The US Cyclocross Series (USCX) opening event this weekend marks the start of the season for reigning champions Caroline Mani (Groove Off Road Racing) and Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing).
Pan American champion Raylyn Nuss (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing) and Vincent Baestaens (Spits CX team), who was third in USCX for men, will also toe the line in the opening event at Virginia’s Blue Ridge Go Cross presented by Fat Tire, September 16-17. Baestaens won both GO Cross races for pro men last year.
Also in the field this weekend, which begins with a C1 race Saturday, are Maghalie Rochette (Canyon Collective), Emily Shields (Ken’s Bike Shop) and Lauren Zoerner (Groove Off-road Racing) for the pro women while the pro men start will include Michael van den Ham (Giant x Easton), Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD-Trek Bikes) and Caleb Swartz (ENVE Composites-Industry Nine).
Mani and Nuss, who finished 1-2 in the USCX standings last year, have been competing for the first time in the Life Time Grand Prix off-road series. They plan to miss the next two Grand Prix races, Chequamegon MTB Festival and The Rad Dirt Fest, to refocus on the USCX, both as directors and riders for their own teams.
“I’m running the team and also racing. We will be at all the USCX series events,” Mani told Cyclingnews. “My goal is to win it again and get as many wins as possible and help my young rider [Zoerner] to get to the podium as much as possible.”
Mani's team features the 20-year-old Zoerner, who was the women's U23 bronze medalist at US Cyclocross National Championships last December.
Meanwhile, Nuss has two other riders on her squad, reigning men's US elite cyclocross champion White and 20-year-old Lizzy Gunsalus, who won the women's U23 title at the 2022 Pan-American Championships.
"I am very eager to get back to the circus and dynamic racing of cyclocross! It's indeed the best time of the year. I am so excited to get back to the short one hour efforts here so soon," Nuss told Cyclingnews.
"It is a bummer that Chequamegon and the first weekend of the USCX overlap. I know Chequamegon would be a race I would enjoy, but I will plan to focus on our National Series as it is a priority to STF Racing to support U.S. cyclocross."
While Mani and Nuss out of the top 20 in the Grand Prix, the series currently led by Sofia Gomez Villafane, they both look to complete the series with the finale at Big Sugar Gravel on October 21, which wedged between the cyclocross World Cup race in Waterloo on October 15 and the conclusion of USCX on October 28-29 at the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross in Massachusetts.
"It will be interesting to see how the gravel season will impact the start of my 'cross season. I'm hoping it will have positive benefits later in the season by adding more depth as I build towards my goals at PanAms, CX Nationals and the CX World Championships. I have really enjoyed going to all of the major gravel events this spring/summer, and I love the group of friends I have in the gravel community," added Nuss, a two-time elite women's Pan-American champion who recently won the 19-34 age category at Highlands Gravel Classic to qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships.
There are eight races across four signature events on the East coast of the US that comprise the USCX for the fall, with elite riders vying for a $15,000 prize purse, split equally between the top women and men, for a second time in three years. Races will be broadcast live on GCN+ for subscribers, which the pro riders agree is important to sustain interest in cyclocross.
"I'm really excited to fight for the USCX Series overall this season, but even more excited to do so as national champion. I have trained and sacrificed for so long to wear the Stars & Stripes and represent my country as champion, and I want to make the most of wearing the jersey in our national series," White told Cyclingnews.
"Every race has their own unique features and character. What really raises the level for us is having the events broadcasted. It's important to our sponsors, and it's important for fans to see how dynamic the races really are. Cyclocross is an incredibly spectator friendly sport. The laps are short, you can see most of the course from one vantage point as an onsite spectator. The racers are giving 100% right in front of you. But being broadcasted truly raises the level of importance."
Mani has won both seasons of the USCX, last year retaining her crown with a 60-point margin over second-placed Nuss. On the men's side, White won a tight battle against Eric Brunner (now with (WTB-Pivot Off Road), that came down to the final weekend and three points, while Baestaens was third.
Brunner will not be at GO Cross, as he will focus on the Life Time Grand Prix series and will be in Wisconsin for the Chequamegon mountain bike event.
GO Cross in Virginia is followed by Rochester Cyclocross in New York on September 23-24 and Charm City CX in Baltimore, Maryland September 30-October 1 and Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross in Falmouth, Massachusetts October 28-29. All four race weekends offer C1 and C2 races for elite fields.
