Bruno-Roy and Timmerman Slide to Muddy Downeast Day 1 Wins in Maine

Elite men in 4 inches of thick mud on the first lap. © Paul Weiss

by Jeff Bramhall

The New England Championship Cyclo-cross Series made its return to New Gloucester, Maine today with the first day of the Downeast Cyclocross Weekend. Racers were greeted with a nagging, persistent rain, deep, slick mud and cold temperatures. Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM Racing p/b Seven Cycles) and Dan Timmerman (Richard Sachs-RGM-Radix) proved to be the toughest through the storm.

A bit of chaos in the start of the elite women’s race left Mo Bruno-Roy and Amanda Carey (Kenda/trainwitheric.com) chasing from the back. Taking advantage, Natasha Elliott (Garneau/Club Chaussures/Ogilvy), Mary McConneloug (Kenda/Seven Cycles/NoTubes) and Minuteman Road Club riders Andrea Smith and Anna Barensfeld quickly formed a group and opened a gap on the rest of the field. It appeared that there would be a repeat of the first two rounds of the series in Vermont as Elliott began to ride away from the group. Right at home in the mud, Bruno-Roy fought back to reach the chase group and she, McConneloug, Smith and Carey began to put pressure on Elliott. With some aggressive riding from Bruno-Roy, Smith was dropped from the chase group shortly before they brought back Elliott. Once the catch was made, there was no stopping the mud-loving Bruno-Roy who came into the last set of sloppy off-camber turns with Carey and Elliott on her wheel. She managed to navigate the corners smoothly and put some space behind her as Carey muscled away from Elliott for second.

Unlike the women’s race, the men’s race was, in fact, a repeat of the weekend in Vermont with Ryan Timmerman powering away from the field on the first lap, creating a gap of fifteen seconds and never looking back. Behind Timmerman was a serious battle between Luke Keough (Team Champion System) and Derrick St. John (Garneau/Club Chassures/Ogilvy). Behind them was a powerful group with Adam Myerson (Cycle-Smart) and bikereg.com/Joe’s Garage/IF riders Jerome Townsend and Justin Lindine. With two to go, St. John had faded and it seemed that the podium would be sealed but Josh Dillon (Richard Sachs/RGM/Radix) put on a charge of epic proportions, blowing through seemingly comfortable gaps into third position on the road. As Dillon passed Lindine, there was still a minute up the road to Keough, but Dillon was seeing red and closed into within mere bike lengths at the finish with an emphatic third.

The Masters was a race among three giants in the field. Westwood Velo’s national champion Roger Aspholm and Corner Cycle’s dynamic duo, Johnny Bold and Kevin Hines took off from the gun and left the rest of the field in their wake. Knowing the Corner Cycle riders to be stronger handlers and with the course rapidly deteriorating, Aspholm put the pressure on early in the race and at one point, it looked like he may have had Bold on the verge of falling away. After his spot of bother, Bold returned with a vengeance, regaining the pair at the front and riding away from Aspholm with his teammate. The last three laps had Bold and Hines matching each other move for move, extending their lead over Aspholm. At the finish, the pair crossed the line together, hands in the air with Bold crossing first and pulling on the leader’s jersey. Aspholm maintained his third place to keep him in second in the overall standings.

The U-19 juniors race was quickly sorted out as the Joshua Lehmann show, with the Sunapee/S&W/Continental Paving racer riding away from everyone. The chase was led by Jesse Keough (Corner Cycle) and Tommy Goguen (Minuteman Road Club) with Keough dropping Goguen with two to go. When it all finished, Lehmann had over a minute on Keough with Goguen over two and a half minutes back.

The Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series will be contested over 7 weekends in 2009, starting with the New England Cross-toberfest of Cycling:  3 straights weekends of UCI calendar racing to be held in Williston VT, Gloucester MA, and Providence RI.  After a weekend of much needed rest, the series will continue with stops in New Gloucester ME on Oct 24, Northampton MA on Nov 7, Sterling MA on Nov 28, and the series finale in Warwick RI on Dec 5.  This year series is generously supported by Verge Sport, makers of fine cycling clothing and products since 1993; by Cycle-Smart, purveyors of personalized cycling coaching and solutions for riders across the country; by BikeReg.com, the official online registration service of the NECCS; by Paul Weiss Photo/Video, the official photographer of the NECCS, by October Handmade Bicycles, and by Ryders Eyewear.  You can visit these sponsors and get more information on the series by going to the web at http://www.cycle-smart.com/neccs. Full results below.

Photo Gallery:

Full Results: