Curtis White geared up for latest Longsjo Classic bike race in Fitchburg

The United States will host the world cyclocross championships, which are typically the domain of Europe, in 2022 and Curtis White has his long-range sights set on competing on American soil.

In the short term, the 23-year-old professional cyclist is geared up for the 58th Longsjo Classic, which returns to downtown Fitchburg on Sunday.

Racing gets underway at 8:30 a.m. and is highlighted by a 35-mile women’s pro criterium at 11:45 a.m. and a 50-mile men’s pro crit at 2 p.m. The circuit road course is just under a mile in length with the start-finish line across from the upper common on Main Street.

“It’s a New England classic,” White said Tuesday via phone from his home outside Schenectady, New York. “There’s an atmosphere and a history there. I have a lot of family and friends that come out to the event. It’s really a community there and there are a lot of great winners who have gone to Fitchburg.”

White won the men’s pro race in Fitchburg last year after a number of near misses over the years. His history with the Longsjo dates to 2010 when he was 14 and already in his fifth year of racing.

White, who rides for the high-profile team Cannondale p/b Cyclocrosworld.com, fully understands it’s going to take maximum effort to repeat against a talented and tough field.

“It’s not one of those races where you can just sit in and get a free pass and kind of fake it until the end,” he said. “It’s a hard race and you really do have to be strong and on good form to win it.”

White is in the midst of the offseason for cyclocross, which, for the uninitiated, involves competitors occasionally dismounting and carrying their bikes over obstacles before remounting and resuming riding on varied and rugged terrain.

So White is hitting the trails and roads — both gravel and paved — for some competitive training via racing this summer.

He’ll compete in a mountain bike race in Vermont on Saturday and in criteriums next week in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Greenfield, which, along with Fitchburg, comprise New England Crit Week.

“I’m building around this training program,” White said. “I’m getting a taste for different things, but also having fun with it and staying within a comfortable area. All of my preparation for the spring and summer is toward cyclocross, which starts in September.”

White graduated from Union College in December with a degree in the classics and a minor in law and humanities. That came in the midst of his most successful season to date.

White won the Pan-Am championships in Canada in November, finished second at the U.S. championships in Louisville in December and placed 21st at the world championships in Denmark in February.

“It was my first professional world championships and I was shooting for top 20 and 21st is a result I’m proud of,” he said. “But it’s something I definitely want to be improving on.”

While he has an aforementioned eye on the world championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in three years, White hopes to remain on the road and trail long after that.

“Certainly the biggest goal for me in the near future is the world championships,” White said. “So three years is a good amount of time to live for the sport, create a good environment where I can continue to grow and develop and experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

“But after that I would love to be involved in the sport as a racer for as long as I can. And if there’s a possibility of becoming a mentor in whatever capacity I would love that.”

To that end, White will serve as a guest coach at the MontanaCrossCamp development program later this month. The camp is open to promising U.S. riders ranging in age from 15 to 22, and has two sessions, one for women, including Lizzy Gunsalus of Dudley this year, and the other for men.

In the meantime, White is fully focused on Fitchburg and the 58th edition of the Longsjo Classic.

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.