Weekend Preview: NoHo, NoHo, a Cyclocross Life for Me
Verge Northampton International celebrates 30 years, Euros take place at the Krappenbergcross
Basketball does a lot of things right, but one thing it really has nailed is the pomp and circumstance of its starting lineups. The 1990s Bulls with Sirius by the Alan Parsons Project playing and Ray Clay on the mic will always be the ultimate ideal of the starting lineups, but teams in college and the pros have done all kinds of things with fireworks, laser shows, and whatever else to get players and fans HYPE before games start.
In cyclocross, call-ups have not necessarily been this exciting. Being the first call-up has prestige for riders, no doubt, but you get called to the line and then you wait … and wait … and wait for the start of the race.
This year, we’ve seen some movement in the direction of call-up HYPE with the new starting lineup style call-ups for the front row at the World Cups. We first witnessed this at World Cup Waterloo where Lucinda Brand and the rest of the front-row starters got to ride down the start/finish straight to their front-row starting positions.
While this was no doubt really cool, with the return of the NECX series this weekend, we have to pay homage to perhaps the greatest call-ups of all time.
At the 2001 SuperCup Gloucester race, with world champion Erwin Vervecken in attendance, riders were called up one-by-one as a smoke machine created the HYPE atmosphere. Riders running, bikeless, to their starting positions made it that much better.
Gloucester 2001 shows us that we can and have done better in the HYPE call-up business. I think there is work to be done on our call-ups here in the states and hope that we might even see the return of the smoke machine one day.
Verge Northampton International Cyclocross - Saturday and Sunday
Elite Women: 2:00pm (EDT Saturday, EST Sunday)
Elite Men: 3:30pm (EDT Saturday, EST Sunday)
Broadcast: None
Recent Results
Elite Women
2019 (Sat): 1. Caroline Nolan 2. Regina Legge 3. Arley Kemmerer
2019 (Sun): 1. Caroline Nolan 2. Arley Kemmerer 3. Caitlin Bernstein
2018 (Sat): 1. Ellen Noble
2018 (Sun): 1. Ellen Noble
2017 (Sat): 1. Emma White
2017 (Sun): 1. Emma White
Elite Men
2019 (Sat): 1. Tobin Ortenblad 2. Nicholas Lando 3. Ben Frederick
2019 (Sun): 1. Tobin Ortenblad 2. Travis Livermon 3. Ben Frederick
2018 (Sat): 1. Curtis White
2018 (Sun): 1. Curtis White
2017 (Sat): 1. Curtis White
2017 (Sun): 1. Curtis White
Race Preview
It was admittedly dicey, but folks, the Verge Northampton International … is BACK. And not just BACK, but BACK for its 30th edition. Folks, this race has so much history, so much experience, it qualifies for the Baby Masters.
Set at Look Park in Florence, Massachusetts, the race hosted by Cycle-Smart has been a mainstay on the NECX calendar since it started as UMass Cyclocross at Orchard Hill in 1991 and has really served as a right of passage for so many of the sport’s top riders who hail from New England.
Among those top riders with history at NoHo is Curtis White. White first raced at NoHo in 2005 when the event was in its 15th year, meaning White has been around for literally half the race’s history. He’s won NoHo six times at the UCI level, including sweeps in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (he didn’t race in 2019). Obviously the race is bigger than just one rider, but there is a good case to be made for renaming it the GP Curtis White.
The past is prologue, but in the current day, none of that really matters. As we move into the second half of the season and begin the march to Pan-Ams and Nationals, White is looking for some consistency in terms of results. Given his comfort and history at the event, there sometimes being back home in New England is best.
Speaking of being back home, Stephen Hyde is another rider looking for some good western Mass home cooking. Hyde started off the season racing like the Hyde of old at Rochester and Roanoke, but back troubles derailed his run through the three U.S. World Cups. Hyde skipped Cincy to recuperate, and he should hopefully be coming into NoHo with good health.
The rest of the Elite Men’s field is solid. National champ Gage Hecht is heading east, Lancy Pants, fresh off venturing into the Lion’s Den is heading further east, and 2019 double winner Tobin Ortenblad is also heading pretty far east to defend his wins and continue to build on his October success. Hyde and White will have to work hard to defend their New England turf.
West Coaster Caroline Nolan cleaned up at NoHo in 2019 after several seasons of dominance by NECX homegrown products Ellen Noble and Emma White. A new winner of NoHo will be crowned for the Elite Women this season, as White recently retired, Noble is recovering from an injury, and Nolan was unable to make the UCI ‘cross season happen with her job obligations.
Among the top riders, in the rankings at least, heading into NoHo are Raylyn Nuss, Crystal Anthony, Erica Zaveta, and Caitlin Bernstein. All three women have turned in nice results this season and should provide some good racing.
Playing the role of ringer, albeit the ringer with no UCI points in a huge 50-rider field, is Ruby West, who is racing her first cyclocross races of the season. West has won the NECX overall in the past and is the returning U23 Pan-American champion, so she is not to be discounted if she can get a good random draw.
Prior to 2019, the Cycle-Smart NECX series had a total of eight races, and then in 2019 it was six after Gloucester was done in by the permit trolls. This year, the NECX is just four races, with the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross next weekend forming the bookend of the series.
The Course
The course at NoHo features an open, grassy portion and then a more technical section in a pine forest. Both days feature a sandpit, and Saturday’s course includes a steep run-up. The course is reversed on Sunday, with the steep run-up not turning into a harrowing descent.
Adam Myerson and ResultsBoy Colin Reuter did a course preview a few years ago that was marginally notable because it was the Cold AF year. Seriously, it was like 10 degrees on race day. Woof.