Category Archives: Race Reports

Race Reports, Road

Penn State race report (by Katie Maass)

Penn State Race Report (by Katie Maass)

What a wonderful way to end the ECCC season! This weekend’s races hosted by Penn State were both fun and hard. The weekend started off with a 9-mile TTT that I raced with Georgia LaGoudas and Jen Wilson. These two are great to race with because they are both very positive and supportive. We were all pretty equally strong, so we rotated smoothly through, working well together, and communicating the whole way. After going back and forth with a Women’s A team, we ended up finishing strong with a 2nd place in Women’s B.

After a brief delay waiting for the fire police to show up, the road race began. The distinguishing feature of this course is the long climb up Black Mo’ near the end of the course. Almost all fields were finishing one-by-one or in tiny groups. Luckily, Women’s C only had to do one brutal climb up the mountain. I hung in the middle of the pack during the initial descent, leaving plenty of space between the rider in front of me just in case. After the first few rolling hills, the group had split and I found myself with Georgia at the back of the front group of nine with a small gap from the rest. As we continued to climb, I was in a group of three girls steadily climbing the mountain. We never were quite sure if the top had come because every time we thought it was the top, we would descend a little bit and then see another climb ahead. These rolling sections near the top continued for a while. Penn State and I had dropped the other girl in our group of three and slowly caught up to another girl who was by herself. I ended up finishing sixth overall, not realizing that I was that far up until after the end of the race. I’m sure the climbs up Montezuma during training camp paid off this weekend.

The weekend ended with the Frat Row Criterium. I woke up Sunday morning feeling well-rested, waking up on my own five minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. I enjoyed breakfast with the team getting waffles with strawberries at the Waffle House. Georgia and I decided early on that the positioning at the beginning of the race would be crucial. We were the first to arrive to staging and claimed great start line positioning. Only two laps into the race, we established a small gap with a group of five off the front. And for the first time in a Women’s C race this season, we organized well (thanks to Georgia’s encouragement) and worked together to keep the pace up in the front. Pretty soon, we had a large gap from the rest of the pack and settled into a steady pace as we rotated through. I sprinted hard for all three prime laps getting the win on two of them. The last prime happened with three laps to go and I think none of the other girls knew it was a prime lap. I started second wheel going into the straightaway and when the girl in front wiggled her elbow, I sprinted by to take the prime. I looked back after the finish line and saw that I had a short gap, but I decided that I wouldn’t be able to hold the gap for the remaining laps. I went easy and hopped on the back of the line. Going into the beginning of the last lap, I was pulling and I wanted to stay near the front, but not pull the rest of the lap. I flicked my elbow and let Georgia pull through. I stuck close to her, but the girl behind her didn’t want to give up Georgia’s wheel. Going into a corner, I told Georgia to push ahead a bit so that I could fit in behind her wheel and it worked. I fit into 2nd wheel and let Georgia pull the last three-quarters of the lap to lead me out. I swung around her after the last corner and gave it all I had for the last straightaway. I held on long enough to get the win for MIT by inches.

Katie winning the crit by inches (courtesy Velocityresults.com)

This was such an excellent way to end my first cycling race season. I first mounted a road bike almost exactly 7 months ago. I knew nothing about clipping in, cornering, or gu’s. I can’t thank the team enough for welcoming me to the group and teaching me so much about bikes and bike racing. I especially want to thank a few people:
– Ben Woolston for making bike racing sound too irresistible to not try and for always being willing to help me with bike stuff
– Shaena Berlin for being extremely supportive—from lending me her old road bike before I had one, talking me through race strategies, to being a great cheerleader
– Jen Wilson for always being there when I needed a hug or a laugh and keeping bike racing fun
– Georgia LaGoudas for being a great teammate, a joy to ride and race with, and for helping me shake my nerves when needed

Congratulations to the team for a wonderful season and I can’t wait for next year! In the meantime, I hope to see you out on the roads again soon, especially for some summer ice cream rides.

Race Reports, Road

Shaena’s highly successful RISD weekend (by Shaena Berlin)

After last week’s horrifying events in Boston, it was a relief to get out to Rhode Island for a relaxing weekend of bike racing, home-cooked meals, and border collies (the latter 2 courtesy of Nate Dixon’s parents, who hosted us at their sheep farm nearby the road race course). This was my most successful weekend of racing yet, thanks to teamwork and helpful instructions from our coach Nicole. I took the week almost entirely off on Nicole’s advice; I usually convince myself that resting is bad for me. My legs felt tired the last few weeks, and I’d followed the training plan pretty diligently since November, so decided I should probably continue following it a few more weeks. It seems to have worked; all you other racers, try the resting thing before Easterns!!

Team time trial: (1st Women’s A)
Great practice with the TTT team that will race at Nationals! Not much exciting to say—we rode 4 hilly miles, and it was kind of hard.

Road race: (2nd Women’s A)
We tried to figure out how we could not only get in breaks, but also win them; the past few weekends, we’ve made the selection but not had the sprint abilities or coherent tactics to actually win. Rose (Mt. Sinai) made the race hard from the beginning, which was good for us. Coming into one of the dirt sections on the second (final) lap, we were a group of 6, including Chris and me. Rose tried to motivate the others to work against us, by attacking then waiting for me to chase. Chris is a better sprinter than me, so we decided to try to conserve her strength a bit for the finish; thus, I got to respond to attacks, which hurt. Rose’s strategy worked, in that one of her attacker ‘teammates’ got away (Hayley, Pitt, yellow jersey holder), but I got on her wheel. She pulled for a long time, since I put on a blasé attitude of “eh, if they catch us, that’s fine since Chris is there and they’ll be working”. Eventually it seemed like they weren’t pulling us back, so I traded pulls with Hayley for the last ~10 miles. Making the final turn, I downshifted into my little ring, then started sprinting and realized I was spinning out, so tried to shift into my big ring mid-sprint, during which time Hayley gapped me. In this race, I learned a lot about strategy and also that if you’ve been smart for 47 miles, you shouldn’t be stupid during the last 200m.

Crit: (2nd Women’s A, teammate win)
We strategized and made lots of plans for this crit, which made me nervous; I didn’t want to let my teammates down, especially after not getting the win yesterday. Happily, we didn’t have to implement any of the plans, so it was fun (in a painful way). Leslie (Dartmouth) attacked from the gun; I was fortunate enough to be beside her so jumped on it. I looked back, and we had a gap, so we decided to TT it and see what happened. I wasn’t worried about using myself up, since we had 5 A women in the race, none of whom (presumably) would be working to catch us, so by the time the chaser caught back on, it would be a perfect time for another MIT teammate to launch an attack. We came through the lap, and someone rang a bell, so we thought the next lap was a prime lap. I went for it, but then they rang the bell again; the last one wasn’t actually a prime (oops). The pack was close behind, which I didn’t notice, so I kept going hard while Leslie sat up to conserve strength to hang on when the pack caught up. They didn’t catch me right away, and soon after Laura bridged to me. We alternated pulling each lap, and she taught me more efficient lines to take through the corners. The gap was small (down to 8 seconds with 20 laps to go—yikes, almost gave up hearing that!), but we kept going and other teammates Chris and Katie blocked for us. We kept the same time/speed for all the rest of the laps (though my heart rate rose steadily…). Finally, we sprinted it out for 1st and 2nd!

Shaena and Laura "co first place"
Race Reports, Road

RISD race weekend recap

Full results: MIT 1/31 (reclaiming #1 spot in season overall standings)

Team time trial:
MA: 1st
WA: 1st
MB: 2nd
WB: 2nd
MC: 2nd
MD: 4th

Road race:
MA: Cameron Cogburn 7, Zack Ulissi 9, Ben Woolston 23, Kuat Yessenov 26, Joe Near 29
WA: Shaena Berlin 2, Chris Birch 9, Kate Wymbs 16, Katie Quinn 19
WB: Jen Wilson 11
MB: Scott Burdick 14, Oliver Schrang 24, Laura Ralston 26
MC: Stephen Shum 7, Nate Dixon 29, Matt Li 30, Matt Redmond 31, Sam Nicaise 47
WC: Georgia Lagoudas 9, Katie Maass 12, Morgan Hennessy 28
MD: Ben Eck 2, Anton Hunt 10, David Rosen 27, Ethan Sokol 40
MI: Michael Everett 1

Crit:
MA: Joe Near 10, Zack Ulissi 25 +6pt primes, Ben Woolston 28, Kuat Yessenov 29
WA: Laura Ralson 1 +20pt primes, Shaena Berlin 2 +28pt primes, Chris Birch 6 +4pt primes, Kate Wymbs 9, Katie Quinn 11
WB: Jen Wilson 9 +4pt primes
MB: David Koppstein 11, Scott Burdick 20, Oliver Schrang 25
MC: Matt Li 5, Stephen Shum 8
WC: Katie Maass 5 +7pt primes, Georgia Lagoudas 7 +4pt primes, Edrie Ortega 21, Morgan Hennessy 23
MD: Anton Hunt 2 +2pt primes, Ethan Sokol 9, Ben Eck 10
MI: Michael Everett 4

Race Reports, Road

PNP: Teamwork and a Lesson in Attacking (by Kate Wymbs)

Army Criterium Race Report

It was a beautiful day for racing in West Point at Day 2 of Army’s Race Weekend. Everyone was shaking off the rust from their legs from the previous climb-intensive ITT and Road Race, getting ready for the final race of the weekend, the Army Criterium: my first A Crit. The course was generally flat and fast, with a strong wind off the Hudson River, trains passing by, a short hill to the finish, and a total view for spectators. Thoughts of the discussed team tactics filled my mind: be near the front, attack after primes, counter attack, start the sprint 200 m out, grab the attacking wheel, block.

Before I knew it, we were already past the first prime, and boy was this field fast! I was nowhere near contention and spent the rest of the following lap reclaiming my spot near the front of the field. When we passed the finish line again, I decided to attack. I dug in and sprinted hard up the hill and down the backstretch. Along the water, I noticed one rider had bridged to me. I tried to work with her but soon realized she was only trying to slow me down and bring me back to the pack. If I were wise, I probably would have let her do so. Instead, proud that I has seen through her tactics, I worked to drop her and soon had a bit of a gap on the field and passed the finish line again.

Then I paused and realized I hadn’t played this exactly right, because here I was, off the front with little hope of sustaining it for the 15-20 laps remaining. Oh well, maybe there would be a prime lap soon and I could use my lead to pick up some points for the team. With luck, the next lap was a prime! I picked up the pace, but felt my strength waning. The peloton caught me just before the finish line and ate up all the prime points. Disappointed, I sat up and tried to catch my breath, only to fall behind the pack, off the back. Shoot!

I spent the next three laps trying to work with 2-3 other riders who were off the back but alas, we were unable to bridge the gap to the pack. Finally, when I realized the pack was more than half way along the course to us, I recalled the words of the announcer right before the start of the race, “For you newer B-riders, if you get lapped by the field in this criterium, and you don’t get pulled, you can rejoin and work with the pack again”. If you can’t beat them, join them. I sat up, slowed down, and paid close attention to the gaining field behind me. Katie was in a break with Hayley! Maybe I could help! I waited for them and then attempted to lead them out. It took them a few minutes to realize that they could work with me and then I gave them approximately two good pulls before they took off and I dropped back toward the pack. I gave a feeble attempt at blocking at the front of the pack, but was soon passed up the hill by the field.

Kate Wymbs joins the breakaway
Kate Wymbs joins the breakaway

Exhausted, satisfied, and with two laps to go, I sat up and drifted back. When I passed the finish line the next time, the official whistled me off the pack and I was pulled from the race. I brought my bike over to our “camp site” near the finish line and collapsed into a fit of laughter as I watched my teammates sprint to the finish, Katie in a lead group of four, and Shaena to win a field sprint for fifth. Great stuff!

Lessons learned: If you attack to try to draw out the field and tire out the leaders, make sure people are chasing you. If they just let you go, knowing that you’ll tire out and fall off, return to the pack to fight another day, or try to make a more successful attack later.

I have two new goals: One, take these lessons to heart and attack more strategically next time. Two, be strong enough next year I won’t be dismissed as someone who can’t hold a break.

Comment by Katie Quinn
Great report about a really fun race! But Kate isn’t giving herself the credit due! So I’ll make a couple of clarifications:

– The reason the pack didn’t immediately jump on Kate’s attack to shut it down was that it was good! I was around 2nd wheel approaching the finish rise when suddenly Kate came flying past with such high relative speed that no one wanted to make the jump required to get on it!

– The chase kept the pace up and made the prime lap hard, which helped me get of the front!! Maybe the pack wasn’t urgently pursuing her, but several girls took solid turns to keep Kate within reach. Having Kate off the front before the prime made that lap extra fast because people wanted to catch her and take the points. Because the race got hard, it was after the next prime that I was able to get away 🙂

– Kate’s pulls with Hayley and I were super strong and absolutely helped us stay away! We caught up to her while we were both pretty tired from the initial effort to get away. Her pulls gave us extra recovery between turns and some serious horsepower at the crucial time where it seemed the pack was either going to catch us or resign to let us go free 🙂

In short, THANKS KATE! Really nice performance in your first crit as an A racer!!

Race Reports, Road

Army Spring Classic Race Weekend, by Morgan Hennessy

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND!
Our journey to West Point started slowly, crawling along in Boston rush hour traffic on our way westward. We arrived exhausted and slept well, waking up to devour the complimentary hotel breakfast. Our car decided to pre-drive the road race course, and were taken aback by the beauty of the course—scenic vistas at every turn, perfectly paved roads, beautiful babbling brooks and natural wildlife—this course had it all, including miles and miles of climbing.

My group, Women’s Intro, took off with Men’s Intro for a few neutral miles down the gigantic descent and into the first large hill, as I adjusted to wearing a fellow rider’s GoPro video camera strapped goofily to my helmet. After stopping briefly on the hill, the coaches sent our small field off racing. It became clear after a few minutes that the Women’s Intro race would be a race between me and one Bard racer, as the third Women’s Intro rider fell off the back early. With Coach Nicole’s wise words echoing in my mind, I let Bard pull me for several miles of rolling hills after the first big climb. I glued myself to her wheel until finally she rolled to the side, and asked me to pull…
I was reluctant but relented, remembering my sportsmanship, and agreed to pull at an extremely slow pace along one of the many beautiful lakes on the course. We rotated a bit, but I realized she was tiring while I had rested. I took my opportunity to attack with 5 miles to go – I pointed out some of the local wildlife (a few birds feasting on a roadkill carcass) to distract her and sprinted towards the yellow line. It felt awesome. I finished with my first-ever win. I have never been more honored than when that night, back at the hotel, I was awarded the Most Aggressive Rider jersey for my deceptive tactics. After completing our races that day, Katie Maass and I successfully fed all MIT riders wanting bottles from the feed zone—no small feat for anyone acquainted with a road race feed zone. And, it was my first time doing it! Passing off bottles to bikers going ~20mph is a full-impact sport.

The next day brought the ridiculous Stony Lonesome hill climb—major pain—and the criterium. The hill climb yielded yet another first place finish for me, but by default—no other riders entered my category! Due to the tiny size of the Intro field, the directors had us race with the Women’s C field in the Shea Stadium criterium—an exhilarating and exhausting 35 minutes. Amazingly, I was able to stick with the peloton for the entire race, and watch my teammate Katie M. hold fantastic position for the majority of the laps. I ended the weekend with 3/3 wins in my category.

Highlights of the criterium included Men’s A rider Zach Ulissi’s unrelenting solo attacks off the front of the field, holding off the rest of the riders for basically all laps, gathering many prime points, until the very end. I don’t think I’ve seen such grit and pure strength displayed in an athletic event in a long time (the Aggressive jersey needs to go to Zach now, for that performance). The Women’s A/B crit proved an exciting one, with an amazing attack by Kate Wymbs to lead off (see her race report), followed by multiple solo attacks by Katie Quinn and an amazing sprint by Shaena Berlin to the finish, while teammate Jennifer Wilson kept amazingly consistent position in the pack for the entire race and placed well among the B’s.
I guess I’ve been told if you sweep the field, it’s rude to sandbag for another weekend, so off to C’s it is for me (wait, look over there! It’s an eagle!! Don’t miss it! Just keep looking over there while I keep racing Intros….). Congratulations to all my fellow riders for their fantastic performances in all fields – you are all so inspirational and amazing. See you at RISD – I’ll bring the Cocoa Roasted Almonds, you BRING THE PAIN!

Race Reports, Road

Army 2013 Recap

Overall:
MIT 2nd/38 teams

Places for individual riders below:
Road race: Scenic course with 12-mile laps, including a 600-ft climb and a downhill sprint finish
MA: Joe Near 7, Kuat Yessenov 14, Zack Ulissi 23, Spencer Schaber 27
WA: Shaena Berlin 5, Katie Quinn 7, Kate Wymbs 16
WB: Jen Wilson 7
MB: (neutralized due to crash at finish, places not awarded)
MC: Stephen Shum 12, Matt Redmond 23
WC: Katie Maass 13
MD: Ethan Sokol 11
WI: Morgan Hennessy 1

Hill climb time trial: 2.9 miles with 900 ft of elevation gain
MA: Zack Ulissi 2, Joe Near 22, Spencer Schaber 25, Kuat Yessenov 26
WA: Katie Quinn 1, Shaena Berlin 6, Kate Wymbs 15
MB: Scott Burdick 17, Oliver Schrang 24, David Koppstein 29
WB: Jen Wilson 7
MC: Stephen Shum 10, Matt Redmond 22, David Singerman 29
WC: Katie Maass 5
MD: Ethan Sokol 10
WI: Morgan Hennessy 1

Crit: Fast 1k loop
MA: Kuat Yessenov 17, Spencer Schaber 22, Zack Ulissi 28 +17pt primes, Joe Near 30
WA: Katie Quinn 4 +6pt primes, Shaena Berlin 5, Kate Wymbs 19
WB: Jen Wilson 6 +6pt primes
MB: David Koppstein 10, Scott Burdick 21, Oliver Schrang 35
MC: David Singerman 19, Stephen Shum 20, Matt Li 31
WC: Katie Maass 9 +1pt prime
MD: Ethan Sokol 4
WI: Morgan Hennessy 1

Race Reports, Road

Ethan Sokol’s Men’s Intro weekend at the Philly Phlyer

This was my first weekend out with the team, and I had a blast! I appreciate all the help that everyone gave me so that I could make it out to the weekend—from Zack helping me to find a bike from Back Bay to David K helping me get a team Jersey to Matt helping me set up my bike.

Saturday there were 2 races: the TTT and the CR. Although it was quite windy, it was fun to work with a teammate (David Rosen) in a TTT; as the race went on, we got more comfortable with coming off the pace line, and holding close to the wheel. The circuit race was also awesome: I followed David Koppstein’s advice the whole way: stay toward the front, follow the attacks, and sprint at the finish. After my races finished, I watched the rest of our team and also hung out in the warm car as the weather was terrible—sleet, snow, and hail—still a great first day of racing.

On Sunday, we went to Temple University for the Crit. Before the crit, there was a skills clinic where we learned how to safely go over obstacles (in our case it was a broom). After the skills clinic we did a few trained laps, and then began the race—5 laps. The beginning went well, I cornered OK with the pack and was having a lot of fun riding with a group. On the third corner of the first lap, I made a turn a bit tighter/faster than I should have. The rider to my right took a line more to the outside than I expected, essentially cutting me off. To avoid crashing I veered left and then right but began to slide out, leaving me to crash grazingly into the curb. The rider behind me proceeded to crash into me, getting his handlebars stuck in my spokes. David R, was 2 bikes back and avoided the crash by bunny hopping onto the curb (unfortunately this caused him to flat—sorry for causing problems David). After a bit of disentanglement, and a brief inspection of my bike, I was ready to hop back on the course.

At this point I knew that I had a bit of ground to make up, as I now was at the back of the field, so I hopped on the bike and took it strong. Over the next couple of laps I powered through it and passed several small groups of riders, however I did not pause to rest with these groups, as I wanted to push to the front. Finally I caught up with a group of four up front, and gladly took a rest on their wheels for a bit. After half a lap of chillin’, one rider made a sharp attack. I followed as did 2 others. The four of us pushed ahead into the last lap.

On the last lap, things really got exciting. On the uphill on the first leg of the last lap, a rider from the back made an attack up the hill. Excited to join in on an attack, I followed, catching him near the top of the hill. I chilled with him after the first corner, then as we went into the back section, I pushed out an attack, sprinting down the whole stretch. I created a gap and was able to keep it through the next two corners and win the race.

For the rest of the day I watched the races and had a lot of fun. It was great to see Cameron push out in front of the field in the Men’s A. It was great to see David push for 2 prime wins, and Shaena demolish the primes as well! It was amazing to see the effort and skill of some amazing athletes and friends—everyone did amazingly well. You will definitely see me at the MIT races March 30/31!

Race Reports, Road

How the race was won: Scott Burdick’s Philly Phlyer crit in Men’s C

Going into the Philly Crit, I was a bit nervous. I was still a bit pooped from the road race on Saturday where I had attempted a solo breakaway and found myself unequal to the task of staying ahead of a very determined pack. We were also racing with a combined field with a couple of especially strong men’s C, division 1 riders, so the whole thing seemed foreboding.

A fellow from Penn State went off the front almost immediately. I wasn’t feeling terribly strong so I thought I’d just sit in and monitor the situation. A few laps in, another Penn State lad attacked off the front to help him out and I stuck on his wheel. Honestly, I’m not sure how we got away from the pack. Apathy? I figured that if these guys were smart, they’d easily shell me after we had a nice gap, so I didn’t work too hard and in a couple of laps we were resorbed. After that I sat second wheel for a bit, jumping on every would-be break until the final prime when one finally stuck. I latched on to the wheel of this RPI gent who surged past me after the line, and by the time we looked back there was a decent amount of space, so we decided to work together with 5 laps to go. On the final lap, unaware of the team’s wise suggestion that I attack, I let him pull through on the back side and he attacked instead. Thankfully I was able to catch his wheel quickly and beat him around the final corner and across the line. Thanks definitely go to my teammates for some good blocking as well, particularly Matt Li, who I understand did a lot of work on the front. Without them, I’m pretty sure the Penn State juggernaut could have chased us down and put together a counterattack.

Overall I felt like this race was a great lesson on the value of being lazy and sneaky, which is to say that I had a super fun time!

Race Reports, Road

Philly Phlyer 2013 recap: 5 TTT wins; 3 mass start wins!

Another great weekend for MIT cycling! 25 riders drove to Philadelphia for the season’s first team time trial and a circuit race on Saturday, followed by a crit on the Temple University campus on Sunday. MIT won the team omnium points competition for the weekend, won five of the seven team time trial competitions entered, and had three individual wins across the circuit race and criterium! Snow and hail added to the suffering the first day, but everyone returned excited to race again the next day! The team’s next major races are the 4 we are hosting: the MIT X-Pot 3.0, on 3/30-3/31.

Full Results:

Omnium: MIT first place out of 36 teams!

TTT:
MA 1
WA 1
MB 3
MC 2
WC 1
MD 1
MIntro 1

Circuit:
MA: race stopped midway due to extremely slippery road conditions (road races in ECCC are extremely rarely called off!)
WA: Shaena 3, Katie Q 4
MB: Kuat 13, David K 29
WB: Kate W 4
MC: Matt L 20, Nate 22, Scott 25, Ernesto 26
WC: Georgia 8, Katie M 16
MD: Matt R 5, Tom 20, Anton 23
MIntro: Ethan 1, David R 7

Crit:
MA: Cameron 19 +15pt primes, Joe 23 +1pt prime, Zack 29, Spencer 40
WA: Shaena 8 +30pt primes, Katie Q 14 +6pt primes
MB: Ben 4, Kuat 17, David K 10pt primes
WB: Kate 5 +8pt primes, Jen 8
MC: Scott 1 +3pt primes, Matt L 19, Nate 41, Ernesto 46, David S 58
WC: Georgia 2 +8pt primes
MD: Anton 10, Tom 12, Matt R 40
MIntro: Ethan 1
M 3/4: Ben 2, Kuat 9, Joe 29