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In an emotional end to spring break six members
of Skidmore Cycling gathered to race at Columbia and Princeton
Universities. Our most successful weekend so far this season saw
Skidmore take first in the women’s event and second in the men’s
event at the Princeton Orange Criterium, after racing incredibly
well at Columbia’s Grant’s Tomb Criterium. With our strong
finishes we placed first in Division II for the weekend.
The weekend’s results also allowed us to pull into sixth place
in the division II overall team classification with 55 points.
We are currently hot on the heels of Dartmouth, MIT, Bucknell,
and Ivies Princeton and Yale.
Racing in 35 degree temperatures and just-barely-not-freezing
rain, Anna Drakulich (UWW) defended her Series Leader’s jersey
by winning Princeton’s race on Sunday. Though it was clear from
Anna’s anguished facial expressions during the race that she was
not pleased about the mud and her numb toes, she easily stayed
at the front end of the field, and hung on to the front when the
small women’s pack split in two. Anna rode with only four other
rides for the majority of the race. The small but powerful
breakaway eventually lapped the rest of their field, an
impressive feat on a course that was only 1.5 miles long. In the
end, the race came down to a sprint finish in which Anna won by
out sprinting Caitlin Bever from MIT in an unbelievably close
finish. Anna, who once claimed that she couldn’t sprint, is
quickly proving herself wrong. She scored 70 points with her
result, as well as 20 points in intermediary sprints.
Scarcely an hour later Dave Brown ’07 completed his best-ever
collegiate race, finishing second in the men’s A race. Suffering
badly from the cold in the second half of the race, Dave
attacked the group before the course’s one short climb, quickly
bridging up to Eric Diamond, a senior from Yale University who
was already off the front of the pack. After finishing Eric
commented that after struggling on his own to stay ahead of the
group Dave, in his yellow and green kit, was like a ray of light
coming to his aid. And come to his aid Dave did. The pair rode
together for 10.5 miles, while holding off a fifty-strong field.
In doing so Dave won the admiration of the whole conference with
his second place finish, while helping Eric to his first
victory. Dave scored 64 points with his finish, as well picking
up 3 sprint points along the way.
In Sunday’s men’s C race Skidmore was represented by four
riders, Adam Cohen ’06, Sam Mapp ’07, Ricky Silver ’07, and
myself; Andrew Bernstein ’07. Skidmore worked hard to control
the thin field as it snaked along the rain drenched course. When
a Penn State-led break went off the front in lap seven of the
ten-lap race all of Skidmore’s riders worked hard to chase it
down, but were unable to bridge the gap up to the front. Despite
being out of place when the break went off the front, Sam was
able to pull off a ninth place finish, scoring 4 points in his,
and Skidmore’s, best men’s C result thus far this season. Ricky
finished twelfth, also scoring a point. I crossed the line in
18th, and Adam wound up 23rd.
The previous day saw the team racing at Columbia’s criterium
around the burial site of General Ulysses S. Grant. The first
warm day of the season started off with a tense Woman’s A race
in which Anna donned the yellow and black ECCC Series Leader’s
Jersey for the first time. She raced hard against a field of
women that included at least two professional riders. (Because
cycling is a club sport, riders are allowed to race for their
school teams as well as outside teams.) The course, which
included four sharp 90 degree turns and one 180 degree chicane,
was centered around a two-hundred meter uphill finishing
straightaway. After throwing some elbows to get into a better
position at the far end of the finishing stretch, Anna was
eventually out sprinted by three riders to finish fourth,
scoring 55 points, an incredible result for her first day in
yellow.
In the next race, Men’s A, Dave hung in with the field around
the roller-coaster course, once again calmly sitting at the back
of the field before moving up to the front end of the group.
Dave eventually sprinted up to the front, and finished eighth,
scoring 45 points; his best performance in a collegiate race,
until the following day’s triumph.
Wrapping up the day was the men’s C race. Though the pace was
fast off the start line we easily stayed with the pack for the
first lap until Ricky flatted on the course’s first incline.
Though bitterly disappointed with his luck, Ricky was forced to
withdraw. Sam and I continued on to race hard and sprinted in to
the finish. Sam wound up crossing the line in eleventh place,
scoring 2 points while I crossed in 19th place. Adam, who worked
hard with us in the first few laps was eventually dropped and
later retired.
Despite the weather, and despite cutting our spring break short,
this was one of the best weekends for Skidmore Cycling. Dave may
have finished the race second, but he won in our eyes, and Anna
looks great in yellow. Next weekend we will be competing in
criteriums at Bucknell and Lehigh Universities before taking a
weekend off to practice riding in a pace-line for team time
trials to come later in the season. Be sure to check out the
photos at Skidmorecycing.com and read the full results at
eccc-info.com.
Andrew Bernstein
VP Communications
Skidmore Cycling |
