Noble's do-or-die confidence could net her the US cyclo-cross title

The top American cyclo-cross racers will assemble at the USA Cycling National Championships in Louisville on Sunday, when defending champion Katie Compton will attempt to win a record 15th consecutive title. But there will be one rider on the start line who, as a junior seven years ago, predicted she would break Compton's winning streak, and that is Ellen Noble.

"It would be insane, totally crazy if I won," Noble told Cyclingnews in a phone interview while she was travelling from Athens, Georgia, to Louisville.

"It’s funny, because when I was 16 years old I raced against Katie at my first Nationals, and I remember saying back then that if someone was going to break her title streak, it was going to be me."

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She laughed and admitted how brazen that might have been to say at the time.

"At 16 years old, that was the goal, and I think Katie was on her eighth or ninth consecutive title back then. But I was only 16, so what the hell did I know. I didn't know anything about anything."

Noble might be the youngest of the three out-right favourites to win the elite women's title in Louisville, alongside Compton and Kaitie Keough, but she exudes the confidence, determination, strength and skills of an up-and-coming elite champion.

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