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Rutgers Race Weekend
March 1, 2008
For many, the
highlight of this past weekend's races was seeing Lenny all dressed up
like Peter Pan, tights and all, hand on hip in a defiant gesture toward
a sentiment echoed by the classic Tom Waits version of "I don't want to
grow up." By many, of course, I mean Wes Beers' girlfriend
Laurent. But that is neither hither nor thither for the rest of my
expectant audience. What I'm betting you really want to know is how
our classmates and Philadelphia area friends did in this weekend of
racing at Rutgers.
Well, I can best sum up the schools of Philadelphia's relation to the
rest of the ECCC field with the following analogy. Philadelphia:ECCC
:: Ashton Kutcher:Justin Timberlake. Before you dismiss me and the
rest of this message as utterly unhinged, let me explain. From an
outsider's perspective, you might not be able to tell the difference.
Both are long past any periods of remote significance to even the
coarsest grade of pop culture you can find on TZ news or whatever that
show is on WGN in Chicago right before reruns of Scrubs at 11:30 (best.
show. ever.) Both look more or less the same, with their pre-torn,
pre-faded jeans and trucker hats slightly askew. Similarly, your
typical Philadelphia racer may from the outside look like he could be
from any other school in the ECCC. After all, our one outstanding
physical characteristic is more or less obscured by the ever so tight
bib shorts. However, Ashton once got to say to JT: "You just got
punk'd." Likewise, Philly racers told the rest at Rutgers, "you just
got punk'd." Oh, and though you cannot independently verify this
because the accused parties will inevitably lie, and unlike Ashton, I
don't have a team of cameramen at my beckon call, I swear to you, I saw
the collective body of non-Philadelphia ECCC riders crying. Even the
Army ones. Just like Timberlake did on Ashton's show.
Perhaps I embellish, but check this. In men's categories B, C, and D,
Philly for just a moment caught the right light, and no amount of
spandex could level the playing field.
For instance: Who was the winner of the men's B circuit race, where D1
and D2 schools are not separated. Philly (Drexel's Brett). Which city
had more B circuit race finishers in the points (4) than any other?
Philly. Philly put up big numbers in the Crit too, 3 guys in the top
8. Nova's Carl, Drexel's Brett, and Drexel's Dan. Brett also rocked
the B time trial, crushing his nearest competitor by 6 seconds. That
would have made him top 8 in A's. John Hunter from Temple was just 8
seconds behind him. Top point getting city in all of B's? Philly. Top
individual peformer in all of B's. Far and away, not even closely
contested. Brett, representing University City like a stud.
How about the C's? C1 circuit? Lenny. Forget about it, had it all the
way. C2 circuit? Showman from Drexel made it look easy. Look at his
photo on velocity results. Normally you'll see a race with a sprint
finish have someone else besides the winner showing. Not this time.
Not even close. He had them by three bike-lengths. In the crit, Lenny
picked up enough points to more or less count as top ten as well. And
his ITT put him in the top ten as well. Was he the only guy to finish
top ten points-wise in all three fields for Men's C's? I don't know, I
didn't spend enough time researching. But for a guy named David Roche,
I think he would have been. But come on...his name's Roche. And he
only got 7 more points.
D's? How about a 5-6-7 finish for Philly in the crit, and woulda been
one more in teh top 7 if I didn't wipe out on a prime while in 2nd
place. As for the circuit race, Temple once again represented, putting
all three of its guys in the lead pack, along with Philly's Ross, and
putting two of them in the points. To summarize, Philly put all four
of its D-riders in the points, more than any other city by two, and has
the 6th, 12th, and (tied for) 15th place riders in the conference.
Save for Temple, no other school had more than two guys score. No
other city had more than two guys score except for Philly. Cuz that's
how we roll.
Our women's and E riders also faired well. Interesting little tidbit
here--Tufts had two guys win like everything in E's, and have fast
enough ITT times to be middle of the pack in B's. Watch out for those
two slackers.
Be sure to check out all the results on the conference website.
This has been your race-weekend wrap up. I'm Charlie Zamastil, and
you're not. Peace.
Charlie Zamastil
Temple University '13
Before I begin, I just
want to say that this weekend was heaps of fun, and I encourage you all
to get out to as many race weekends as possible....if for nothing else
than to learn how to draft....HAHA.
Saturday:
Ok, so not early at all. I mean we all love leaving at 5am. When else
do you get to see all the West Phillyians coming out of Philly Diner
for what I think was meant to be a tardy midnight snack? As much as we
were intrigued by them, I think they were more curious about us. I
won't rip on Hilbert too much, but his alarm-clock system could use
some fine tuning. Ross apparently told him that we should all have a
chance to kick him...you know where...because he was 35 minutes late;
but, luckily for the future of the Hilbert clan, this did not happen.
So the temp was crisp, to say the least, and even with two layers of
spandex pants, warm ups, wool socks, two under armor shirts, a vest,
jersey, hoodie and jacket, I know I was still way too cold. I think my
tears were freezing my eyes shut. Haha, just kidding, they didn't
freeze. But my snot did though.
By the time we got to the time trial race (Jewish standard time, of
course), got our numbers on our jerseys and bikes, and stopped the
bleeding from all the safety pins poking us, Hilbert, Ross and I didn't
have any time to warm up at all. Lesson one: never do a time trial with
cold muscles....it hurts! Ross still got 10th though! Lenny had some
good time to put on the trainer before he raced, which was good. We
essentially became the Penn-Temple team since we all know each other,
train at Breakaway together, and conveniently parked beside each other.
The female ratio of our group was not too favorable, being just myself
and Katie Fry from Temple, but we also had many of the Temple guys'
girlfriends with us over the weekend. Caleb didn't get to race the time
trial due to car troubles, but he did arrive eventually, with his whole
family.
So next comes the crit. First congratulations goes to Hilbert, who
finished the crit for the first time. Ross also did very well, keeping
up with the main pack and finishing 6th. I was freaking out about
crashing in the crit, so I can happily say that I didn't. As Richard
from Breakaway said, I "could have won", had I not pulled the pack the
whole time or I had more time for my legs to recover from their last
blow-up. I got "prem" points, despite the fact that I didn't even know
what they were at the time, but a better finish will have to wait for
next race where I won't pull for 30 minutes.
Sunday:
A few of us were debating about whether or not to race Sunday because
of illness. Lenny has been sick, and I was getting sicker. In the end,
our own self-competitiveness probably pushed us to race, and we both
did. On a side not, Lenny ended up in the hospital Sunday night with
stomach pain (he is fine now, luckily), and I now have been diagnosed
with bronchitis and a perforated eardrum.....so perhaps we are not good
examples of how to take care of your body when you're ill....but then
again, we are athletes....
The men's C race was the highlight of the weekend for Penn Cycling.
Yes, your very own Lenny Klipper WON the circuit race for men's Cs.
Quite impressive for someone who'd never raced Cs before and was sick.
Caleb finished strong in Men's Cs as well. Max and Ross both didn't
know the race was over, and got a shock at the end that they didn't
have another lap! James Heaney and I experienced the same problem:
sprinting too early (and too many times) and wasting energy not
drafting the whole time. Apparently I can't count turns, and I sprinted
way too soon, losing my position in the top five to ten. Again, another
major lesson (for me, at least) in that the way to win these things is
to draft the ENTIRE time until a couple hundred yards to the finish. As
Lenny said, it's mental, and you have to humble yourself!
Overall, as cold as it was, we all had a great time and got to know
each other a lot better. See you all out on the road!
Michelle Mighdoll
University of Pennsylvania '08
Rutgers Photos
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