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Delaware Race Weekend
March 21/22, 2008
This weekend
was great. We had several first time racers
(Brandon,
Sam, Noah, Ana), some female representation for once! (Sam,
Erin,
Ana), some Hilbert shenanigans (courtesy of Hilbert
and...me...), some
ITT dominance (Mr. Boz), some crit dominance (Sean the
Ballerina), some
hot dog consumption (Adam), some major improvement (Jimmy,
Bringer of
Death), and plenty of the usual Bucknell oggling (...me).
Here's how
it went down
Saturday: Road Race
10 miles for M/W intro, 17 for Women's B/Men's D, 34 for C,
and 51 for
B. Brandon and Sam woke up early to see what this whole
racing
nonsense is about. I'm pretty sure once they got there
they realized
that bike racing is primarily about 3 things: bike racing,
pooping,
and talking about pooping. There is a little element of
camaraderie
in there as well I guess. We had a strong showing for
Men's D with
Admiral Ethan Schrum, The Hilbert, a fully healed Noah,
freshly shaved
Brad, and Jimmy, Bringer of Death/Harbinger of Doom ready to
inflict
some pain on a feisty D field. With a short course, the
pace was hot
from the start and Brad unfortunately got caught up in the
heat of the
moment and worked too hard to catch the break, but still
finished
respectively within the D field along with Noah, Ethan, and
Hilbert.
Jimmy, like a fire-breathing wolverine/eagle/velociraptor,
stuck with
the lead group like something very sticky and ended up
sprinting like
a 5th place finisher to get 5th place! The C race also
offered plenty
of excitement as returning powerhouses Maxwell Special K
Korus, Mr
Bosley, Matt "Lover of Tupperware and everything tupperware-like"
Furlow, Max "finally shaved his legs" feldman, and Adam "Joey
Chestnut" Siebert took the course in hopes of a penn victory.
The
trio of MAx2 and Boz set a
blistering pace that strung out the field
and left Matt and Adam chasing after the first lap.
There were
several attempts at breaks within this select group, but
nothing
organized and it came down to a sprint and Temple's very own
Jonathan
Gurcsik the Third outkicked Max K for the victory, with MAx F
and Boz
coming in at 4th and 7th, respectively. The B race was
represented by
yours truly and newly upgraded Quaker Golden Boy Sean as Lenny
chose
convalescence over competition. The B pace actually
averaged much
lower than the C's (a testament to our C squad's strength) and
consisted of surges at every hill and out of every corner
followed by
mass decelerations and regrouping. The entire B field
stuck together
until the final mile or so when vermont went to the front and
hit the
gas going into the final two turns. Sean found himself
second wheel
going into the final turn but the leader slowed down immensely
and
before sean could come from behind, the rest of the pack
sprinted
ahead down the uphill finish. Coming out of the final
turn, I
foolishly had not been keeping track of the mileage so I had
to claw
my way from the back of the pack to get into contention for
the
sprint. As evidenced by some of the photos, there was a
spectacular
crash involving one rider going down from rubbing wheels (and
two
flipping over him) and thankfully sean and I had started our
sprints
to either side and narrowly avoided it. The sprint
strung out the
pack and Sean and I rolled in at 9th and 10th.
Sunday: ITT and Crit
The ITT was much longer (at 5.1 mi) and included plenty of
rolling
hills and turns, and many of us thought it was a well designed
course. Jimmy, Noah, and Ethan were all that was left of
the D group
from before and put in some solid times to finish comfortably
within
the D field times. All 3 C riders put in excellent times
Matt (10th),
Max (3rd), and our very own Justin "the cupcake" Bosley taking
home
the ITT victory and plush zebra from the organizers!
Interesting to
note, all C riders' times would have put them well in the
midst of the
B times with Boz and MAx's times slotting into the top 3 or
so. As I
was fumbling to get dressed, I realized I had forgotten my
jersey
(Hilbert, your presence was felt with us that day) and Sean
luckily
had an extra one for me to wear (I expressed my gratitude to
him in
the crit, read on...) Sean and I took the course and put in
some
respectable times as well, Sean coming in 5th and me getting
my 3rd
10th place finish of the season (hopefully this isn't a
trend).
The crit, while it had its points of danger, was very
enjoyable for
all and proved to be one of our team's most enjoyable races.
Jimmy
entered the D field hoping to improve upon his fierce finish
from the
road race and, after getting poor positioning in the
beginning, was
able to make his way up to the lead group that ended up
lapping close
to half of the D field. The general layout of the course
was a short
flat section through a parking lot, followed by a long
descending road
that went into a brick walkway with a slight lip that provided
the
element of danger/excitement for the entire race. This
left turn went
right into a reasonably steep uphill that led to the sprint
finish and
back to the level parking lot. Jimmy looked comfortable
in the lead
group and with one to go attempted to go for the solo victory
but
overestimated himself a mere 100m from the finish, but still
finished
a respectable 10th place. We also had a lone women's
rider
participate in her first criterium and bike race! Ana
woke up early
and put up with the toilet humor and men's shenanigans and
rode her
butt off in the women's intro criterium finishing 5th and
scoring her
first points! The C men entered the crit hoping to show
their ITT
times were no fluke and that's exactly what happened.
With plenty of
cries of "sandbaggers!" Boz and Max K set a blistering pace
with a
group of dozen riders that lapped so many people. If I
had a nickel
for every sigh and sound of disgust of riders that got pulled,
I'd
have enough to take Mrs. Zamastil out for a nice seafood
dinner at
Long John Silver's. Max led for much of the race,
collecting nearly
all of the top prime points during the race. Coming into
the final
uphill finish, Boz and Max were outfoxed by a columbia rider
and came
in at 2nd and 11th place. The B race started with a
neutral lap
(which served me no good...) in order for us to get an idea of
handling the bottom turn over the brick walkway. During
this time I
tried to position myself near the front since all the other
races had
resulted in large groups that broke away and lapped most of
the
riders. On the first real lap, we came in way too hot
into the turn
and I followed a uvm rider (literally) off the course, onto
the
sidewalk, into the grass and some gravel, and somehow made it
back
onto the road. I had gone from about 5th to last place
at this point
and had to really push myself to move back into a safe
position so
sean wouldn't be on his own. The first half of the race
saw several
solo breaks, but most were reeled in or the rider overextended
themself, until at one point sean decides to go off the front
and work
with a uvm rider for a while. At first, I didn't think I
had a chance
fending off the entire field (as strong as sean is) so I
waited a lap
or so until I saw that sean had a 15-20s time gap and then
went to the
front and tried to disrupt any chase by the main field.
Through some
crafty riding, acting, and a little luck that no real
organized chase
formed, sean was able to solo off the front to victory.
Even more
amazing was the fact that Sean actually crashed on that bottom
turn
with two to go, and still was able to get back on his bike and
finish
ahead of a lone chaser and the main field. Once the main
group came
in, 3 solo finishers had already gone by and I sprinted to 7th
overall
to cap off a pretty spectacular weekend for penn cycling all
around.
Overall we finished 9th out of 29 schools!
Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures, but we're working
with
other schools and once our photographers get them uploaded,
we'll send
them your way!
Hopefully we'll have an even better race report next week
about our
hometown showing at the Phlyer! |
Ross Marklein
University of Pennsylvania
Delaware Photos
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