You've already gotten a taste of the excitement that was this weekend
from Tacco's thank you and the subsequent flood of emails riding the
wave. Here's the full weekend recap:
BIG RESULT:
We placed second overall for the weekend (only behind MIT) and first in
the Ivy league. Right on.
THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT:
Saturday morning started off with the most beautiful weather, in marked
contrast to last year. Beautiful enough that I can no longer remember
that awful, awful day. Anyway, we had some beastly TT results: Sarah
Bowman placed second in the Women's A field, losing only to MIT's Martha
Buckley (a pattern, it seems?). Amelia placed fifth in the WB field,
while Jenn Mygatt, Erica, Alli, Hannah, Jenny, Ashely and Constance
cleaned house in the women's C field, placing third, fourth, eleventh,
twelfth, seventh, eighteenth and thirty-fifth, respectively. That's a
lot of points! On the men's side, I finished twelfth in the Men's A
field. In Men's C, our three riders of Rich, Chris Miller, and Nick
Walter placed thirteenth, seventeenth and twenty-second, three very
solid finishes in a competitive field. Neil and Eric Fischer dominated
the Men's D field with a sixth and a ninth, followed by Jon and David.
Nick Geiser won the men's intro TT, claiming a nice KOM jersey; Dan
Blizzard followed closely behind in second, with Brian and Will getting
sixth and eighth. In the Women's Intro, Jenifer placed third, while
Rachel Kurchin and Sara Wollmacher placed ninth and fourteenth. My
favorite line from after this race was from Ashley, which was something
like, "I think I left my right lung up at the top." I'll cosign that, Ash.
The circuit race course was even better than last year, as it fed
straight from Livingston onto Whitney, rather than doing the left turn
on East Rock rd. We started a few minutes behind schedule after a police
officer went to East Rock Park rd, instead of the above spot, but all
was quickly resolved. The Men's D road race was a delight to watch. Neil
road smart in the top ten the whole time, and powered up the finishing
climb for a fourth place overall. Jon and David placed 28^th and 35^th .
Jason Kappa and Eric Fischer both had some bad luck and DNF'd on flats
(without injuries! Which made their captains more than a little
relieved). The Men's Intro field was won, again, by Nick Geiser followed
by Dan in second (awesome finish, Nick! but keep your hands on the
handlebars through the finish. If you fell I'd ruthlessly kick your
butt). Brian and Mark rode smart and worked together during the race and
placed eighth and ninth. In the Men's C race, Rich proved again that
he's got some serious power and finished in ninth, in a showing that
looked effortless. Erik sperling followed in 11^th , and Nick Walter was
in 27^th (Chris miller got a flat; again, sorry about that, but I was SO
EXCITED to see that you weren't hurt. God I'm my mother...). In the
Men's A race, I rode a very stupid race and missed the break, finishing
at the front of the pack on that god-forsaken climb for 18^th place.
The Women's fields, surprise, kicked some serious booty again. In the
Intro race, Jenifer Hanna placed 8^th , followed by Rachel and Sara W.
in 19^th . The Women's C field had high finishes from Jenn Mygatt in
3^rd , Erica Blom in 7^th , Jenny in 9^th , Alli in 10^th , Ashley in
14^th , and Constance in 30^th . Wowsahs. In the WA/B field, Sarah
placed fourth, followed by Lara in fifth, and Amelia DNF because of a
flat. Overall, some serious domination on Saturday.
Sunday was a little cooler than Saturday, but just about perfect riding
weather. The crit was a wide course and well marshaled and swept. This
year, there were only three crashes that merited a trip to Yale-New
Haven (what a crazy sport this is where writing something like that is
positive...). Anyway, in addition to the collegiate races, Tacco also
coordination a Men's 4/5 race, and Men's ¾ race, and a Women's 4 race
(which is quite rare and had a substantial turnout of 20 riders!). On
the Women's side, Sarah Bowman had another stellar race, following
behind Martha Buckley and Yuri Matsumoto from MIT for a third place
finish. Christine got pinched by some riders on turn two of one of the
final laps and went down on the bridge. (Sorry Christine, but I was just
so glad to see that you didn't have a broken collarbone!). Amelia in the
same race placed seventh in the B field. The Women's C race was perhaps
my favorite of the weekend. After Anna sent off the riders with a
tentative plan (which was perhaps frustrated by a rogue cowbell on the
course), our ladies worked together and had some serious wins. Alli WON
with a killer finish, followed by Erica, Ashley, and Jenny in 11^th ,
17^th , and 22^nd . The Women's Intro field had another fun race to
watch, with Rachel Duncan placing 5^th , Rachel Kurchin placing 12^th ,
and Sara placing 15^th .
On the men's side, Nick claimed his third win of the weekend. Dan
followed right behind in third, with Carl Oswald in 5^th , Will in 6^th
, and Brian in 11^th . Nice work! In the Men's D field, Neil had another
solid race placing fifth, with Jon behind in 22^nd . Eric avoided
several crashes on the final lap, and placed 26^th after having been
riding at the front of the pack the whole time. That was a fun race to
cheer for. In the C field, Chris Miller placed 6^th !! Nick Walter, Erik
Sperling, and Tacco finished nearly together midway through the pack. In
the A Race, Rudy and I placed ninth and third overall, showing the ECCC
what was what. (ADDENDUM: dougE is modest. He raced an awesome race and
came around the last corner first wheel with two riders right on him for
the finishing sprint. He fended off the pack and placed third! Rudy also
threw down a boat load of attacks throughout the brutal 60 minutes of
Men's A racing. Overall, a spectacular race to watch.)
Truly a spectacular weekend. What was most important to me was how much
fun I had hanging out with our team Saturday and Sunday, especially at
Anna's house on Saturday night; talk about good food! That was a
smörgåsbord of scrumptiousness. Thank you, Anna!
Nice work everyone. Rest up for our last two weekends, and get your work
done.
Cheers,
dougE
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