What do you get when you combine a rose, bud, and thorn? Apparently Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2024 Collegiate Road National Championships. Who knew?
Eight members of the road team traveled down south to go up in elevation, competing in four national events over three days – the team time trial, individual time trial, road race, and criterium. Let this blog serve as proof that we figured out how to breathe without oxygen, and let’s walk through what our week of races looked like! Of course, since we’re in Albuquerque, and because it’s Seamus’ favorite activity, each day will be presented in rose/bud/thorn fashion. Don’t know what that is? You’ll figure it out (no one ever explained it to me so idk either).
Team and Individual Time Trial day
Rose
Hannah, Melissa, Chen, and Bianca (left to right on the start) set off for the team time trial to the sweet sounds of the commentator trying to recruit us for jobs. Apparently Los Alamos, NM has the highest number of PhDs per capita or something, little did they know that none of our riders have a degree yet. Regardless, they had a blast in their first team time trial and finished 7th in the nation and Melissa finished the individual time trial with a top 10!
During the individual time trials, Hannah and Mason zoomed every rider into Lee Lopez’s thesis defense, continuing our time honored tradition of embarrassing one another when they’re hyper-focused on becoming a doctor. (We have only found his masters thesis online so far but will update this once the doctoral thesis is up too). Rumor (heard here first) has it Los Alamos is in his future.
Bud
On the men’s team, Derek (pictured here in a totally legal aero position), Felix, Seamus, and Mason spent most of the warmup worried that Seamus wasn’t feeling that great and then spent the second half of the race worried about him dropping the other three. A faster time than last year was a great result, and with three of the four returning for next year we’re looking forward to the future. Inspired by the marginal gains acquired by the TT helmets and skinsuits (both new experiences for some of the team!), the whole team is looking forward to a future of aero gains. Gains are gains.
Thorn
After the races the real adventure began, as the team headed to the Petroglyph National Monument so that Seamus could stamp his national parks Passport. A rather thorny adventure awaited us, with lots of sharp scrub greeting the hikers. The worst part of the day was definitely Derek and Melissa going an extra walk at Petroglyph and lording it over everyone else at dinner. After dinner, it turned out the shower’s hot water wasn’t working. Since the nearby volcanoes weren’t very appealing (editorial comment: what volcanoes? Clearly this post is not being written by a geologist), team mom and most senior mechanical engineer Hannah disassembled and reassembled the shower to make hot water!
Road Race Day
Rose
Only Mason and Hannah competed in the road race, which was more or less a forgettable experience for Mason. Hannah, on the other hand, won her small group’s sprint and was probably top-5 among the sea-level folks. Meanwhile… the rest of the team was on the essential duty of shuttling around the two of them, handing up bottles and food, and huddling around Hannah at the end of her race to keep her warm. This was hard work, and required at least three trips to Sprouts (Melissa’s favorite place on earth), beans, cuties (the citrus, not Derek) a few extra USAC water bottles, and more than one trip down the musical highway to the tune of “America the Beautiful.”
Bud
Dinner this evening was, well, challenging. We’re still waiting on the cornbread to finish cooking… In the interim, everyone has now made it their goal to match Hannah’s t-shirt choice without her knowing, as Mason managed to accomplish at least once on this trip.
In addition to this admirable goal, some, more, intrepid (?) members of the team proposed the aero-enhancing camelbak skinsuit as a startup idea. Their slogan? Hydraero 3000! Or maybe Watersuit! Bianca is workshopping still but regardless, catch us on Shark Tank next week!
Thorn
The team really needed dinner that night, since most of the riders ended up doing longer rides than Hannah or Mason between shepherding us around the course and concluding their rides with a big climb up Sandia Peak (which gets above 10k feet at the top). This was particularly accentuated by the fake truce Seamus tried to make with Felix near the top, as the two of them slowly ramped up the pace on the way up the climb. Melissa, Bianca, and Chen followed at a more reasonable pace and it became almost everyone’s biggest climb ever! Opinions differed on how enjoyable the descent was: Melissa tore down like a slalom ski champ, Chen honed their apexing skills thanks to WTC cornering day, Bianca got in her arm day pulling brakes.
Derek, although he didn’t race or do the big climb and only eventually got cornbread, was still left out to dry. Hannah went to “””lay down””” in his bed to get away from the hullabaloo and woke up there the next morning, Derek banished to the couch and woken up at 5am by the rest of the team. Her only excuse? Sorry, it was very comfortable! (editorial comment: Hannah had also set a best 20 minute power during the road race… at 7,200’… tiredness was justified.)
Criterium Day
Rose
The crit was a hard day out for everyone with the only rose-worthy race mention being Hannah winning her second mini sprint of the weekend (albeit for 12th overall/top 5 of the sea-level schools after crashing earlier in the race but a sprint win is still a win!). Jealous of the Sandia Crest outing by the group the day before, Derek motivated Mason and Hannah to go peak bagging in the afternoon. We missed out on the glorious sun and instead were treated to 30+mph wind gusts and temperatures on the top to match the remaining winter snow. Despite the cold, the views were still stunning and the group photo ended up way cuter than expected!
Bud
With the rotation of the Nationals venue every two years, it might actually be at sea level next year! #bringontheoxygen!
Thorn
For the second year in a row, the Rio Grande Celtic Festival was happening inside the crit course throughout the race (to be clear, this is not the thorn, keep reading). This led to a constant soundtrack of bagpipes throughout the day and to some stellar intermingling between the cycling fans and the Celtic fans. A thorn for some was a rose for others when Hannah quickly abandoned Mason to explain to someone’s grandma how bikes haven’t changed much in 70 years. Mason had just been pulled from his crit, was not amused, and Hannah, of course, documented the occasion with glee from afar.
Travel Day
Rose
Half the team headed back on Sunday morning, leaving Derek, Hannah, and Mason to fend for themselves at the criterium. It’s hard to find a rose on a travel day, but Seamus convincing all four of his NUMTOTs to take public transport home, bike bags and all, was by far the highlight.
Bud
One way to travel, and that we’re looking forward to seeing more of in the future, is Dartmouth’s chosen method. Helmets in the airport (easily identifiable), paceline walking at all times (drafting is important at 2.5mph), and extra compact use of porta-potties (don’t ask) are all admirable travel methods we expect to see more of from them at the next ECCC race. Teams from other conferences at nationals did not understand but Dartmouth, we see you and appreciate you.
Thorn
Unfortunately, travel day 1 ended up hanging out in the great city of Houston for six extra hours on Sunday. Bianca chose to pass the time alternating between her newly acquired USAC water bottle and napping, while Felix returned to the working world. Seamus, Melissa, and Chen were nowhere to be found (probably joyriding on the airport tram if we were to guess though).
Final Thoughts
Rose
Overall, nationals was a huge success. MIT was one of 5 Club teams to send both full men and women’s teams and have racers in every event of the weekend. We had fun, we challenged ourselves, and we looked pro while doing it with nail polish to match our kit. What more could you ask for? (editorial comment: the Gatorade Guy is what more. Mason’s favorite volunteer from last year was back again this year, enthusiastically forcing ice cold hydration on us at every turn. We needed him, and he delivered. Thank you, Gatorade Guy.)
Thorn
Marking the end of the season is bittersweet as friends graduate and we wait a whole year to do this all again. On the bright side, the best riding months in Boston are just arriving and some might say #crossiscoming or maybe even track season?!
(Fancy) photos credit: Craig Huffman Photography
Text primarily by Mason