October 3, 2007 - Early Season Cross

Driscoll Wins Schenectady Central Park Cyclocross, NY, September 30

The norsmen (Vermonters) headed out on a highly anticipated brisk Sunday morning to venture down to the Schenectady central park cross race. The day was turning out to be beautiful and cloudless and just about the perfect temperature for the first cross race of the year. We arrived to the venue, and were greeted by fellow racers complaining about us, “why did you guys have to show up, I wanted a nice Sunday ride today.” A few laps of the course revealed a fun circuit, very dry and dusty, and the corners had been turned into mini powder patches by the fields preceding our race. This was a good opportunity to work on the drifting skills, a big change from the hard pack, clay-like grooves worn through the grass on my native training grounds.

The field gathered for the start and knowing of the 3 tight hair-pin switchbacks around pine trees immediately off the start stretch, the boys in red were smart to get on the front row. I decided to take the burden of potentially being the first to overcook the turn off the pavement, and was fortunately successful in staying upright. I led the rest of the lap and got a gap a bit before the finish line, just enough to keep second wheel from my draft.

As I focused on keeping the pace high, a chase group of three established with fellow “jelly boy” Josh Dillon, Al Donahue, and Roger Aspholm. The jelly boy reference came from the official race heckler, who ended up being the town drunk gracing us with his presence on his busy Sunday. The rest of my race was pretty uneventful, and unfortunately Dillon couldn’t contend a sprint with his fellow chase mates and ended up in 4th on the day. All around a fun day.

White and Huseby 2nd and 4th at Bedford Springs Cyclocross, MA, September 23

Huseby writes: This was my second race of the season and a few more hot shots showed up here including our very own Toby Marzot and Matt White. We all had our new white bikes. People were drooling. Tim Johnson was also in attendance, but not racing – so the rest of the attendees got to see him aboard his great looking new Cannondale’s as well.

Matt and Toby had raced the day before in Coonamessett on Cape Cod and had done well down there, so today was bound to be another good showing. This course was all grass and a few short dirt sections with a few token pieces of pavement that didn’t really count as they were particularly short – in other words the course had very little resting spots – not that one ever really gets off the gas in a cross race – but this was a peddler’s course.

At the start – we took off quite fast and Jeremy Powers of Cyclocrossworld put in a massive attack and Matt White followed closely behind. I was close by with Kevin Hines and Alec Donahue. We separated very quickly from the rest of the field on the fast and technical course. Whitey was chasing down Jeremy and I was in a group of three behind him for the rest of the race.

With 2 laps to go Alec put in a very hard attack and left Kevin and I to fight it out for 4th. Whitey didn’t manage to catch Jeremy and ended up 2nd and Toby was in hot pursuit of my group and ended up 7th. We all had a good time, but were pretty worked after an unrelenting course.

Marzot 5th at Amesbury Cyclocross, MA, September 30

The first couple races of the year are always a great reminder of both how great cyclocross is, as well as how hard it is. Last weekend's race in Amesbury, MA, was no exception. Held at a "frolf" (frisbee golf) park, the course consisted of about 2/3 winding, rooty sections. The rest included a rocky run-up, a steep, grassy ride-up, and few opportunities for rest.

The start went well for me, as that is one area of cyclocross that I've always been decent at. After the first lap I settled in comfortably to the second group on the course (cross stars Jeremy Powers and Matt Kraus had quickly ridden away at a blistering pace). A couple laps later my group started to split up. First to attack was Mark McCormack, who I knew had just been biding his time sitting on our group.

I burned one match following him, and the next following CCB rider Will Dugan. At this point I was pretty cracked, and started to fall back and get passed. Eventually another U23 rider, Jerome Towneshend, caught me. We rode together for the rest of the race, passing Dugan who was running without a chain on his bike.

The final sprint between me and Jerome was actually called a "tie" for 5th place. There was no race camera and the officials couldn't tell who got it. It definitely could have been worse- we both got 5th place prize money, and the race was great training for the big UCI races coming up in the month of October.

Huseby 7th at Suckerbrook Cyclocross – Auburn, NH, September 16

This was my first cyclocross of the year. I got my bike already and fitted up some great new SRAM components which I was excited to give a whirl in a race. I had done this race a couple of years ago and it was now really dialed in – a great mixture of road, grass, dirt, and sand – there were also some great corners thrown in as well as a great stair step run up.

I was the soul Fiordifruttan present and had a good start. I made the front group with Adam Myerson and Chris Jones of Nerac, Mark McCormack, and West Coaster Brent Prenzlow. We road together for a few laps and Chris Jones put in some good attacks. We all followed and really separated ourselves from the rest of the field. However on the 3rd or 4th lap – Myerson punctured right in front of me, and no later did I hear this – I did as well!

We were literally as far from the pit as one could be on the course. I limped there riding – and got passed by probably 10 riders. I then had to change a wheel out and this was a littler slower than I would have wished for – so my chase had to be that much harder. I did chase very hard and kept passing guys back and ended up 7th in the end. I was happy with my day and had a great time being back out there on the cross bike.