Dear MIT Cycling,
Today was the last day of competition in Colorado. The cosmos decided to make up for the sunny and moderately temperate weather we had the first two days, opting for 40 degree temps (that’s not Celcius), drizzle, and reasonable wind. Despite being well attuned to crummy weather thanks to the 84 weeks of cold rain we get in New England each year, it was still challenging for our riders. (The Florida riders were, ah, “slightly less” prepared.)
The men’s team started first, and discovered some minor equipment issues that they worked out. The guys bravely warmed up, if that’s what it could be called out there, then took the line as the wind was really starting to blow. I’ll leave the details for a race report from one of the riders, but will quote Tim as saying that he was happy that he put in his maximum effort as the MIT Men pulled into 7th place after 17 miles of hard work.
As the women’s team warmed up, I became more aware that Martha is either insensitive to temperature or she’s a machine. (Add your vote to the comments.)
The women had an unfortunate mishap out on the course: after a strong start, Martha flatted just after passing the first neutral support and had to continue riding a flat to the next neutral. They finished in second place, about a minute behind the leaders, and recording the only flat on the course for the entire day. The good news is that they’re in a great position for next year.
After the TTT, everyone returned to the hotel to pack and get their awards (2nd in the Team Omnium!) before heading back to MIT. I also played Shuttle Bus with Coach and had an entertaining drive down to Denver International with Nicole in the jump seat for the third time in three days. Yes, I was worried that we’d have to spend a day without driving somewhere together, but that fortunately got delayed until tomorrow.
Tim and I struck out for home, making it to Lincoln for the night and Ma Loomis’s brownies.
Monkeys and cogs,
Loomis