November 12/17 21:14 pm - Northampton International Day 2: West 2nd, St John 7th

Posted by Editoress on 11/12/17
 

Curtis White and Emma White of the Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com squad swept the Verge Northampton International presented by Cycle-Smart, earning maximum points to improve their standings for USA Cycling's Professional Cyclocross (ProCX) calendar.  Both extended their leads in the Vittoria Northeast Cyclocross Series presented by presented by Clif Bar and Cycle-Smart.

Women
Similar to Saturday's Elite Women's race, Emma White would shake things up early. However on Sunday, she controlled the race with teammate Canadian U23 National Champion Ruby West. The pair would escape early and work together for the majority of the race.

"On the first lap we came through and we had a gap," said White, who now has four ProCX wins this season, and is third overall in the ProCX standings. "So I think both of our goals was to make the gaps grow as much as possible. We just kept the pace high. Ruby was riding really well in the technical sections and I held the pace through the power sections. In the last lap, we just let it go."

White would take the win a mere two seconds over her teammate.  Rebecca Fahringer (Stan's NoTubes p/b Maxxis/gofahr) would come in third, 55 seconds behind White. Coming off a second-place finish on Saturday, Fahringer had escaped with a group that included Cassandra Maximenko (VanDessel/Atom Composite Wheels) and Arley Kemmerer (Fearless Femme Racing) with three laps to go. Maximenko would finish fourth, and Kemmerer would fade to eighth.

Teammates and friends, White and West would work together until the final lap. "Emma was on the front for the whole race and on the last lap she just looked at me and said, ‘OK, we're racing now.' Up until then we were just trying to maintain the gap and work together. And then, it was like, OK, we are fighting each other now," West said.

Men
With Saturday's winner Stephen Hyde (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) taking a break, Curtis White was left to control the Elite Men's race on his own. White, who won both days of Northampton in 2016, would escape with two JAM Fund riders early on lap one.

"Jack Kisseberth and Scott Smith and I got away early," said White, who entered the weekend in seventh place overall in ProCX standings. "In the run-up in the back of the woods, I tried riding it, probably made it about three-quarters of the way. That was the initial gap, and bit by bit after that." 

Kisseberth would continue near the front of the race, but Smith would end up in the pits twice and fall off the pace. White would attack with five laps to go and maintain a solo lead.

"I was sitting second wheel when Curtis went," noted Kisseberth. "I just didn't have the power to hang with him. I started dangling in no-man's land between Curtis and the trailing group. I did that for about a lap. I sat up a bit and rode with the trailing second group. Lindine was really strong and broke away in the last lap."

Justin Lindine (Apex / NBX / Hyperthreads) would fight his way forward to ensure the battle wouldn't conclude in a sprint. He secured second place, 22 seconds behind White, and 12 seconds ahead of a charging Kisseberth, from nearby Westhampton, Mass. The New England rider would finish third in a close sprint over Anthony Clark (Squid Squad), who would finish fourth. Smith would finish sixth.

"Curtis got away early in the race," said Lindine. "We were kind of chasing him for a while, but the gap opened up to a point where it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to reel it back. It was me and Jack (Kisseberth) and Anthony (Clark). They are both solid riders, and I didn't want it to go down to a sprint. So with three or four laps to go, I started trying to wind it up and keep the pressure on. I think I finally managed to open it up a little bit in the woods on the top of the course, and keep it from there. It was a hard last two laps trying to maintain that."

The 49-rider field saw most of the frozen sections soften as the temperatures hovered in the mid 30's. Without any mistakes or technical mishaps, White was able to ride alone for six of the seven laps.

"Yesterday was more like motor pacing. It was great watching Stephen's (Hyde) lines the whole day and I definitely learned a lot. Today was just focusing on my race and riding as smooth as I could. I really tried to ramp it up the last two laps, kind of make sure all the efforts I made were really sharp and punchy," added White, who said he would continue his season with the next two rounds of Vittoria Series events at Supercross Cup in Suffern, N.Y. (Nov. 18-19) and NBX Gran Prix of ‘Cross in Warwick, R.I. (Dec. 2-3).

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