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BEAN POT RACE: TWO DAYS, THREE
RACES, ONE SURPRISE
Over the weekend of April
3rd and 4th, Skidmore cycling traveled to Boston to compete in
the Bean Pot Race Weekend, sponsored by the Boston Collegiate
Cycling Community. The Bean Pot features three races, a team
time trial on Saturday morning, a criterium on Saturday
afternoon, and a road race Sunday morning. Skidmore anxiously
approached the Bean Pot with our usual optimism, hoping to score
points in some of the five events we entered. We rode away from
the Bean Pot having surpassed our wildest dreams of success.
Sunday afternoon,
Dave Brown ’07 competed in the Men’s A class road race. The A
class race consisted of six laps around the 13.2 mile course,
for a total mileage of 80 miles, and 6000 feet of elevation
gain, more than a mile of vertical. The competition in this race
was fierce, and field included some professional athletes, as
well as collegiate racers. Skidmore cycling worked hard to
support our top man, to keep him fed and hydrated throughout the
four-hour race. The race was eventually won by a pair of riders
from the University of New Hampshire, who finished five minutes
ahead of the closest significant chase group. Of 60 starters,
Dave finished 30th of 47 starters in a race that strained even
the fittest athletes to their limit.
Although Dave did
not score any points with his results, one of my most enduring
memories from my time at Skidmore will be standing at the bottom
of the last hill below the finish line with Ricky, watching for
Dave to come around the last corner. Getting more and more
anxious as the minutes went by, we both started to yell and
cheer at the top of our lungs as soon as we saw him. Dave, who
was admittedly drained after riding 80 miles, was energized to
our cheering. He pulled up to the side of the road and slapped
our hands as he sprinted up the hill to finish. Other members of
the team were arrayed along the climb to the finish, and
everybody was so pumped to see him finish his ordeal that our
cheering made the pain in Dave’s legs melt away, and he finished
with incredible style. After slapping his hand, Ricky and I both
started running back to the team cars, to meet Dave and the
team. At the cars, we all tackled Dave, who collapsed on his
bike, exhausted from his effort. We had never been more proud of
him.
Earlier that
morning, at the Men’s D class road race, which was contested on
slick roads in a driving downpour, Skidmore cycling followed up
their success at the Princeton Criterium with another strong
showing. This race, which consisted of only 2 laps around the 13
mile course, was contested by Skidmore Cycling’s D class racers,
Tom Arnold ’07, Andrew Bernstein ’07, Adam Cohen ’07, Ian Liptak
’07, and for first time, Stephen Bolotin ’07. Leading out the
pack for the first six miles, Skidmore was once again
controlling the field, working hard to regulate the group’s
speed, and stopping break-away’s before they could start.
Unfortunately, after the first six miles, a rider towards the
front of the pack, went down, apparently for no reason, and took
out about 20 riders, including Tom, Ricky, Ian, and Stephen.
Ricky and Tom
were able to untangle themselves and their bicycles from the
people that had crashed around them, but had fallen so far
behind the leaders that they had been passed by the chase
vehicle, and had no chance of catching the pack. Thus, they were
forced to withdraw from the race after completing their first
lap. Ian, on the other hand, destroyed his rear wheel, in
addition to injuring his knee, and being unable to find his
bicycle. He eventually found his bike, received a new wheel from
race support, and continued riding only to withdraw a few miles
latter. Stephen scraped himself up, and being slightly ahead of
the main body of the crash, was able to continue riding the
race, and finished 28th out of 68 starters. Adam, who was ahead
of the crash, kept riding with the pack as it ascended the first
major climb, and then crashed at the bottom of a treacherous
decent. He slid on his side across two lanes of oncoming traffic
only to collide with a hay-bale, inches short of an SUV’s
front-bumper, shredding his uniform shorts in the process. He
did get up and continue racing, finishing 31st, just behind
Stephen. Unscathed but dripping wet and with ice forming on my
legs, I rode what might have been the race of my career,
avoiding the crash that took down four of my team mates, to
finish 14th, just seconds behind the winners.
The previous
day, Saturday, Skidmore Cycling’s D class team time trial
riders, Tom, Ricky, Adam, and myself, gave everything we had in
the first team time trial (TTT) of the collegiate season. A team
time trial is a race in which teams of four riders start the
race buffered from the teams ahead and behind by a 60-second
gap, and compete for the fastest time over a set course
distance, 9.75 miles in this case. By the nature of the race, it
is hard to gauge your standing during the race, because each
team starts alone. The four of us had only practiced the
drafting skills that are crucial to success in the TTT once, and
were therefore hope full but not overly optimistic about our
chances in the race. However, once we started we knew that we
were doing well when we passed the team from Wheaton that had
started 60 seconds ahead of us, and then pulled into view of the
team from Columbia, which had started two minutes ahead. We
pushed ourselves to our limit, and felt really good about our
chances when we reached the finish line.
After
packing back into the cars, we drove to the Tufts University for
the criterium, while anxiously awaiting the results of the time
trial. After watching a few minutes of a professional race,
contested on the same brutal course that we would be riding
later that afternoon and sneaking into a dorm at Tufts
(Skidmore’s are much nicer), we started to get dressed for the D
class race. Just as we were about to jump on our stationary
trainers to warm up for the race, Dave, who wasn’t racing until
later that afternoon, went to the official’s tent to check on
the results of the TTT. Putting Dave out of our minds, we all
went about preparing our selves for the race. The six of us
riding in the D class crit, Tom, Ricky, Adam, Ian, Stephen, and
I, were all thinking only about the race ahead of us, when Dave
came running down the hill from the officials screaming “WE WON!
WE WON!”
In all
honesty, it took a few minutes to register, what exactly it was
that was going on, but then, at once, we all got it. Skidmore
Cycling had defeated teams from Harvard, Columbia, Tufts, Yale,
Penn State, The University of Pennsylvania, Wheaton, Boston
University, UNH, and UVM to win, by a margin of 9 seconds, our
first team time trial. The euphoria that we all felt at that
moment is indescribable. It is huge coup for us, a team in our
first year, to have taken a win at a major race like the Bean
Pot, we knew it, and so did all of the teams that we had beaten.
As soon as we all realized what Dave was saying all seven of us,
those who raced the TTT and those who hadn’t, ran together and
embarrassed in a huge group-hug. There was cheering, laughing,
and tears of joy. It was truly a team victory.
"Perhaps one of the most notable results of the day
was newcomer team Skidmore taking the first spot in the Men's D
category, a testament to the team cohesion they have built in
just one month of racing."
-Mark Abramson (ECCC Conference Director)
With
our hearts still pounding from the excitement of our victory,
the D class riders lined up for the start of the criterium. The
.6 miles course was incredibly dangerous, featuring six 90
degree turns, one of which was at the bottom of a steep hill
that the best riders were taking at 45 miles an hour. Not a race
course for inexperienced riders. The pace off the line was fast,
and of the six riders from Skidmore, only four finished, being
lapped mid-way through the race. Ricky and I both got dropped
from the front pack, and worked hard to catch the leaders, but
weren’t able to get back to the front. I rode alone for most the
race, and was frustrated to be caught from behind, but also
happy that I had been joined by Ricky coming up from behind. We
both rode hard in our group, and finished 22nd and 28th
respectively. Adam and Tom were riding with the leaders for most
of the race. Adam crashed hard midway through the race, wrecking
his derailleur hanger and rendering his frame garbage, but he
was able to finish the race 17th. Tom, who was getting over
fears of the fast-paced, roller-coaster ride that is crit
racing, outdid himself. He rode with the leaders for the entire
race, to finish ninth and score another point for the team.
Later that day in the men’s A crit, Dave Brown faced some of the
toughest competition that he has seen so far this season. The
race consisted of 45 laps around the .6 mile course for a total
of 37 miles. The elite athletes of the A class sprinted off the
start line, completing their first lap in 45 seconds, reaching
speeds well in excess of 40 miles an hour around the six 90
degree turns. The action made the hairs on the back of my neck
stand, and members of Skidmore Cycling watching from the
sidelines had an incredibly hard time believing the speed at
which the race was unfolding. Dave was lapped after only ten
minutes, and was forced to withdraw, along with at least a dozen
other riders. At the conclusion of the race, only 25 of 50
starters finished, the rest having been pulled, and about
eighteen of those riders were a lap behind, racing for eighth
place. Although all of Skidmore Cycling’s members race purely
for a love of the sport and the enjoyment that comes from
completing a grueling race, the sport is not always fun. This
race was one such example. Although never pleased to be pulled
from a race, Dave knew that he could not contest a race that was
eventually won by a professional athlete, and was satisfied to
walk away knowing that he gave his strongest effort, and that he
escaped without injury.
On the whole, the Boston Bean Pot weekend was full of high and
low moments for Skidmore Cycling. After scoring 26 points, we
have accumulated 67 for the season, and currently rank 12th. We
never imagined that we would win our first TTT, nor did we
envision that only half of our entrants in the road race would
finish, but on the whole we came away from this weekend feeling
successful. We were successful both in our racing and in our
functioning as a team. Skidmore Cycling has grown, through the
past months, into a very tightly knit group, and it is that
quality that enabled us our win at the TTT, as well as our early
successes at the road race. We are looking forward to successes
at our next races at Army, UVM and UNH, and will keep you
updated on our success as they occur. You can also see photos of
all the action on our newly updated website,
hudson2.skidmore.edu/studentorgs/cycling.
Happy Riding!
Andrew Bernstein
VP Communications
Skidmore cycling
Andrew Bernstein
Co-News Editor
The Skidmore News
a2bernst@skidmore.edu
x6839
Cell: 917 685 7859
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