What you’ll learn
______________________________
Cyclocross has a way of making even familiar things feel uncertain.
A new season means rebuilding bikes, checking equipment, coordinating travel and preparing for the particular intensity of racing flat-out for an hour. For Sam Brown, this year’s campaign came with an additional complication: changes to UCI equipment regulations meant the Ibis Hakka frames he had raced for the previous three seasons were no longer an option.
Suddenly, the first challenge of the season had nothing to do with fitness or handling. Sam needed new race bikes—and he needed them quickly.
He reached out to his coach, Chris McGovern, owner, operator and fabricator at Seeker Adventure Gear. McGovern’s response was not a question of whether they could make it work. It was a question of how.
By Friday afternoon in Rochester, the pieces had finally come together. Sam had two new bikes, a cyclocross course and just enough time to become acquainted with both before the opening round of the USCX series.
The first laps brought immediate relief.
The bikes felt natural beneath him. After weeks of uncertainty, the season suddenly felt real.
Cyclocross begins with a sprint, but the race for position starts well before the lights change.
Call-ups are based largely on UCI points. Riders with more points line up closer to the front, giving them a cleaner path through the opening corners and technical sections. Those farther back must spend valuable energy advancing through traffic while the leaders are already driving the pace.
After a lighter race schedule the previous season, Sam arrived in Rochester with fewer points and the 18th call-up—placing him on the third row for Saturday’s C1 race.
It wasn’t ideal. It was workable.
Sam has also learned not to spend too much time studying start lists before a race. Knowing every name and ranking does not change the task once the race begins.
This time, the beginning came with a small dose of Formula 1 theater: red starting lights followed by green instead of the traditional whistle.
Then the field exploded forward.
Sam’s start was solid, though not perfect. By the end of the opening lap, he sat just behind a front group containing more than ten riders.
For much of the first half of the race, the gap hovered between 20 and 30 seconds. Sam collected several riders who had fallen away from the leaders, but the main group remained tantalizingly out of reach.
It was the defining dilemma of his Saturday: keep burning energy alone in pursuit, or ease slightly and wait for the race behind to reach him.
Just past halfway, he chose patience.
Former teammate Jules Goguely arrived with two other riders. Sam and Jules soon separated from the others and began working together, giving Sam a faster—and more sustainable—way forward.
With three laps remaining, his legs were beginning to come around. He was content to let Jules lead the chase until a mechanical ended Jules’ momentum with roughly a lap and a half to go.
Sam pressed on alone.
During the final half-lap, the riders ahead began coming back into view. The gap was shrinking. Another place was possible. Then the course ran out.
Sam crossed the line in 10th—a UCI points-paying result and an encouraging start to the season.
A two-day UCI cyclocross weekend asks riders to approach each race a little differently.
Saturday’s C1 offered more ranking points, extending through 15th place. Sunday’s C2 carried fewer points and rewarded only the top ten. For Sam, rebuilding his UCI total after a quieter previous season, every point could improve his starting position later in the year.
Saturday’s 10th place had put points on the board.
Sunday offered the chance to add more—but because rankings would not update until Tuesday, Sam returned to the same third-row starting position.
Once again, he would have to race his way forward.
The start was similar to Saturday’s, but this time Sam emerged from the opening loop more firmly attached to the front of the race.
He settled just outside the top ten in the main chase group. As the laps passed, Sam and Ben Frederick became the group’s primary engines, repeatedly driving the pace and pulling the race toward the riders ahead.
By halfway, the chase had been reduced to two.
Sam and Ben caught riders who had dropped from the front, passing decisively and refusing to let them regain contact. The cooperation continued, but with two laps remaining, the contest between them began.
Ben attacked. Sam closed the gap.
Ben attacked again on the start-finish straight as they took the bell for the final lap. Two corners later, Sam accelerated past the first pit and rejoined him.
Through the technical section known as “Double Trouble,” Sam carried his momentum forward. He moved around Ben before the narrow woods, where passing would become difficult, and tried to protect the position leading into the planks.
That section had divided their approaches all race. Ben could ride the barriers. Sam chose to dismount and run. Each lap, the difference gave Ben a small advantage.
On the final approach, Ben slipped past.
Sam closed the gap after the planks and saved what he could for the finish. Ben opened one final sliver of daylight before the start-finish straight.
Sam launched his sprint. Again, the gap was coming down. Again, the course ran out.
He finished 11th—one position away from the final UCI points and just behind a rider with whom he had spent much of the race trading momentum.
On paper, Sunday’s result was one place worse than Saturday’s.
Inside the race, it felt entirely different.
Saturday confirmed that Sam had the fitness to race hard for a full hour. Sunday felt like racing in its purest form: making decisions, finding momentum, attacking technical sections and battling another rider all the way to the line.
It was also, in Sam’s words, some of the most fun he has ever had racing.
That distinction matters. Early-season results offer only a snapshot, especially when equipment, starting position and race sharpness are still coming together. Rochester provided something more valuable: evidence that Sam could move through the field, contribute to the chase and still fight for places at the end.
He left the weekend with a top ten, a near miss, new UCI points and growing confidence in two bikes that had barely existed as race machines a few days earlier.
Cyclocross—especially American cyclocross—runs on passion.
It depends on the builders who solve equipment problems, the mechanics who keep bikes moving, the organizers who create the courses, the photographers who document the racing and the supporters who make it possible for privateers to continue showing up.
Rochester was the beginning of Sam’s season, but getting to that starting grid required far more than one rider’s work.
The next stop is GO Cross in Roanoke.
If Rochester offered any indication, Sam will arrive with more confidence, more familiarity with his new bikes and a few UCI points in hand.
He may also arrive wanting just a little more course.
Follow Sam Brown at @sambrown.748.
Photos by Bill Schieken, @cxhairs.
Rochester Cross is a two-day UCI cyclocross event in Rochester, New York, and part of the USCX series. The weekend features fast, technical racing that attracts many of the strongest cyclocross riders in the United States.
Sam finished 10th in Saturday’s UCI C1 race and 11th in Sunday’s UCI C2 race. He started both races from the third row as the 18th rider called to the grid.
C1 and C2 are UCI race classifications. A C1 awards more ranking points and generally offers points deeper into the results than a C2. At Rochester, Saturday’s C1 awarded points through 15th place, while Sunday’s C2 awarded points through 10th.
UCI points influence starting-grid positions. Riders with more points are typically called closer to the front, helping them avoid traffic and reach the opening technical sections in a stronger position. Better call-ups can be especially valuable on courses where passing is difficult.
Changes to UCI equipment regulations meant Sam could no longer race the Ibis Hakka frames he had used during the previous three seasons. Working with his coach and frame builder Chris McGovern, Sam transitioned to new bikes from Seeker Adventure Gear.
Despite having limited time to test them before the weekend, Sam felt comfortable immediately. The bikes gave him the confidence to secure a top-ten finish on Saturday and contest another points-paying position through the final lap on Sunday.
Sam spent much of the race working with—and eventually battling—Ben Frederick. On the final lap, their different approaches to the planks proved important: Ben rode them while Sam dismounted and ran. Ben gained a small advantage and held it to the finish, with Sam crossing the line in 11th.
“Double Trouble” is the name given to one of Rochester’s technical course sections. On Sunday’s final lap, Sam used his momentum through the section to move ahead of Ben Frederick before the narrow woods.
Saturday confirmed that Sam had the fitness to race strongly for a full hour. Sunday brought the tactical, close-quarters racing that makes cyclocross so engaging. Together, the two results gave him UCI points, confidence in his new bikes and momentum for the season ahead.
