This update was initially posted to the CBRC mailing list. Find out more about the club at CBRC.cc.
Based on a consensus of individuals asked during the Men’s Elite race today, I’m sending an edition out tonight covering the Pan Ams yesterday and today’s C1 race. Look forward to another edition tomorrow covering the C2! (Bwahahahaha) Also, math for the USCX series standing for the men’s elite field is further down, if that’s all you’re interested in.
Friday was the Pan American Cyclocross Championships. Initially scheduled in Costa Rica for this weekend, issues with that venue and the promoter resulted in the cancellation of that race. Fortunately, Pan Ams is just three and a half-ish hours away.
Various people who I usually write about raced: In the (many) Master’s Men fields, Lance Law came in twelfth in the 55-59, and Terry Blanchet came in ninth in the 60-64. Two NYCROSS alumni, Tommy Servetas and Pat Frank, finished 17th and 20th in the U23 Men. And in the last race of the day, Curtis White finished second after Bruner seemingly attached a JATO bottle to his bike and took off with about 3 to go (I forgot if it was 2 or 3 to go, I wasn’t taking notes – subscribe and support the CXHairs Bulletin for actual reporting).
Saturday morning’s racing started bright and early with the Junior races, with CBRC well represented with nine riders across the fields. (I didn’t make it over to the venue to watch myself, but I was able to follow along from Ryan’s IG Stories) After a thundering start and holding the lead for a lap, Chase O’Donnell ended up second in the 11-12 boys, while Jack O’Donnell took the win in the 9-10 with a comfortable 97-second lead over Ethan Romlein in second. Maddy Hanna finished fourth in the 13-14, while the 11-12 squad consisted of Lilly Hanna, Abigail Romlein, Liddy Breslin, Ava Koniowka, and Michalea Koniowka in 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 10th places. (CBRC made up just shy of half of this field!) Emma Breslin finished 2nd in the 9-10 girls.
The next race of potential interest to readers was the Men 40+ (3/4/5), where Lance Law finished 5th and Paul Koniowka finished 53rd. The Women’s 4/5 field had two NYCROSS alum in it, both representing UVM: Maggie Payne finished 9th and Melinda Wetzel finished 25th, while in the Master’s Men 60+, Terry Blanchet came in 23rd.
The next race of the day was the Junior Women UCI, Cat 3 Women, and Single Speed Women. In the order they were on the road: In the UCI Junior field, after a half lap on her B bike, Haylee Johnson finished 12th. After some confusion during staging (😇), temporarily adopted CBRC member Claire O’Leary (nee Walling 😁) took off with the Single Speed women – after Leslie put a half lap into Claire and Holly (getting mixed up into the UCI Juniors), Claire dropped Holly at the sand pit on the bell lap for second place, getting to hear the dulcet tones of Brad Sohner call her name for the podium. Starting 1 minute behind the SSCX field was the Cat 3 Women’s field, with Lilli O’Donnell having a front-row call-up. Unfortunately, she missed the podium by 77 seconds to finish fourth.
GOON SQUAD TIME! (Men’s Cat 3) Ryan Conley lead the charge in the CBRC pack for all of the laps I saw, finishing 11th. Jacob McCarthy followed Ryan on the road (and in my IG stories), finishing 16th, fifteen seconds ahead of Nick Groll in 17th. A late race shakeup resulted in Nate Porter in 22nd ahead of Ryan O’Donnell in 26th. Jeff K and Jack Carey rounded out the CBRC contingent in 34th and 41st.
In the UCI Elite Men’s field, a crash at the start took out Andrew Nicholas and Pat Frank. A few laps later, Tommy Servetas pulled out as well. Eric Bruner put in an attack with about 4 to go, getting a gap over Curtis that ended up being 31 seconds at the end of the race (it had gotten much larger at one point but I’m on vacation so I didn’t write it down).
As promised, some hypothetical math for the USCX Series overall. Coming into this weekend, Curtis was ahead of Eric Bruner, 212 to 193. Since today was a C1, the USCX series allocated 50 points for the win and 42 points for second place. This shrunk Curtis’s gap to 11 points, 254 to 243. Tomorrow’s a C2, so the point schedule is different – 40, 32, and 28 for the top three places. Assuming Eric wins, Curtis would need to finish second (he needs 30 points to avoid the tie-break rule – a third place only gives 28 points). Assuming Eric gets second, Curtis needs to finish at worst fifth.
Full overall series recap in tomorrow’s email! (I bet you’re glad.)