25 years ago this weekend, UCI Cyclo-cross racing made its debut in New England in what is now called the Cycle-Smart Northampton International. It is the oldest continuously operating UCI race in the country and as such led the way for many UCI races that have followed in its footsteps. It is also the third and fourth rounds of the Verge New England Cyclo-cross Series presented by Stan's NoTubes and Cycle-Smart.
Adam Myerson, then just nineteen years old, got involved in the race with a friend. He described its beginnings to Cyclingnews, "The race had existed in the 80s in various forms, as an early cyclo-cross race and eventually a collegiate mountain bike race. I first participated in it in the fall of 1990, when I was a freshman at UMass, and the race was still in Orchard Hill, right on campus."
"It wasn't a UCI back then, of course; just the opposite. I took the race over in 1991 with my collegiate teammate Mike Horner, and we turned it into a pure cyclo-cross race. It eventually grew into the biggest race in New England, and became a UCI event in 2000."
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Myerson added, "Gloucester became UCI in 2001, I believe. And to be accurate, our race wasn't the first. We're just the oldest. Chris Grealish ran the first UCI event in the US, in Mead, Colorado, in either '96 or '97. The Supercup was also UCI after that, and then the Monkey Hill Cyclo-cross in Wilmington, Delaware."
"It was the Monkey Hill organizer, Andrew Albright, who convinced me that it was possible for our races to meet the UCI standards. In 2000 I took over management of the New England 'Cross Series from Tom Stevens, and implemented a 3-year plan to take the series fully UCI. Amherst went first, then Gloucester, and then the rest in 2002."
In 2003 the race moved from Orchard Hill on the UMASS Campus to Look Park in Northampton. Early on, Myerson made the privately owned park a partner in the event, a move that proved to be a major factor in the race's longevity. The park is nearly perfect for cyclo-cross with highly varied and wooded terrain, a sand pit, a massive grass field, adequate pavement, and one of the most challenging run-ups anywhere in the USA.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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