The 35th Cycle-Smart Northampton Cyclocross presented by ShiftGear closed out its weekend of UCI racing on Sunday, November 1, 2026, in Northampton, Massachusetts, with Elite Women and Elite Men contesting C2 races on Day Two over a course run in reverse from Saturday’s direction.
Eric Brunner and Elizabeth Gunsalus repeated their victories from Day One, but neither champion had a quiet ride on Sunday. The reversed course produced a two-rider duel in the women’s race and a chaotic, flat-filled battle in the men’s race before the same two riders stood on top of the podium.
The race is the longest-running UCI cyclocross race in North America, now in its 35th year, but it began on a much smaller scale. The event started as a small race at UMass, the first race promoted by Adam Myerson and the first cyclocross race of the Cyclocross Magazine founder. It has since evolved through several UMass campus locations to its current venue in Northampton, and it now has UCI status, drawing elite fields to western Massachusetts each fall.
Elite Women’s Race
Elizabeth Gunsalus made it two wins in two days in the Elite Women’s race, but Day Two gave her company at the front. Gunsalus won the start and led to the barriers. There, Lidia Cusack, who raced only on Sunday, hopped the barriers and helped force the first separation. The two rode clear together, trading turns and probing each other’s strengths on the reversed course. Cusack, a Washington, DC native, is balancing her racing career with college at the University of Vermont in Burlington. “I was going to have a really hard workout today, so I asked my coach, ‘Can I go race?’, and they said, ‘Sure, just make it a hard 45 minutes,'” Cusack said.
The duel turned with three laps to go. Gunsalus and Cusack had been taking very different lines through a chicane in the wooded section all race, and when Cusack made a mistake there, Gunsalus attacked and opened a gap. Cusack’s efforts to close it produced more mistakes, and Gunsalus stretched her lead over the final two laps to win in 45:07, 16 seconds clear of Cusack, who took the U23 title in second. Daniela Bronk and Ellen Noble battled over the last podium spot before Bronk moved clear on that same decisive lap to take third in 47:51, with Noble fourth. Emma Betuel finished fifth and Bridget Wilson sixth. Both leaders now look ahead to the Pan American Championships next weekend in Washington, DC, where Gunsalus aims to defend her title and Cusack will race in front of her family and friends. “Pan Ams is my home race, so this was a perfect way to shake off the cobwebs before the championship,” Cusack said.
2026 Northampton International Cyclocross Day Two Elite Women’s Results
| Place | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elizabeth Gunsalus | VIA LLP p/b Van Rysel | 0:45:07 |
| 2 | Lidia Cusack | CXD Trek Bikes / UVM Cycling | 0:45:23 |
| 3 | Daniela Bronk | Green Mountain CX | 0:47:51 |
| 4 | Ellen Noble | JAM Fund | 0:48:38 |
| 5 | Emma Betuel | DRRT | 0:49:01 |
| 6 | Bridget Wilson | Colorado Mesa University | 0:49:46 |
| 7 | Ella Dishong | Columbia Cycles | 0:51:08 |
| 8 | Victoria Glascock | JAM Fund / NCC | 0:51:31 |
| 9 | Amanda Deleo | 717 Cycling | 0:52:48 |
| 10 | Madeleine Knox | KruisCX | LAP |
Elite Men’s Race
Eric Brunner doubled up in the Elite Men’s race too, but his win came the hard way. Andrew Strohmeyer won the start with Ben Frederick and Alexander Scopinich-Burgel in tow. Frederick got hung up hopping the barriers, and out of the early chaos a lead group of three emerged: Brunner, Aidan Vollmuth and Strohmeyer. Luke Walter rode alone in between, with Frederick and Scopinich-Burgel chasing behind. On lap three, a Strohmeyer mistake in the woods split the front group and Brunner rode clear with Vollmuth. Brunner then flatted in the woods himself and Vollmuth rode off the front alone. Brunner bridged back, was gapped again, and pitted twice before he finally came back and went clear with four laps to go. A A second flat on the final lap cost him another 20 seconds, but his gap was big enough that the win was never in danger. He took it in 1:01:51.
“I couldn’t ask for a better start to the season here. Usually the first race takes me a little bit to get going, but I’m really looking forward to Pan Ams,” Brunner said. Vollmuth’s second place in 1:02:03 earned him the top U23 prize. Walter held on for third. Dylan Zakrajsek came back from a difficult first lap to work his way through the field for fourth. Strohmeyer’s day went the other way. After chasing hard to recover from his earlier mistake, he faded to seventh.
2026 Northampton International Cyclocross Day Two Elite Men’s Results
| Place | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Brunner | Competitive Edge Racing | 1:01:51 |
| 2 | Aidan Vollmuth | Donovan Racing | 1:02:03 |
| 3 | Luke Walter | CXD Trek Bikes | 1:02:34 |
| 4 | Dylan Zakrajsek | Competitive Edge Racing | 1:02:52 |
| 5 | Ben Frederick | The Small Monsters Project | 1:03:28 |
| 6 | Alexander Scopinich-Burgel | JAM Fund | 1:03:52 |
| 7 | Andrew Strohmeyer | Competitive Edge Racing | 1:03:56 |
| 8 | Ethan Delgrosso | Competitive Edge Racing | 1:03:59 |
| 9 | Tommy Servetas | Competitive Edge Racing | 1:04:40 |
| 10 | Leif Bryan | UVM Cycling | 1:05:25 |
| 11 | Ian Muller | Shark River Devo | 1:05:49 |
| 12 | Alden Copley | DRRT NYC | 1:05:59 |
| 13 | Haru Watts | 1:06:24 | |
| 14 | August Chamot | Total Civil Construction Race Division | 1:06:49 |
| 15 | Nathaniel Picard-Busky | DRRT NYC | 1:06:50 |
| 16 | Noah Peduzzi | 545 Velo | 1:07:03 |
| 17 | Michael Marston | Battle Road Bikes p/b Daedalus, Inc | 1:07:18 |
| 18 | Griffin Larson | Green Mountain CX – UVM Cycling | 1:07:52 |
| 19 | Matthew Graham-O’Regan | Green Line Velo | LAP |
| 20 | Christian Ricci | JBI.BIKE | LAP |
| 21 | Jo Evers | Team Rock Lobster | LAP |
| 22 | Tyler Morgenson | UVM Cycling/Booger | LAP |
In the UCI junior races, Stephen Savino repeated his win in the Junior Men’s race with another solo victory, while Cormac Nagle attacked his road teammate Sylvan Garrelts with half a lap to go to take second. Lilli O’Donnell was once again unchallenged in the Junior Women’s race, winning by over a minute ahead of Zoe McGuire and Elena Svenstrup, who swapped their podium positions from Day One.
Related Products
No Comment