![]() Maybe I was drinking too much, but eventually I gave in and said yes. I was reluctant at first, because I didn’t want to have to run with my bike. One night, when I was hanging out with some friends at the local college bar, they said I should give cyclocross a try. RBA: You had been a road racer for years, but eventually you turned to ‘cross? Katie: Back in 1999 I realized that I was pretty much done with my career as a road racer. ![]() I spent quite a few years competing on the track and also rode mountain bikes in college. One year I was the National Criterium champion in the Junior class. National road team and competed in the Nationals and World Championships as a Junior. He got me started when I was 8 years old, and then he got me on the track when I was 12. FROM DAD TO COLLEGE TO MAKING HISTORY RBA: How did you get involved in cycling? Katie: I grew up in Delaware, and my dad was a bike racer and race official. We caught up with Compton midsummer as she was beginning to face the reality that the 2013 ‘cross season was knocking at her door. In addition to all of her cyclocross success, Compton is also a two-time NORBA Short-Track XC National champ on the mountain bike and a multi-time Paralympic gold medalist (on the track with tandem partner Karissa Whitsell). In the last nine years, the Colorado Springs resident has managed to win eight National Championship ‘cross titles, three runner-up rides at the World Championships, 17 World Cup wins and, undoubtedly the biggest highlight of all, the 2013 UCI World Cup Championship. Not since the 1999 World Championships when Junior rider Matt Kelly took the gold medal and Tim Johnson secured silver in the U23 class has America shown such a capable face as Compton’s in the notoriously tough winter sport. Meet Katie Compton, an unabashed fan of cyclocross who is not only America’s most accomplished cyclocross races ever, but one of America’s most accomplished all around riders as well. ‘Yeah, I spent most of my life riding bikes,’ she recalls, ‘and I never thought I would find the kind of success like I did last year this late in life, but it’s great!’ Now 34 years old, married and living in Colorado Springs with a UCI World Cup title to her credit, Katie Compton can look back to some 25 years ago when her father first got her on a bike to begin her racing career and have a laugh.
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