More Like the Really ColoRADo Festival of Cyclocross, Amirite?
Mani and Brunner sweep the RRFCX weekend in Falmouth, Massachusetts
After last weekend in western Massachusetts at Northampton, the Cycle-Smart NECX series moved to the east side of the state to Falmouth for the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross. Hosting its third year of UCI racing, the RRFCX takes place at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds on the southern heel of the boot-like Cap Cod peninsula.
First-time attendee Caroline Mani said she was impressed by the Radness of the location, course, and venue.
“I think it has a lot of potential. It has some punchy technical aspects. Some sand, some pavement, in the woods. And the venue is just really nice. That state and that place, you go to the bike race, and you're like, Oh this is a nice place. Let's go take a picture at the beach.”
Curtis White added, “It’s a nice course. It’s pretty technical. It’s all about carrying speed. You have to try and carry your speed through a lot of these features and it’s a lot about driving the bike.”
Last week’s races were swept by Ruby West and Curtis White, but both series leaders had tough new foes to deal with in Caroline Mani and Eric Brunner. The two certainly had their work cut out for them if they wanted to complete the series sweep.
Elite Women - Saturday
Saturday’s Elite Women’s started off with a lead selection forming in the first lap, with Caitlin Bernstein, Caroline Mani, and Ruby West breaking away from a sizable chase group that formed about 10 seconds back. Bernstein finished in the dreaded 4th position both days at Noho, so she was no doubt looking to translate her fast start into a podium breakthrough.
In the 2nd of 6 laps, West fell off the pace leaving just Bernstein and Mani at the front. Mani described the early part of the race. “The first two laps, I was like, Oooo, that's kind of a shock to the system. Two weekends without racing, kind of training and resetting, and not having to go hard for a long time. Not racing for two weeks, it was like, ok, let's do this again and get back to racing.”
Bernstein stayed with Mani for about a lap, before the Pactimo Fierce rider opened up a 7-second advantage midway through the race. Mani said that she first opened up her advantage on one of the two sand sections in that lap.
“I was trying to be patient because last weekend I ended up 4th both days and was trying to learn some lessons from that on the tactics.” Bernstein told dirtwire.tv. “I tried to be patient, but I noticed some spots where I was gaining on them in the corners, so I made a pass or two. Then it was just Mani and me, and I was able to hold her wheel for a lap or two.”
At the midway point of the race, West was now chasing 21 seconds behind Mani, and another group with Anna Megale and Crystal Anthony was another 8 seconds behind West.
Mani extended her lead to about 15 seconds in Lap 4 and then kept the advantage in that comfortable range the rest of the way to take her first win since the season-opening weekend at GO Cross.
“I have the age and the experience, I guess, to know where I could drop them,” she said. “I got a gap and then just maintained the gap. I didn't go too hard, I just tried to maintain a decent gap and go for the win.”
Bernstein held on to take 2nd by a comfortable margin. “I just tried to keep breathing and focusing on where I could make time, mostly in the corner sections in the trees, and then I just tried to hold on steady for second.”
Megale won the chase for 3rd. Crystal Anthony took 4th and Lauren Zoerner 5th.
“The goal for me was to chase [the leaders] down as best I could,” Megale told dirtwire.tv. “Crystal Anthony and I finally caught Ruby West, and then it was the three of us for a little while. Then in the last lap, I just wanted to get away from Crystal, so I put in a hard effort and gapped her just enough to hold it to the end. It felt really good.”
One cool part of winning for Mani was a painting from local artist Adam Oday, commemorating her win. “It’s already up in my room,” she said about the unique victor’s prize.
Elite Men - Saturday
With Kerry Werner and Michael van den Ham on the short list of riders not at Really Rad this past weekend, the race, not surprisingly started with a big group at the front. One lap in, a full eight riders were in the lead blob of riders.
In the 2nd of 9 laps, Tobin Ortenblad fell off the pace after snapping his chain, but the group stayed at seven. Eric Brunner described the early race, “The pace was fast enough to open some gaps, but nobody in the front group had to work too hard yet and everyone wanted to be second or third wheel but not lead.”
The calm demeanor was ripped apart in Lap 3 by, who else, but Curtis White. White turned the screws, and only Brunner could hold his wheel. Gage Hecht, Stephen Hyde, and Brannan Fix led the chase, a few seconds back.
Hecht, Hyde, and Fix dangled perilously close to the two leaders for the next lap and a half as they traded pulls at the front.
It was in the 5th lap that the race’s key moment occurred. Brunner described what happened.
“Gage and Stephen caught us again or were very close as Curtis and I looked at each other a little bit. Curtis ceded the front to me right before the off-camber section after the stairs, and I opened a small gap on him through there. I noticed and immediately went on the attack. I opened about 7 seconds on him by the end of that lap, and rode another lap full gas.”
“I could tell Gage and Eric were on a good level, especially Eric,” Curtis White told dirtwire.tv. “He came around and I could just tell he was more explosive than me. I’m close to home with these races, so this is a period where I’m trying to train through these races and carry a high volume.”
Brunner’s small advantage from his move grew to 16 seconds after his big Lap 6 effort. From there, the advantage would grow each lap to give him a comfortable win.
“I was able to ease off and recover just slightly as I wasn’t in immediate danger of getting caught,” he said. “At that point, I was onto two laps to go and pretty tired, so I focused on riding smoothly and putting max effort on the longer straightaways like the finish straight and the climb out of Pit 1. I rode it in solo for the win.”
White held on to take 2nd, and Lance Haidet bounced back to recover and take 3rd. Hyde finished 4th, and Hecht rounded out the wide-angle podium.
“It was clear Eric was on a good day, and he was more explosive, so I’m happy with second,” White said.
Brunner too got his own custom artwork for his efforts.
Elite Women - Sunday
Caroline Mani is getting ready to head back home to France for the World Cup in her hometown of Besancon next weekend, so staying patient like she did on Saturday was not what her coach ordered for Sunday.
“I should probably not have been as patient and should have just gone for it,” she said. “On Sunday, my coach was like, 'Hey, you need to go harder the first two laps.’”
While we saw Maghalie Rochette get her Euro training in at Day 1 of the Cincinnati weekend, Mani found executing her plan to be a bit more difficult, thanks in large part to those meddling kids.
One lap in, Mani was at the front with West, Bernstein, and Lauren Zoerner. “On paper, I was the strongest, but you never know,” Mani said. “They're pretty young and can hold their own quite a bit. It's not that easy to get rid of them.”
In the 2nd lap, Zoerner fell off the pace of the lead group, and then in Lap 3, Bernstein dropped back a few seconds, leaving just Mani and West.
West, of course, was looking to avenge her disappointing 6th place finish from Saturday, and she was racing hard against Mani.
“[Ruby] realized that at the barrier I was getting a gap on her, and there was a super tight corner before the sand, and she pushed me when I got back on the bike,” Mani said. “I was like, I'm not playing this game. Let's say I got European aggressiveness out of the way this weekend.”
Mani finally broke free from West in Lap 4 and opened up a decent-sized gap. West, to her credit, had thrown a wrench in Mani’s big plan. “It was hard to get rid of her,” Mani said. “My coach was like, 'I really want you to do two hard laps to simulate European racing,' and I was really trying to do that, but she was getting in my way, passing me and going down. It was a good aggressive few laps.”
She would go on to take the win to close the weekend on a high note.
West bounced back from Saturday to take 2nd, and Anna Megale finished 3rd. Bernstein finished in the dreaded 4th position again, and Zoerner took 5th.
Despite not winning on the weekend, West wrapped up her second-career NECX overall title after winning it in 2017.
Elite Men - Sunday
Last weekend on Day 2 of Noho, cyclocross ringer Scott McGill started the party early, and for good measure, he did the same again on Sunday. McGill took the holeshot and set a blistering pace from the race’s opening minute. Brunner and Stephen Hyde took up the early chase.
After Curtis White created the early gap on Saturday, Brunner returned the favor on Sunday. He explained what happened:
“I closed down the gap climbing out of Pit 1 and could tell that everyone was under a lot of pressure. On the shallow climb to the high point of the course, I attacked around McGill with Curtis following me. McGill crashed in one of the corners right after I passed him, which may have helped a gap form. After one lap, I hammered the finish straight with Curtis on my wheel and about 7 seconds on everyone else.”
White was no doubt looking for some redemption after getting beat by Brunner on Day 1, but Brunner, as he showed on Day 1 of Cincinnati, is riding on another level right now.
“I opened a small gap on Curtis through the sand on Lap 2,” the Blue p/b Build rider said. “From there I was all-in and feeling pretty good. I had only a 3-4 second lead on Curtis after Lap 2, and took the gap out by a similar amount each of the next several laps.”
Brunner’s lead grew to 14 seconds after Lap 5 of 9, but he said White was never out of the fight. “With 3 to go, I was hurting and wanted to recover a little bit, but Curtis was still charging and seemed like he might be able to catch me. He closed several seconds back on me, but I came around the last two laps and finished safely ahead of him.”
Brunner carried a 13-second advantage into the final lap and held it to take his second win of the weekend. “I had a much harder time cracking [Curtis] on Sunday, and it was mentally more difficult to go that early in the race and ride 6 and a half laps solo,” he said.
When Brunner and White went, Hecht slotted into 3rd by himself, while Ortenblad, Hyde, McGill, Fix, Haidet, and Scott Funston formed the chase for 4th. Hecht held 3rd, while the chase for 4th ultimately dwindled to Ortenblad and Fix, with Ortenblad finally taking home 4th.
White, after his 2nd-place finish, won the series overall.
The 2021 domestic regular season wraps up with the North Carolina Grand Prix this weekend and then the Bear Crossing Grand Prix in British Columbia on November 28 following Canadian Nationals in Langford on the 27th. The Pan-American Championships are in Garland, Texas on Saturday, December 4th, and then U.S. Nationals are on Sunday, December 12th in DuPage County outside Chicago.
For full results from both days, see our Day 1 and Day 2 results posts.