Dartmouth Cycling Wiki | Races / Cyclocross Nationals

Another full fall season of racing for a handful of Dartmouth cyclists and alums has passed, and its been sweet. Rudy Awerbuch '07 and Katie Ammons '08 represented Dartmouth proudly at Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals with 10th and 9th place performances, respectively, in the Division II cross-country races. And in the most recent news, this past weekend's Liberty Mutual Cyclo-Cross Nationals in Providence, RI, saw the conclusion of a very succesful season of cross racing for Dartmouth Cycling. An apocolyptic snow and rain-storm (videos here ) on friday forced the officials to postpone the collegiate men's race until 9am the next morning. Toby Marzot '09 , Ed Meyer 'GR, and Kevin Wolfson '08 all placed in the top 20 out of 60+ starters finishing in 8th, 17th, and 20th, respectively, with Toby also taking 12th in the U23 race later that day (see his race report below). Kat Carr '06 continued the success with a strong 18th in the collegiate women's category (her 3rd ever 'cross race). Meanwhile, Steve Weller '05 and Amy Wallace '04 fought hard in their races, with Amy putting in an amazing 9th place performance in the Elite Women's field (yes, that means she is the 9th fastest female 'cross racer in America, not bad for her first cross season).

See pictures here , here, and here (thanks Mr.Wolfson) for evidence of the super-slick conditions, amazing course, and carnage from the weekend. And thank you to the promoters, volunteers, Liberty Mutual, and the city of Providence for an amazing weekend.

Toby's Race Report

Kevin Wolfson, Ed Meyer, and I were all supposed to race the Collegiate race on Friday afternoon. When we arrived, however, the conditions were gnarly. A blizzard developed, crazy winds blew down the tents, and our race was postponed until 9:00 the next morning.

At first I was psyched to be racing on a sunny Saturday, but this high lasted right up until I went for a warm-up lap. Since we were racing so early in the morning, the course did not have time to thaw. There were a couple inches of snow, and the nastiest sort of ruts. A good portion of the course was unrideable. I had trouble completing what felt like a super-long lap.

Kevin was nice enough to designate me the first rider to be called up from Dartmouth, so I got a front row position for the start of the Collegiate race. This was an incredible advantage, since the start is half the battle in a cross race. Thank you Kevin. My start was not brilliant, but I managed to be in the top ten coming off the pavement. From this point on I forgot about the course conditions and just raced. I was greatly encouraged by being in the top ten. Somehow my mediocre handling skills pulled through and I managed to stay upright through the first lap mayhem

Coming into the second lap I was sitting around 9th or 10th, but managed to make up some ground on the pavement. As soon as the pecking order was established I was with Adam Snyder, who usually rides for team Devo. A few seconds up the road was a Colorado State rider. We chased him for a few laps, before Adam finally put the hammer down and dropped me. There seemed to be an overall trend for me during the race: fast on the pavement and run-ups, slow on the corners and off camber sections. I ended up 8th at the finish and very satisfied.

The U23 was not nearly as much fun. I was tired from the previous race and had very little motivation to race. I cramped up during warm-up and I knew it was going to be ugly. Also, the course had warmed up a little, and as Richard Fries would say, it was a quagmire. I got a front line start again, but was well off the pace coming into the first corner. I was struggling with the newly developed mud, as well as my freshly toasted legs. Kids I used to lap were ahead of me and I was totally demoralized.

Midway through the race I felt a bit better, possibly motivated by the sweet new Dartmouth skinsuit I was wearing, or the awesome cheering of Kevin, Steve, Kat, Mad Watts Rossman, and many others. I crawled into the top 15, but soon my fatigue caught up to me. The last couple laps were miserable and I ran out of gas in a big way. I was surprised though, to see that I finished 12th, not nearly as bad as I expected. The best part of the weekend, though, was hanging out with Kevin, Kat, Rossman, and Steve on Sunday. We did some power spectating, heard some interesting expressions from the announcers, and then went to stay at the super sweet Biltmore Hotel in Provi. We also went to the super secret after race party and hung out with all kinds of cool people.