Katie Keogh (Cannondalep/b cyclocross.com) crashed into a fence on the first uphill straight after taking the holeshot in Sunday's elite women's race.

Keogh remained on the ground for several minutes, but fortunately was conscious and able to stand on her own. Meanwhile, final winner Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), podium finisher Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions), and Denise Bessema (Pauwels Sausen-Bingor) led the peloton on a winding course.

"I'm fine. I'm super sore and bummed, but it happens, and it's okay, we'll take it one day at a time," she told Cycling News from the team trailer, her left arm and shoulder in a sling. The medics were great and did an ultrasound. The medic was great and did the ultrasound. It was really good. They just said I had bad bruising and bad muscle tissue."

Keogh, who sat in the team's facility and received words of encouragement from her parents and grandparents, said that she was on the outside of a large group and was about to pass the outside line on an uphill just past the start line when she suddenly became entangled in a barricade and fell straight off. The other riders were able to avoid her.

Keough is from Wisconsin and has become a local favorite every year in Trek CX Cup and World Cup races. She finished ninth in the C2 Trek CX Cup on Friday. The most painful part was not being able to compete in this race, the last 'cross of her career, and her assessment was quite simple.

"Actually, this year is my last race. So it's a shame. But it's okay, it happens all the time," she said with a wry smile.

The Racine, Wisconsin native has been a member of the Cannondale team since 2010, winning the U23 national cyclo-cross crown that year; in 2015, she took her first World Cup podium in Valkenburg, in 2018 in Iowa City He was a World Cup winner and finished seventh at the World Championships in 2019.

Near the end of 2019, she abandoned her European cyclocross campaign early and returned home to Colorado after a string of poor results and took an extended break from racing to recover; in a recent interview with OnMilwaukee.com, she said she was "very down and out of cycling I lost the 'why' of racing, and it took me until the end of the 2020-21 season to come full circle."

She also said that she "had to take a break from racing, and I was so depressed."

Keogh still plans to ride the full 2021-2022 season, with two additional World Cup races in the U.S., the US Nationals in Wheaton, Illinois this week and the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas The team is concentrating on the The team will travel 700 miles south from Waterloo to Fayetteville, Arkansas on Monday for the second round of the World Cup series.

"We will be leaving for Europe on October 25th and I am sure we will be better by then. Clara [Honsinger] and I will be there from the 25th to November 30, and Katie [Krause] will come a little later. Then we'll go home for two weeks for Nationals and then back for another four weeks until the World Championships in Arkansas. That's the plan," the 29-year-old said.

That plan includes a trip to Fayetteville for the third annual Fayette Cross, where Wednesday's race will be the first World Cup event.

"I'm not saying it's right now, but the way it feels right now, it's one day at a time. We still have Monday and Tuesday, so we'll see what happens. I don't know. 'I think on Wednesday we'll see part of the course for the World Championships. I don't know how similar it will be, but at least we can see the venue. This is the second time the World Championships will be held in the United States, so I'm really looking forward to it."

"I'm also looking forward to the Nationals. A few years ago, the National Championships in the Madison, Wisconsin area was really great. Chicago is the next best thing to home, so I'm looking forward to the Nationals coming back to the Midwest. I'm looking forward to it