Dartmouth Cycling Wiki | Races / Kevins Rutgers Race Report

After the smoothest departure I've ever experienced, mostly thanks to Sally's spanking new and custom bike rack for the trailer, 12 of us made our way down to beautiful New Jersey. Saunders insists it's a nice state, but there was a distinct smell of rotten horse meat outside our hotel, so I still have my doubts. Anyway, we woke up bright and early saturday to get to the ITT and prompty found the course covered in clay and water and mud. Turns out the road flooded the night before, and despite the warm sun the roads never fully dried up. All the races were pushed back an hour, giving everyone some quality chamois time before racing.

The ITT went pretty well for everyone. Because of the slick conditions, the promoters cut out the second turn-around, making it a 2.8 mile time trial. Highlights: new women's phenom Kelly Everhart rolled a sweet 3rd place in the beginner race; Eric Schildge and Rudy finished 10th and 15th in the Men's A race, respectively; everyone finished safe and fast; I didn't hit a goose.

Saturday afternoon brought the crit. It was a new course with 3 corners, none of which were tricky except for the pothole before the 2nd corner. Eben (getting his first taste of racing) and Leon got the afternoon started with the D men's race. Lots of wind and a small rise broke up the field, and both Eben and Leon finished the race well and wanting more. Next was Coach Todd's appearance in the Men's E race. He got dropped. Not on form. In an attempt to redeem himself, he rode the Women's C race as well, which also ended up being too much for him. Dropped. Fortunately, Kelly picked up the slack again with a great 11th place. In the Men's C race, Trevor Eide got a great start and was with the lead group for much of the race before losing steam and drifting back a bit. New racer Chris Zablocky rode great in his first race and ended up the top Dartmouth finisher. Newman also put in a great race before succumbing to bad legs. Sally Smith rode hard in the women's B race and finished just out of the points before the Dartmouth team had a break before the Men's A race.

In the Men's A race, Toby, Saunders, Rudy, and I all raced aggressively in a quick first crit of the season. Some moves went, including one that lasted several laps with Saunders pulling it around, but nothing stuck. A mechanical unfortunately took toby out of the race with 2 to go and hectic last lap and solid effort by Rudy saw Saunders and I come out of the last corner a touch too far back, but we managed to get by some people to finish 10th and 6th respectively. A good day in all for the Dartmouth team.

Dartmouth's performance in sunday's circuit race could be summed up as aggressive. Eben put in two sweet attacks in the D race, the second of which came with 1 to go and Leon on his wheel. It was great, like Boonen and Bettini. It all came back and both rolled in with the field, but it was great to see them be so aggressive. Kelly continued the theme in her race when she decided the race was too slow and went to the front to speed it up. Then, brilliantly, she sat back in the last lap and hit the wind again with 50 meters to go to take Dartmouth's first win of the season! Congrats again. The C men continued the aggressive racing and Chris was again the top finisher. Our lone B women's rider, Sally, continued the great racing by riding with the lead group all day and looking good in her Prada glasses while doing it.

Toby initiated the aggessive racing in the A race with a second lap attack. After two laps or so with just one other guy, Saunders bridged up in a group of 4. Some more riders made their way to the break (rudy and I missed the boat on them, oops), but having 2 riders in the break was great. The break eventually split in two. Toby just missed the win in a sprint against Michael Chauner, and Saunders rode to a great 9th place (giving him 10th, 10th, and 9th on the weekend... sweet).

In all it was an amazing weekend. Still waiting on team totals, but it went great regardless. Everyone raced well, had fun, and stayed safe. An awesome start to a season with many more great weekends (and hopefully even more dartmouth racers) to come...