Curtis White (Steve Tilford Basis Racing) and Caroline Mani (Groove Auto Off Street Racing) lead a world area of contenders this weekend within the opening spherical of the Trek US Cyclocross Sequence (USCX) at Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross introduced by Fats Tire.
Each elite riders took high honours within the season-long ProCX calendar in 2023, which this yr is USA Biking’s Cyclocross Nationwide Sequence. White is a two-time USCX champion, whereas Mani gained the ladies’s general in 2022 and completed second final yr, incomes high prizes from the $15,000 prize purse after eight races.
In 2024, USCX will once more supply $15,000, divided evenly between the highest elite men and women on the conclusion of 4 consecutive weekends that conclude at Trek CX Cup in Waterloo, Wisconsin on October 5-6. UCI factors are additionally on supply each days in any respect USCX occasions, Saturdays as C1 and Sundays as C2 for elite classes. There are additionally USCX factors accessible for beginner classes.
Final yr USCX additionally began at Fallon Park in Roanoke, Virginia. Each GO Cross winners, Canadian Maghalie Rochette and Swiss rider Loris Rouiller, are absent this yr so the sphere is huge open.
Mani was second in each GO Cross contests final yr, and can face competitors from Dutch rider Manon Bakker (Fenik-Deceuninck Devo), French champion Hélene Clauzel (UVCA Troyes), Canadian Sidney McGill (Cervelo Orange Residing) and U23 Pan American champion Lauren Zoerner (Aggressive Edge Racing).
White had a pair of fourth-place finishes in Roanoke final season. He’ll sq. off in opposition to up-and-coming Alexandre Binggeli (Elite Basis Biking Workforce) of Switzerland and a pack of US riders that embrace US Cyclocross Nationwide Championship silver medallist Andrew Strohmeyer (CDX TREK Bikes), nationwide’s bronze medallist Scott Funston (Cervelo Orange Residing) and US cyclocross single-speed champion Kerry Werner Jr (Groove Auto Off Street Racing).
James Piccoli leads Workforce Canada at UCI races in Québec, Montréal
Biking Canada introduced the choices for his or her nationwide groups for the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal, happening on September 13 and 15, in addition to for the Tour de Gatineau, happening on Sept. 20 and 21.
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, evaluations and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Veteran James Piccoli will conclude his 10-year highway biking profession in entrance of household and associates this weekend on the two males’s UCI one-day races. Piccoli spent three seasons on the WorldTour degree with Israel-Premier Tech, driving twice within the Vuelta a España. The Montréal native final competed in his residence races in 2019 with a US-based Continental staff, ending twenty second at GP de Québec.
Yearly the 2 Grand Prix races welcome the Canadian nationwide staff as a visitor squad, the place younger expertise check their expertise in a world peloton. Becoming a member of the skilled Piccoli are six U23 riders – Quentin Cowan, Jérôme Gauthier, Jonas Walton, Léonard Peloquin, Félix Bouchard and Félix Hamel.
On the ladies’s aspect, Kiara Lylyk (Boneshaker Venture introduced by ROXO) returns to the Tour de Gatineau, the place she was fourth final yr. She’ll be joined by Lily Plante, the 2 representing Canada earlier this yr on the Nations Cup monitor occasion in Milton, Ontario.
Rounding out the six-rider girls’s staff for Workforce Canada at Gatineau are Ngaire Barraclough, Jenaya Françis, Florence Normand and Katja Verkerk.
Alexey Vermeulen appears to be like to defend title at Chequamegon MTB Pageant this Saturday
The fourth cease of the six-race Life Time Grand Prix takes place in northern Wisconsin on Saturday on the Chequamegon Mountain Bike Pageant introduced by Trek. Defending males’s champion Alexey Vermeulen (ENVE-Issue) returns and appears to attain high factors within the Grand Prix collection, which is currenlty led by Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles).
“I am feeling good and Chequamegon is sort of a residence race for me. I grew up within the Midwest so am all the time excited to compete right here. Late within the season that pleasure all the time helps, and I’ve had a number of psychological freedom this yr, so I am trying ahead to those final three races of the Sequence, and I am going to see what I can do,” mentioned the Michigan native.
“I do not suppose you’ll be able to win Chequamegon with out being within the high 10 all day. It’s essential to produce a number of the greatest energy numbers you will ever do right here as a result of the race by no means goes off the gasoline and riders are all the time being coaxed to push it on.”
He’ll face a lot of high rivals once more, together with Swenson, who was second final yr, 2022 winner Bradyn Lange, who’s on the comeback from a damaged elbow, and 2021 winner Cole Paton.
“Chequamegon is all the time an open race and I used to be bummed to overlook it final yr attributable to COVID. I have not competed a lot this season after breaking my elbow in Could, so I am on my manner again and am tremendous excited to race,” Lange mentioned.
On the ladies’s aspect, look ahead to seven-time winner Jenna Rinehart and up to date Leadville winner Melisa Rollins to battle in opposition to two Grand Prix competitor who have been on the rostrum final yr – Alexis Skarda and Sofia Gomez Villafañe.
“The Life Time Grand Prix is getting extra aggressive than ever, and the previous couple of years at Chequamegon, each the lads’s and girls’s races have completed in bunch sprints, which makes it extra open. Within the girls’s race, I believe Melisa [Rollins] will go nicely right here once more, as will Alexis [Skarda], who completed second in 2023,” Rinehart mentioned.
“It may very well be anybody’s day. I have been battling a little bit of fatigue within the construct up however it’s a shorter occasion, and I understand how to race it, so I am optimistic.”
In a Life Time Grand Prix digital press convention this week, Lange and Rinehart talked to a number of journalists, together with Cyclingnews, in regards to the issue of the course although it’s simply 39.1 miles, a point-to-point MTB race from Hayward to Cable. The riders mentioned to look at for strikes on the Hearth Tower climbs, the longest and steepest part of the course, and energy wanted for a full two hours.
Comply with the progress of riders on Life Time Grand Prix social channels, in addition to Athlinks timing.
Marlies Mejias and Marcos Mendez win Bucks County Traditional races
Marlies Mejias (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24) and Marcos Mendez (Rockland Improvement Program) gained the twentieth anniversary criteriums on the Bucks County Traditional on Sunday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, marking the conclusion to the US criterium racing calendar.
The 40-kilometre Doylestown Well being professional girls’s race was marked by early assaults from Computerized-ABUS Racing, Miami Blazers and Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing, with all strikes reeled again from the sphere of 32. It wasn’t till the move of the ultimate climb to the end that Mejias launched her assault and held off the Blazers duo of Skylar Schneider and Samantha Schneider by half a motorcycle size for the win.
The entrance pack of six riders crossed the road in 1:06:16, with Andrea Cyr (Goldman Sachs ETFs) ending seven seconds later in seventh and the remainder of the sphere scattered on the course. It was teammate Liza Ray who helped Mejias into place for the victory and maintain off the two-rider surge by the Schneider sisters.
“Liza’s unbelievable work actually set me up for the win. Her willpower and skill to chase down the breakaway was so spectacular, and it allowed me to save lots of my vitality for the dash. I’m so pleased with the teamwork, and I used to be so pleased to take the win.”
The Thompson professional males’s race coated 100 kilometres on the identical technical 2.25km course with eight turns and a couple of,750 metres of elevation acquire from the repeated passes on the lengthy accent from West Court docket Road.
With lower than 5 laps to go the assaults stopped and Venture Echelon Racing and Miami Blazers took over to type their lead outs. Within the closing 200 metres, Mendez hit the accelerator to take the win. Lucas Burgoyne (Austin Outlaws) took second and Tyler Williams (Miami Blazers) crossed the road in third.
