditions.

Check back later in the week for a full preview of the Derby City Cup and the Pan-American championships.

By Molly Hurford