Lane Maher (JAM Fund/NCC) hasn’t been on the start line at a US Cyclocross National Championship race since December 2019, where he finished 15th as a 19-year-old in the U23 division, won by Eric Brunner. For the next three years, he did not race a bike at all.
The 23-year-old New Englander took time away from racing his bike to focus on his passion for trains. He was happy for a year as a railroad conductor, his main journey on the rails along the Hudson River between Albany to New York City, and then worked toward a degree in civil engineering at Central Connecticut State University.
This year, he decided to make a comeback to competitive cyclocross racing. He will take the start in Sunday’s elite men’s championship race for USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships at Joe Creason Park in Louisville, Kentucky.
“In the spring, I decided I was gonna do a season again. I wasn't really sure how seriously I would take the first season. I didn't want to rush back into it, but it's definitely turned into a full-on comeback,” Maher told Cyclingnews from his airport layover on the way to Kentucky.
“So this year was cut short a little bit. I was planning to do a full UCI season, but I broke my collarbone training the first week of September. That delayed it further. I only got the last two UCI races in, really. So Nationals is kind of less pressure now, and more just experience for next year.
“It’s the first big race I've done since I've come back to racing, so I'm really excited to see how it goes. I keep my goals pretty high. Even if I know I'm not at that level yet, I'm shooting for the top five, which I know is extremely ambitious. My results today don't really support that, but I gotta keep them high so that I can get them.”
Maher has just four C2 races in the books this season, including a weekend at Nash Dash CX in Georgia, where he took a pair of top 10s, the second one third place. It was WTB Pivot’s Brunner, the 2021 elite ‘cross champion and three-time Pan Am winner, who won both of the Nash Dash clashes. The pair will again face off at Nationals and try to unseat defending elite men’s national titlist Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing).
“I definitely see Curtis White and Eric Bruner as the two to beat. I think Curtis has a lot of motivation to keep that jersey, and I think Eric is in very good form, and he wants it back. I think the top 10 has some pretty top names, including Gage [Hecht],” said Maher, noting Hecht, who won the 2019 elite men’s title in Tacoma. “I honestly think it could be anybody's race. I don't think Eric's raced as much as the others this year, but he's definitely fresh and he’s on good form.”
About that time off to be a railroad conductor, he said he was like a lot of young boys and was captivated by trains. But he took it a step further and decided to try a career on the rails, but the long shifts were a grind.
“The job itself was really fun, something that I always wanted to do. The schedule I didn't enjoy at all. I guess it wasn't really my cup of tea. But the job itself and getting to see different parts of the world, just from the railroad, is pretty cool. So I really enjoyed that side of it. And a lot of long nights,” he admitted.
In 2017, Maher competed in Louisville at the Pan American Cyclocross Championships and earned the silver medal as an 18-year-old junior. He went to Cyclocross Worlds at Valkenburg later that same season and finished fifth in the men’s junior race, one spot ahead of Pim Ronhaar and the highest-placed US rider.
But when CX Nats were held in Louisville in December 2018, he was sidelined with a broken collarbone and could not compete.
“That was my first year as a U23. I was in Louisville for Nationals, but I went to help my team and spectate,” he recalled. “I got to race the elite races, and I had a good start to the season, including Gloucester [Massachusetts]. But then I broke my collarbone a couple of days after, that was pretty frustrating.
“So it's been five years since I've been [to Louisville]. I'm excited to see what it's like. I hope but I don't think it'll be the mudder that it was before. But I think it could be a little slick on Sunday.”
He said he did not plan to travel to Europe and extend his cyclocross season. Instead, he would look to compete in mountain bike and gravel races in 2024. The US Mountain Bike National Championships are in Pennsylvania, which caught his eye, and he could be talked into the Leadville MTB 100.
“Last summer, I did the run and the bike at Leadville with my friend because we wanted to do both and get a belt for both. So that’s what we ended up doing. Leadville is on my calendar, possibly king of 50-50 right now. But if I do it, I’ll be all in.”
