October 19, 2006 - UCI Cross

The UCI cross races in New England are in full swing with Fiordifrutta riders making a strong showing as always. Matt White writes below about two races in Maine, while the week before in Gloucester saw White, Timmerman, and Driscoll all in the top 15. After 2 races in the Crank Brothers US Grand Prix Series, Driscoll leads the under 23 category and you can see a great photo of him here.

Maine, Downeast Verge NE Series Race 1 & 2, UCI 2, October 14-15

Day 1: White Takes 3rd with Driscoll 6th

Just because it’s sunny and picture perfect doesn’t mean a race can’t be muddy. The Maine Pinelands Farm course is always a little tricky like that. As the riders weave there way down the hillsides the course gets muddier and muddier. Saturday, team leader and master of first 500 meters Matt White, and his teammates Jamie Driscoll, current leader of the under-23 USGP of cyclocross, and Josh Dillon, “the face planter” lined up against a stacked field of New Englanders, and the Hagens Bermans squad from the Northwest.

White is first off the line, with his teammates close in tow takes a quick hop over the barriers to ride solo in third. In a few laps White is in hot pursuit of the lead riders, Jessy Anthony (Clif Bar) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale/cyclocrossworld). Jess suffered a mechanical issue due to the thickening mud, and fell back a few places. His team Mark McCormack has bridged up to White, and has punished him up the long road climb moving White back into third place on the road.

Meanwhile, Jamey is battling with Jess for the U23 Series lead, which ends with Jess just nipping him at the line giving Jamey a solid sixth place overall finish, not bad for the young superstar. White did his best to claw back to Mark Mccormick, allowing the gap to open to over 40 seconds but then closing it back down to under 10 seconds by the finish. White, was never able to let up for a second, as Jeremy Powers was close in pursuit, closing his gap forcing White to keep his podium position with a sprint to line. White and Powers were given the same time, oh so close!

Day 2: White 4th

Day 2 at Pineland Farm Venue gave the riders a similar course run in the opposite direction, with the road sections lengthened a bit, and a killer sweeping decent that added as much vertical drop as the venue had to offer. The same Fiordifrutta Team was present, with Driscoll, White and Dillon. White was again first off the line, how does he do it!? The course really bottle necked at the first turn bringing the riders into the woods for some turns, and the ripping descent.

Emerging from the first lap back onto the pavement, we see a lead group of three, McCormack, Johnson, and Powers, and few seconds off that pace a solo White. Behind White, there was an eight man group containing Jamey Driscoll. “There was no way I was going to let that group catch me” reported White, and after 2 laps of riding solo, he was happy to look back and see that Driscoll had attacked the group, dropped them all, and was coming across. White kept the tempo up as make sure that Jamey’s attack was fruitful, as he saw Jamey’s gap widen to the 6 or 7 riders behind, White sat up to allow the catch.

When the two were together the hammer dropped, they were going to catch someone from that lead group of three. They weren’t together for more than a lap when Jamey flatted and had to run to the pit. White was gone, still determined to catch that lead group. The closing laps were exciting with the gaps, closing, then opening again. White held on for 4th, unable to catch Powers with a valiant 2 lap effort. But it made for exciting racing with both Powers and White pulling off the barrier hop to gain those precious second. Josh Dillon is certainly what cross is all about, finishing a strong 18th place in his second UCI race ever. There is no doubt a top 10 will come soon for Josh, if he can avoid this.