Tag Archives: ECCC

Joe’s race report from Philly—with VIDEO!

First, the helmet cam footage:

Philly Phlyer 2011 Men C2 from Joseph Near on Vimeo.

Here’s what ECCC director Joe Kopena had to say about it:

If you dared think Men’s C races were not infused with tactics, strategy, teamwork, and drama, you would be wrong, my friends, as the video clearly documents!  More seriously, Joe has tagged the whole video with running commentary of what’s going on as he makes his way to a 2nd place finish (and edited the race down to a watchable 12 minutes).  I think it’s a great video to pass on to newer riders as he makes a lot of good observations and really covers what he’s thinking about throughout the race.  Great stuff.

Now, on to the race report! Continue reading

Joe Near’s fantastic race report from Rutgers

Worth reading! Joe is one of MIT’s new road racers who’s going to take the ECCC by storm. (You can see his photos on his Flickr page.) From an unpromising start to the day, Joe goes on to annihilate the D field:

Having done cyclocross but never having raced on the road, I went into the weekend feeling super strong but nervous. I have been obsessed with tactics during the past few months, but worried about the fact that I haven’t had much chance to practice them. I felt strong enough to race in the Cs, but Spencer asked for volunteers to do the D races, giving me a good excuse to give in to my doubts.

The ITT on Saturday was a blur. I arrived before any of the other MIT cars, it was still dark, and I had no clue where registration was. Continue reading

MIT takes Division II Omnium at Rutgers weekend, placing 2nd overall behind Penn State.

A quick race report from Martha: Katie Quinn at Christina Birch are undefeated in women’s B and C races!

by courtesy of Velocity Results

The MIT cycling team traveled to Rutgers this weekend for the first ECCC race of the collegiate road racing season. Having won the event last year, the team knew it would be an uphill battle this year, as none of the men’s A or women’s A riders were in attendance. Additionally, Spencer Shaber, the men’s captain and the sole men’s B rider in attendance, had injured his Achilles and could only compete (very carefully) in the individual time trial. The team of mostly rookies, aided by a few seasoned veterans, was able to capture the Division II omnium, and place second overall in the conference, just behind Penn State University. This feat obviously bodes well for the continued success of the MIT Cycling Team.

The Rutgers weekend consisted of three events, the traditional individual time trial (ITT) and criterium on Saturday, and the first ever points race contested in the ECCC road season on Sunday. The MIT team showed that they trained hard through this year’s incredibly snowy winter by taking three first places in the ITT: Katie Quinn in women’s B, Christina Birch in women’s C, and Adam Bry in men’s C. The excitement of the weekend really began, though, when Katie Quinn joined A rider Anna McLoon from Harvard to lap the field in the women’s A/B criterium. Thus, in her first ever B race, Quinn not only won her race, but beat all but one of the A riders. Christina Birch and Joseph Near also brought home victories in the women’s C and men’s D criterium, respectively. In the points race on Sunday, Quinn, Birch, and Near did a repeat of Saturday, each taking home the gold again. Quinn and McLoon lapped the field again, but this time Quinn initiated the winning break, leaving McLoon to bridge up, knowing that Quinn had the legs to win if McLoon let her get away.

Next weekend, the MIT team travels to NYC for the Columbia Grant’s Tomb criterium and a new road race hosted by Stevens.

Collegiate and amateur racing in the New York Times

This isn’t really about MIT directly, but a recent post from the New York Times’s City Room blog deserves a shout-out. It’s called “For Would-Be Armstrongs, Some Bike Racing Tips,” and it’s all about the transition from riding to racing in the amateur and collegiate circuits.

It also features advice from the coach and riders from my own undergraduate alma mater, the Columbia University Cycling Team. ECCC pride!

Columbia is a squad that has had an enormous amount of success in the past few years and has turned itself into one of the largest and most successful organizations in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference. The Lions almost always place talented and skilled riders in every men’s and women’s category. So it’s well worth reading their advice in the Times post.

ECCC end-of-season-survey RESULTS

Are finally available here. MIT’s X-Pot won not for “best event” but for “most soul-crushing event” (that would be the road race). I think we can be proud of that.

Also:

“Early in the drive back from Easterns we partook in an inter car food fight with Bucknell (we think). While we we were focusing our powdered donuts on Car #1, their Car #2 owned us with a pile of banana peels. While still reeling from our earlier defeat, we ran across the MIT caravan on I80. After tossing some bananas at one of cars a guy in the front seat calmly showed off their conference winning award. D’oh.”

It’s e-triple-c road survey time

With Easterns being over and all, the ECCC’s annual end-of-season survey is up. While it can be an excuse for teams to insult other teams hidden within the fog of anonymity, the answers can also be quite funny. Do thy part and fill it out here. Deadline is Wednesday, May 6.

ECCC Track Season

The inaugural ECCC Track Season, organized our own Josh Schwartz, gets underway next weekend. The ECCC season will feature three race weekends, shortly followed by Collegiate Track Nationals in Coloroado Springs.

The season schedule is:

Aug 22-24 Kissena, NYC
Aug 30-31 Valley Preferred Cycling Center, Trexlertown, PA
Sep 06-07 New England Velodrome, Londonderry, NH
Sep 11-13 Collegiate Track Nationals @ Colorado Springs

The team has spent this summer preparing at the New England Velodrome in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Pictures from a coaching session several weeks ago have been posted.