White doubles up in Northampton

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Curtis White (Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com) ran away with the race for a second day in a row for his fourth ProCX victory at the Noho CX in Northampton, Massachusetts, on Sunday.

White, the newly crowned Pan-American champion, quickly separated himself from the front group to ride solo at the front. Behind him, Cannondale teammates Spencer Petrov and Sam Noel, along with Voler/Clif/HRS/Rock Lobster's Max Judelson, lined up behind Jack Kisseberth (Garneau Easton p/b Transitions) in the chase group.

"Early on, Spencer Petrov, Sam Noel and I were racing as a team, it felt like. We made the front selection again, trying to close up the front. I got a gap on the steep ride up and slowly was growing that throughout the rest of the race," said White.

"Sam is doing amazingly right now," added Petrov. "He's having such great rides. And Jack... You know, it's three on one in that situation. The first few laps, it was cat and mouse. It was a hard race yesterday so no one really wanted to play all their cards early in the day, so it was a little bit of playing around, and a few new people were there."

One lap later, the chase group was down to three riders after Judelson fell off the pace. Playing the team card, Noel and Petrov worked together to drop Kisseberth, who'd finished third on Saturday.

"After that, Curtis got away," added Petrov. "I can't and I don't have to do anything when he's out front. So there were a few laps of just playing with Jack, and Sam gave it some good gas, and then I gave it some good gas, and that's how we dropped Jack. From three and a half or three to go, it was just me and Sam out there."

Going into the finale, it came down to a sprint between the two Cannondale riders to work out the podium positions.

"Whoever led into that final corner was going to take it," said Noel, "so it was just a full-on sprint to there. We ended up colliding but luckily it wasn't too serious."

Saturday's runner-up Petrov bested Noel to take second place. The pair crossed the finish line 1:09 behind White.

"I'm still finding my form with the concussion I had earlier in the year," explained Petrov. "I did a big week of training, and I felt alright, and I knew that with a sprint, I like my sprint against most people out here. Well, not Curtis. It was so much fun riding with Sam, who's just flying. He was putting the hurt on me, and it was a good day."

White finished the eight-lap event in 1:03:38.

"I could see behind that my two teammates were racing together and trying to lock up the podium for a Cannondale sweep, so I'm very happy with that," said White, who extended his lead in the Vittoria Series.

While today's race looked routine, White remains focused on upcoming goals and races: "It was a similar performance [to Saturday's race], but today I was pretty motivated with Nationals in mind. Time is closing in, so it's about making every effort count."

Noel, in his first year as an elite rider, took his second UCI podium of the season.

"After yesterday, Spencer and I wanted to go one-two-three," he said, "and it was super sweet how it worked out today. Jack is super strong, but we were able to shake him, and Spencer and I were taking turns pulling and had some good teamwork going on."

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