As the cyclocross season gets into full swing, there were two events this week.
Wendolowski Farm
NCC competitors made up a large percentage of the athletes racing at Wendolowski Farm in Hatfield on a hot Wednesday night last week.
In the A race, Sam Veggeberg finished in 8th, followed closely by Joe Lellman in 9th.
Daryl Beck finished on the podium in the B race (3rd)! He was followed by Trailblaster Acer Verson (6th), Phoebe Gelbard (12th), Amy Stephens (15th), Andy Macdonald (17th), Tim Pitkin (18th), and Miriam Paris (19th). For many of these folks, this is their first season of cyclocross! We love to see it.
The Junior 8-14 race featured a 100% Trailblaster field! The riders, in order of finish, were: Torin Rowlett, Madison Johnson, Stella Beek, Anders Krause, Alta Breismeister, Sid Wanner, Miles Abrams, Sasha Wanner, and Annemieke Bourdon. Great work, ‘Blasters!
Full results are on crossresults.com.
Gran Prix Beverly
Saturday was the third annual Gran Prix Beverly, which is held on a strip of park and beachfront on the North Shore. This course is known for the long beach run and tricky sand sections. The weather—hot, humid, and dry to start; thunderstorms to finish—added to the challenge. The NCC and JAM Fund/NCC riders made the trip to Beverly worthwhile, bringing in some great results against strong fields! Former JAM Fund/NCC rider Ellen Noble was on the mic, providing excellent commentary throughout the day.
In the Junior Boys 16-18, JAM Fund/NCC rider Jack Quinlan finished in 4th place, beating some strong riders from the New England Devo team.
All four of our masters racers drove 2 ½ hours across the state to have a head-to-head race with an NCC teammate who lives in the River Valley. Daryl Beck (25th) and Andy Scott (26th) finished 12 seconds apart in the Masters Men 50+, with Daryl starting out hot and Andy riding a bit more steadily. Daryl had a pretty epic mishap over the barriers, which had a left hand, slightly downhill approach. On one of the last times through, somehow Daryl’s bike ended up on one side of the barrier from him. He made a graceful recovery! In the Master’s Men 60+ race, Joe Lellman was 11th and David Goodwin was just over a minute back in 16th, after a back- and-forth with Joe early in the race.
After hot, humid, and dry conditions early in the afternoon, a thunderstorm hit midway through the women’s races. The officials made the decision to end the race early. JAM Fund/NCC rider Tanya Boulanova claimed a 3rd place finish in the slightly-abbreviated Women’s 4/5 race! Talia Loiter, also of the JAM Fund, finished 11th in the Women’s 1/2/3 field.
After a brief delay to let the storm roll through, the Men’s 1/2/3 took to the now wet and slippery course. Up front, a crowd-pleasing battle played out between reigning national champion and Beverly hometown hero Curtis White in the stars and stripes and 17-year-old Henry Coote, of Competitive Edge Racing. (Curtis earned the win). Not far behind was Patrick Frank (JAM Fund/NCC), who rode a strong and mostly solo race. Keith Mullaly (JAM Fund/NCC) finished in 7th place, in the middle of a group of riders who rotated around throughout the race. (Trailblasters assistant coach Gus Lellman, riding for Joe’s Garage, ended up 5th). Mark Hewitt (JAM Fund/NCC) finished 20th and Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin (Jam Fund/NCC) placed 25th. Sam Veggeberg was 48th.
Full results are available from Eleven11 Timing (and will probably be up on crossresults.com soon!)
