Jamey Driscoll went 2 for 2 this past weekend and is now undefeated in at UCI races in the Under 23 category. He writes the following race reports:

Driscoll Top Under 23 at Granogue Cross, UCI, Delaware, October 20th

The voyage as a team began at papa Peck’s house, where we all met up to carpool down. We decided to stay the night and do the driving in the blue sky morning as opposed to the heavy rains of the night before, a wise decision, as some of our fellow racers arrived to their hotel in the wee hours of the morning. I mean 1 to 2 am, as these hours are numerically the smallest of the day.

Delicious bagel sandwiches and coffee, for those of us fallen to the addiction, got us on the road in style. An uneventful journey ensued, thanks to the impeccable navigational skills of Mr. Marzot. With all the rain we experienced on the way down, I was hoping for a good ol’ mud fest. This hope was quickly shot down as we parked next to the muddiest part of the course in years past, and it was dryer than usual.

We all rode the course to get the feel, made our final preparations, and headed over to the start. Many riders say this is a great venue, Jeremy Powers was even quoted as saying, “Races like this are why I race cyclocross.” This is saying a lot from someone who’s spent multiple seasons in Belgium.

My start was a bit more eventful than I had hoped, dodging the Danish national champ, who slipped out of his pedal a few meters off the line, only to be right behind another rider who broke his chain a couple seconds later. For the past couple weekends with a bad start I haven’t been able to claw my way back up through the pack, but this race I was able to, settling in with another rider for 8th place.

A group of 2 were just up the road and another 2 weren’t too far behind us, so the pressure was on. Not to mention, our host was cheering on the sidelines that if I didn’t beat my teammate Matt White, I’d have to sleep on the floor. None the less it made me slip up the greasy run-up even faster every lap. I managed to hold on to 8th overall and 1st for U23, while Matt rolled in a 13th, and Toby was 23rd.

Driscoll Does it Again at Wissahickon Cross, UCI, PA, October 21

The next day brought us into PA, and a course with more turns than I care to count. This time it was my turn to mess up the start, pulling out of my pedal, and arriving to the first turn in the swarm of riders. This course is great for singling out a field in no time at all with nearly 6 switchback hairpin turns before a huge sandpit with only one line through it.

The groups established early, and White made the front chase group, who only Jeremy Powers was ahead of, and I saw myself in the second main group, and Toby was not far behind. Unfortunately, I saw White rolling backwards with a flat tire, and the pits a ways off. I later found out he was dead last before he was able to get another bike.

There was some excitement in the group I was riding with, the fossils of the group (Tilford and Myerson) were really going at it, throwing everything they had at each other, scrawny elbows, smooth shaved knees, and a word now and then, asking if each other’s mother loved them enough growing up. Frankly, I was surprised they could remember that far back.

Anyways, a flat tire took me out of that group and I rolled in for a 15th on the day, first U23 again, while White made his way back to 20th spot, only to be beat in the sprint by someone who can’t even buy tobacco in Utah yet. Marzot was close to follow in 24th. The trip concluded with a mere 10 hours of travel to put me in bed sometime in the wee hours of the night.

White Visits Las Vegas, September 26th

Las Vegas, Sin City, was the first UCI race of the season for me, and what a trip. I could have done a better job planning this one, as flying in the morning of the race, and taking a taxi to the venue isn’t really ideal prep. The course was not my favorite, a really simple, thick grassed crit, not much elevation, not a single slippery turn. As soon as the gun went off I felt that lack of sleep from the night before, but it was pretty exciting at least.

Tons of fans came from the trade show (including my friends from Cannondale), the race was under the lights, and the beer taps were flowing. I did my best on a course that didn’t suit me, but ultimately lost places all day to finish 18th, out of the points, and not really a impressive ride by my standards. I left Vegas a bit dejected, thinking I really wasn’t on form for this season yet. The next weekend I had off, a good chance to collect myself and further prepare for the season. I did get a chance to visit the tradeshow, and I enjoyed my time in the Rudy Project booth!

White Pulls Top 10’s at Whitmore’s Landscaping SUPER Cross, UCI, October 6-7

Next up was this 2 race series in beautiful South Hampton Long Island. This is a race I have done really well at in the past, with a couple podiums over the last 3 years but never a win. With the World Champ Erwin Vervecken, and Kona boy’s registered, the win was looking tougher and tougher. I love this course because it’s really technical with lots of elevation.

Both days I was able to make the front groups for a while, with the world champ, I’ll pat myself on the back for that one, but would ultimately fall off the pace and then the second half of the race would be about fighting for best finish possible. On Saturday I held that front group long enough to be dropped off with a nice big gap to buffer loosing anymore spots, and finished 7th on the day.

On Sunday, I had a bit more of a race on my hands, and after the opening lap chaos, I found myself in a group of 5 or 6 guys. With one push of the pace, I limited that down to 3, but then could not separate myself from Greg Reign, and Matt Talouse, so I waited for the sprint and waxed ‘em both, it felt great! I finished 6th as the World Champ dropped out due to a mechanical. I felt much better about this weekend, and felt the form had improved a bit since Vegas, but reminded myself it should probably get worse before it got better.

Driscoll Wins Under 23 Title at Grand Prix of Gloucester, UCI, September 13-14th

White writes: Gloucester, my Achilles heal was up next. These super fast courses with long straights always get the best of me. I typically have some of my worst rides of the year on these courses. But chin up, I did warm up on double Michelin Jets, and they felt GREAT! I can rarely run a Jet up front, but this day was different. I decided my pressure for the day was 36 psi, and Double Jet’s were the choice. Next I visited our friends at Mavic and picked up a brand new set of R-sys wheels, man this day is looking up!

Next, yes there’s more good news, I met our new Mechanical Staff from Landry’s Bike Shop. We had 4 people to help the 4 of us in the pits, and that was fantastic. These guys really knew their stuff too. So off to a great start I hit the line, and off we went. I rode my typically race, hold the front group for 30 minutes or so, tail off because I was blowing up, and TT in, pretty simple really.

I slipped a little bit not holding onto the second group, which was Tim Johnson and Adam Myerson, I just couldn’t hold Tim’s big accelerations, but I did hold everyone else off to take 7th on the day. The big story on the day was Jamey Driscoll and Toby Marzot making the U23 podium together, it’s always fun to see the red train on the podium in mass.

Sunday was a really exciting race, as it was just crazy, not what anyone expected. A crash took Tim Johnson out of the mix early, and Jeremy Powers, Saturday’s winner, was having bike trouble. At one point I was leading the race, which rarely happens in a UCI level event. There were so many shuffles in the top ten riders over the course of the hour race, it was real racing for once. Everyone agreed, it was fun to not have the Kona Boys just crushing everyone from the first lap, that’s not exciting racing in my opinion.

So I was in the front group, I was in the second group, I may have even been in the third group for a while, but in the end I was alone as usual, fighting for my typical 5th – 8th place finish time trial style. I took 7th again. I really enjoyed Gloucester this year, it was a fun weekend of racing, tons of actions, and unexpected happenings. Driscoll put in another great race to win the Under 23 classification for the 2nd day in a row!

From now on, I will make a major effort to stay more on top of my race reports, as they will more interesting if I can take a little time each week to write something up, rather than writing 2-3 laborious pages all at once. Next up is the first MAC (Mid Atlantic Cross) weekend, of Granogue, and Wissa”chicken”. I love Granogue, some might say was first break out ride back in 2004 where I got 8th. I haven’t done that well since at that race, but we all agree, the sport has come a long way since those days. Right now I’m praying for a top 5th spot.

It’s time for a recap of my (Matt White’s) 2007 Cross season, well overdue at this point. Please excuse this “Matt-centric” race report, I will try to remember where my teammates finished on the day, and the details of their races.

White 2nd at NJ State Fair Summer Cyclocross, August 11
Including a Bunny Hop Contest!

It all starts back at the New Jersey State Fair in Mid August, before the cross bikes and Mt shoes really take over the bike room. I dusted off the 06 race rig, and put some knobby tires on the rims. Although a bit of a drive for this race, the racing action is intense and the prize money plentiful, or as least plentiful for a 45 min race, so it made the schedule.

It starts off with a two lap, 4 man elimination race. As a reigning champ, they gave me a buy to the final rounds, and the rest of the riff raff raced each other to get to race me. I thought this was a funny though, as the some of the guys that got to race me in the finals already have 6-8 full speed laps in there legs and were looking a little tired. This two lap race was all about the whole shot, as the course is tough to pass on. I nailed it and took home my first blue ribbon of the night.

Next up was the bunny hoping contest, limbo style until the bar was knocked. Again I had passes until we got to some real heights. So the riff raff played with 6 and 8 inch hops for a while to give the crowds some thrills, then when we got to 10 inch there were only a few guys they kept going. At 16 or so it was down to just two of us, me on my race Cannondale with full seat height, and some guy in plain clothes on a tiny cross bike with the seat all the way down. A RINGER!! He was hired to give me some competition. I was out at 22 inches, and the ringer nailed 24 inches with ease. Second place for me, I was now tired from really jacking myself into the air for that kind of height.

Last was the 45 min traditional style race. I took second again to my roommate Al Donahue, the last time he will ever beat me in a cross race. I had some work to do on the form, but that was the beginning of the cross training season.

After NJ it was back to road for a couple more weeks. We did the Tour of the Hilltowns were Hayden Brooks took 7th, and Toby Marzot got 16th in the 100 mile NE classic. The boys did GMSR while I was home sick. Univest was a wash, Doylestown Crit was a little more fun, Josh Dillon and I took 14th and 18th respectively. The NH crits were a ton of fun the following weekend, Dillon won on Sat, and I won a bunch of primes on Sunday, and took 8ths place while Dillon road the break and took 5th. That’s the end of road season, now it’s time for the dirt.

White Wins Coonamesset Eco Cross with Marzot in 5th, September 22

The first weekend of cross racing is usually pretty low key, and this year was no different. It was two “local” level races, one of the Cape and the other in Bedford MA. Coonamasette Farm hosted Sat, and provided quite a technical course that was a little “mt. bikey”, but fun. Toby Marzot had control of race early, as I worked my way through the field.

I decided to start mid pack to make the start a little more hectic, but was able to get to the front before long and take over the race. I gapped everyone quickly and road in for a solo victory. Toby’s race was a little more exciting for the crowd as he battled with Matt Kraus of RS, and Kevin Wolfson on Corner Cycle, but I think took last in that group. He looked great all day on that shiny new white bike just the same.

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.