The MIT Cycling Team brought 8 racers to the major pre-season road event for the year (plus our friend Alex from the New England Conservatory). We had a great performance throughout the day over 3 different heats. Congrats to Jose Soltren and Melissa Gymrek for winning the collegiate events for men and women respectively. My pictures for the event are up on our gallery page.
These team results are promising as we prepare for the Rutgers/Princeton Race next weekend. Stay tuned for weekly race summaries and pictures.
As you’ve probably heard, five of us (Tim Humpton, Jose Soltren, Kate Harris, Cim Wortham, and myself) flew to Kansas City this weekend to contest the Collegiate Cyclocross National Championships. We stayed in Lawrence, KS with Nick Loomis’s wonderful aunt and uncle Kathy and Howard Ebmeier. Nick traveled home early for the holidays to serve as our soigneur, chef, and photographer, taking pressure of us and making the weekend a lot of fun. Jose thinks he gained a pound in 24 hours thanks to our hosts’ wonderful cooking.
The ECCC Cyclocross series kicked off on Saturday at the Cycle-Smart International in Northampton, MA. Collegiate riders were out in abundance, with over twice as many competing as at the same weekend last year. Nevertheless, MIT Cycling continued its winning ways, prompting race announcer Richard Fries to declare it “a rising cyclocross powerhouse.” The Engineers outscored all rivals, Divisions 1 and 2, with riders winning the Collegiate Men’s B, Women’s B, and Men’s C events. Particularly fine performances were delivered by Cim Wortham, finishing 3rd of 93 overall (collegiate and non-collegiate) in the C/Cat 4 race, and KateHarris, finishing 2nd of 63 overall in the B/Cat 3/4 race. Congratulations also to Zuzka Trnovcova and Rachel Bainbridge for racing competitively in their first ever cyclocross race.
I’ve gotten a few requests for a race report from nationals, so in the name of procrastination, here goes!
After some panicked packing, two flights, and a long and winding car ride through the Appalachian mountains, I found myself a world away from MIT in Banner Elk, North Carolina, home to the 2008 national collegiate mountain biking championships. After leaving behind the frantic frazzled existence of a first-year grad student, I could finally yield to the perfect freedom of a single necessity: racing my bike. Continue reading →
UNH Kingman was the first MTB race for the MIT team this season. Beautiful sunny day, slightly on the chilly side in the morning. The cross country and short track courses were short and flat if you are hard to please, or “fast and furious” if you look at things from the bright side. MIT team had a great turn-out of nine racers.
The MIT Cycling Team won the 2008 Division II National Championship at the USA Cycling Collegiate Championships help in Fort Collins, Colo. on May 11. The MIT team seized an early lead in the opening event, the team time trial, and built their advantage throughout the weekend to take a surprise victory.
The MIT women’s team time trial (TTT) team of Martha W. Buckley G, Yuri Matsumoto G, Zuzana Trnovcova ‘09, and Sonya J. Cates G entered the competition solidly positioned as the best team in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference, having won four of five team time trial events during the season, including the ECCC championships. Continue reading →