Imagine a sport that combines mountain biking, road cycling, and a demanding obstacle course. Add in the ferocity, grit, and competitive spirit associated with physical sports like hockey, and you’ve got cyclocross. To succeed in cyclocross, you have to be not only extraordinarily well-conditioned, but fiercely competitive, highly self-disciplined, and just a little bit insane. In short, you have to be Arielle Filiberti ’07. On December 10, Filiberti won Junior National Cyclocross Championships in the ages 17-18 Women’s division. Not only did she beat out her closest competitor, former champion Stephanie White, by over a minute, but Filiberti also edged out the winner of the Collegiate division and beat the winner of the Under 23 Women’s division by over three minutes. Equally impressive is the fact that this is only Filiberti’s first year competing in the sport. Cyclocross is a hybrid of on- and off-road cycling. At certain points on the course, competitors hop off their bikes to jump over series of barriers while carrying their bikes. In addition, courses are packed with sharp turns, steep slopes, mud and gravel, and whatever elements nature might add. Championships were held this year in Providence, Rhode Island, at Roger Williams Park. Athletes raced three laps around the 3.2 km course, which included a set of stone and cement stairs, about 1 km of paved road, and 200 meters of gravel trail. Additionally, riders competed in over two feet of ice and snow. For Filiberti, however, the snow was an advantage. Because she trains in New England, she has had more experience racing in the snow than her opponents. Filiberti began training for cyclocross races over the summer. She and previous champion White were fairly well-matched, but by early fall, Filiberti was beating White on a regular basis. However, upon returning to school, between classes and field hockey, Filiberti had less time to train and lost her edge, and White began to beat her in races. Coach Frank McCormack, a former National Champion himself, had told Filiberti that this would happen, so she was prepared for it and began to increase training to prepare herself for Nationals. From six-AM interval training to runs or cycling after field hockey, Filiberti took her new training plan seriously. In the weeks preceding Nationals, which also coincided with field hockey championships, she trained both on and off her bike for up to two hours, three times a day. Filiberti created a makeshift cyclocross course on Rafferty Field, and wore a trail in to the ground from heavy use. She said, “I knew I had it in me to condition myself enough to win – I just didn’t know if I would be ready in time.” Two weeks before Nationals, Filiberti beat White for the first time since the summer. At Nationals, Filiberti’s strategy was to tail White for the first half-lap to get a feel for how White was racing and how she herself felt. “We both had a really good start,” she said, “but I could tell I was stronger, because she had to work much harder than I did to keep the pace.” Although she had already fallen twice, Filiberti took the lead during the first lap. White fell shortly thereafter, and was unable to stay with Filiberti as she pushed the pace faster and faster. Filiberti won decisively by a minute and 16 seconds and became the Junior National Cyclocross Champion. Filiberti hopes to carry her success from cyclocross in to road racing. She is already a force in national competitions, and aspires, this year, to win Junior National Road Championships and earn a spot on the US team. Filiberti is the captain of Andover’s cycling team, as well as the top female cyclist from the school and one of the elite in the league. She is also Andover’s fastest female Nordic skier, finishing 11th at Interschols last year in her first year of the sport, and a midfielder and three-year member of the Andover Girls Varsity Field Hockey team. With these accomplishments and now the Junior National Cyclocross Championship under her belt, Filiberti has established herself to be an Andover athlete of the highest caliber.
