White Park CX Race Report. Concord, NH

Saturday, September 17th was the White Park CX race held in Concord, NH. Unfortunately, I was the only Expowheelman to take the Treks to Concord. I raced the 55+ Cat 1-4 race which had a preregistered field of 34 guys. It was a beautiful bluebird day with cool temps early in the morning and warming up quickly as the sun climbed. The course was very dry and really well balanced with what felt like a lot of running. I think it would have received the Boxy stamp of approval and was similar to the Silk City course. There were 2 steep run-up hills, one you could ride if traffic was clear, a long off camber section that was partially rideable followed by a drag strip section and some high speed turny sections.

My race start was fair and things got sorted out relatively quickly. After the 1st lap and a half I heard the announcer mention my name and said I was in 3rd place. I managed that position for about a lap and a half when I cracked on one of the run ups. I was able to recover but the damage was done as a group of 4 guys came by me and opened substantial gap by the time I recovered. On the second to last lap I was battling with a 545 Velo rider who snuck by me on one of the turny sections of the course and gapped me on a run up. I was able catch him just before another uphill section that lead to the off camber run up. He got bogged down with some lapped riders and I saw my opportunity and jumped him on the inside of the turn and hit the gas and gapped him. As I passed him I heard him say something, lamenting his line selection and the traffic. At the top of the off camber section was a sketchy downhill with potholes, a lot of loose dirt and a couple of turns to keep it interesting. I barely touched my brakes as I went down the hill.

The bottom of the hill emptied into a soccer field and as I hit the soccer field I shifted into the big ring dropped it down a couple of gears on the cassette put my head down and emptied the tank. When I looked back the 545 Velo rider wasn’t out of the woods yet so I backed off a little and peddled to the finish line. In the end, I had come in 7th place, had some fun, didn’t eat too much dust and managed to stay upright. It was a good day for me so I bought some Jake’s ice cream, which is really good, and called it a day.