by: Colin Reuter

SKI WARD SKI AREA, SHREWSBURY, MA – New England’s Holy Week of Cyclocross continued Wednesday night with The Night Weasels Cometh, the dirty little cousin of the C1 race weekends at Gloucester and Providence. Now in its third year, the race continued its streak of muddy conditions, which combined with sometimes-questionable lighting and a sadistic number of off-cambers to provide non-stop “entertainment” for fans and racers alike.

The elite women’s race was headlined by Mo Bruno Roy (Bob’s Red Mill p/b Seven Cycles), and Bruno Roy did not disappoint, on the hilly, twisty, slippery course suited to her strengths, establishing an early gap and quickly proving that she was the class of the field. The chase was led by Frances Morrison (J.A.M. Fund/NCC/Vittoria), followed by the group of Kate Lysakowski (Cycle Lodge), Amanda Carey (Volkswagen Boise Cycling) and Anna Barensfeld (pedalpowertraining.com).

After two laps, Morrison was the only non-lapped rider to get a look at Bruno Roy, and as the race wound down even she lost sight of Bruno Roy in the dark and foggy night. Behind, the 2012 NUE Series winner Carey picked up speed, despite the race being seven hours shorter than her preferred discipline, steadily dispatching Barensfeld and Lysakowski as the night wore on.

In the end, Bruno Roy took home the victory (and a payout superior to that of a UCI C2) with a minute cushion. Behind her, Carey’s stair-riding antics earned her crowd-favorite status, but could only get her close enough to keep Morrison honest in the final greasy off-camber turns.

The elite men’s race, being non-UCI, featured an exotic mix of racers – local pros, elite masters, and elite juniors, in addition to a number of cat 3′s that were just there to be part of the “party at the back.”

Junior Nate Morse (Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team) took the holeshot and held off 2011 Night Weasels champion Justin Lindine (Redline) for an entire lap, earning himself the CRAFT Hot Lap prime and a fair bit of heckling from the crowd about how he was going “way too hard.” Behind those two, Brian Wilichoski (CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM), Adam Myerson (Team SmartStop/Mountain Khakis) and Canadian 40+ national champion Todd Bowden (Expowheelmen) led the chase.

Morse, on the adrenaline high of being up way, way past his bedtime, proved the hecklers wrong. While he was unable to hold the wheel of Lindine, he hung with an attacking Wilichoski for quite some time before settling into the chase group for third with two men more than twice his age, Myerson and Bowden.

Lindine has never lost at Night Weasels, and was soon on his way to the three-peat, gobbling up lapped cat 3′s like a honey badger that had just knocked over a bees’ nest full of larvae. The mountainous and greasy course led to minimal drafting, and soon he and Wilichoski both riding individual time trials far ahead of the rest of the field.

The race of the night was the battle for third, with Myerson and Bowden fighting for the title of “top rider over forty” while Morse refused to go away, like a teenager who won’t leave until you give him the car keys. Behind them, Alec Donahue (J.A.M. Fund/NCC/Vittoria) lurked, along with a surging Nick Keough (Champion System p/b Keough Cyclocross), who had lined up at the back for “practice.”

Morse continued to disrespect his elders with a final-lap attack, but a dropped chain on the attack showed that the young grasshopper still had a few things to learn. Myerson and Bowden, however, stayed locked in battle to the final turns, with Myerson hitting the finish straight first and holding on for the final step of the podium.

Donahue and Keough rode through a heartbroken Morse in the closing minutes and ended up having the tightest finish of the night, with Keough making a pass that was somewhere between “rubbin’s racin’” and “body-checking’s racin’” on the final turn to best Donahue for fifth in the sprint.

ELITE MEN

1     Justin     Lindine     Redline     0:59:33        
2     Brian     Wilichoski     CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM     0:01:35        
3     Adam     Myerson     Team SmartStop/Mountain Khakis     0:02:14        
4     Todd     Bowden     Expowheelmen     0:02:14        
5     Nicholas     Keough     Champion System p/b Keough Cyclocro     0:02:38        
6     Alec     Donahue     J.A.M. Fund / NCC     0:02:38        
7     Nate     Morse     "Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team     0:02:48        
8     Keith     Gauvin     Expowheelmen     0:03:52        
9     Chase     Dickens     AMERICAN CLASSIC PRO CYCLOCROSS TEA     0:03:52        
10     Ansel     Dickey     KMS/Start House Cycling Team     0:04:18        
11     Robert     Marion     American Classic Pro Team     0:04:26        
12     Mike     Wissell         0:04:26        
13     Jonathan     Anderson     Essex County Velo     0:04:26        
14     Charlie     Schubert     Bikes Not Bombs / Circle A Cycles     0:05:27        
15     Donald     Snoop jr     Essex County Velo (ECV)     0:05:52        
16     Jon     Bernhard     Riverside Racing     0:05:52        
17     Stephen     Pierce     Embrocation Cycling Journal     0:06:13        
18     Cary     Fridrich     Mad Alchemy / Verge Rider Cooperati     0:06:34        
19     Graham     Garber     Central Wheel     lap        
20     Tim     Ratta     Cheshire Cycle and Repair     lap        
21     Geoffrey     Bouchard     NBX/Narragansett Beer Cycling Team     lap        
22     Jeffrey     Molongoski     Joe's Garage     lap        
23     Ian     Schon     B2C2     lap        
24     John     Foley     CycleLoft     lap        
25     Hunter     Pronovost     Cheshire Cycle Racing - CyclistsAre     lap        
26     Joel     Brown     Cox/W.E. Stedman Cycling     lap        
27     Adam     Sullivan     Embrocation Cycling Journal     lap        
28     Ian     Keough     Bay Hill Capital /CLNoonan p/b Corn     lap        
29     Jeff     Gelt     Central Wheel of Farmington CT     lap        
30     Kurt     Schmid     CYCLOCROSS WORLD     lap        
31     Brian     Rutter     Cyclonauts     lap        
32     Jeremy     Brazeal     CompEdge Cycling     lap        
33     Gary     Dalton     Cox/W.E. Stedman Cycling     lap        
34     Alan     Douglass         lap        
35     Pj     Renquin         lap        
36     Frank     Petty     Union Velo     lap        
37     Aaron     Millett     Essex County Velo     lap        
38     Patrick     Cunningham     Horst Engineering Cycling Team     lap        
39     Matthew     Green         lap        
40     David     Gagnon     PowerWatts-FitTime     lap        
41     Steven     Hopengarten     GREEN LINE VELO Driven by ZipCar     lap        
42     Josh     Krzyzek     Union Velo Club     lap        
43     Joe     Kubisek     Cheshire Cycle Racing     lap        
44     Shawn     Mccormack     Sports T.E.A.M.     lap        
45     David     Warner     GREEN LINE VELO driven by Zipcar     lap        
46     Christopher     Merola     Green Line Velo Driven by Zipcar     lap        
47     Jonathan     Tarbox     Expo Wheelmen/Voss Bikes     lap        
48     AJ     Moran     GREEN LINE VELO driven by Zipcar     lap


ELITE WOMEN

1     Maureen     Bruno roy     Bob's Red Mill pb Seven Cycles     0:40:15        
2     Frances     Morrison     J.A.M. Fund/NCC/Vittoria     0:41:26        
3     Amanda     Carey     Volkswagen Boise Cycling     0:41:37        
4     Anna     Barensfeld     pedalpowertraining.com     0:41:51        
5     Kathleen     Lysakowski     Cycle Lodge     0:42:15        
6     Maghalie     Rochette     Powerwatts-FTTIME     0:43:03        
7     Karin     Holmes     Riverside Racing     0:43:33        
8     Vickie     Monahan     Expo Wheelmen     0:44:03        
9     Jamie     Gilgen     Kallisto / Wheels of Oakville     0:44:17        
10     Rebecca     Weiner     Bikes Not Bombs/Circle A Cycles     0:45:37        
11     Rachael     Mirvish     Erace Cancer     0:46:27        
12     Elizabeth     Allen     Danielson Adventure Sports     0:47:17        
13     Victoria     Gates     J.A.M. Fund / NCC     0:47:35        
14     Christin     Christoph     Competitive Edge Cycling     0:47:43        
15     Julianne     Oberle     Bikes Not Bombs/Circle A Cycles     lap        
16     Laura     Summers     Central Wheel/GHCC     lap        
17     Cait     Dooley     Geekhouse     lap        
18     Kristina     Donehew     Pedal Power Training Solutions     lap        
19     Jordan     Dubé     MAD ALCHEMY / VERGE RIDER COOPERATI     lap        
20     Cindy     Brennan     Bikes Not Bombs/Circle A Cycles     lap        
21     Leah     Pappas-barnes     HUP United     lap