This morning I witnessed someone tumble off their bike. It was an agonising, toe-curling moment as I sat patiently in front of a red light waiting for my assigned time to forge ahead through the wall of traffic ahead of me, towards my destination.

As I sat, gaze fixed upon said red light like it was a giant spoon and I was Uri Geller bending that sucker in half, I heard the distinct sound of a bicycles brakes screaming out as they clamped, full force, down onto the rubber tyres which then, in turn, skidded rigid against the bitumen road beneath. Like the alarm call of a sentinel meerkat alerting his pack to an approaching predator, the fidgity mass of cyclists gathered alongside me at the traffic lights all simultaneously sat upright in their saddles and craned their necks around to discover the source of the alarm.

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Compton (Rabobank-Giant Offroad) said she only heard about the move by Rabobank to back Vos in the news, and was not certain how the relationship would work in in the Dutch bank’s first year supporting an elite women’s cyclocross trade team. Compton has never ridden with a team during cyclocross season, but the U. S. national champion enters the 2011 season with the full support of the Dutch Rabobank-Giant Offroad squad. (VN) — Cyclocross world championship silver medalist Katie Compton gained a new teammate this week in Dutch world champion Marianne Vos. On Monday she gained a surprise teammate in world champion Marianne Vos when Rabobank extended its decades-old support of cycling into women’s road racing. Vos and Compton, featured as top rivals in the August 2011 issue of Velo magazine, will join forces when Vos makes her ’cross debut later this fall. Rabobank announced this week that it would take over sponsorship of Vos’ road team, Nederland Bloeit. The 24-year-old should ride two of her three of her disciplines — road and cyclocross — for the Dutch squad.

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