Following a pair of fine performances in Warwick RI this weekend, MIT Cycling was crowned the Eastern Conference Division 2 Cyclocross Champions. This is the second year in a row and the third in the last four that we’ve won this honor. Congratulations to all who contributed this season:
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MIT second overall at Baystate Cyclocross
A small but hardy squad ventured out into the frost on Saturday to contest the 7th race of the ECCC cyclocross series. MIT entered the day in second place, one point behind an opportunistic Drexel team. With Drexel absent, however, the focus shifted towards defeating arch-rival and D1-leader Rutgers.
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MIT Rider Kate Harris Wins Short Track Event At Mountain Biking Competition
Kate Harris (G), a member of the MIT Cycling team and a geobiology graduate student in the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences department, won first place in the short track event and third in the cross-country event at the national collegiate mountain biking championship held last weekend at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina.
MIT sweeps opening ECCC Cyclocross weekend
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 Kate Harris, 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.
Mountain Bike Nationals Race Report, Kate Harris
Hey all,
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.
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‘Cross Musings Vol. 5: Online Resources
Greetings ‘Cross racers and amused onlookers,
Our first ECCC cyclocross race is one month from today! In this month’s newsletter I’ll discuss October training, and then some tips on “indoor training.” Such techniques are useful when it’s thunderstorming or hurricaning outside, or when the lecture/lab meeting you’re attending is really boring . . .
TRAINING FOR OCTOBER
If you’ve been diligently training all summer and are currently in good shape, consider the following. You should try to do two really challenging, or “breakthrough” workouts per week for the next three weeks. One day should be just below race pace, either long intervals or an actual race. Consider the race in East Falmouth this weekend, MTB Easterns next weekend, and Canton the weekend after that. There’s also a Sunday morning training series at the velodrome in Londonderry, NH. Your second hard day should be several days away from your first, and might consist of short (3-5 minute) VO2max intervals or a long (45 – 120 minutes, depending on ability) steady tempo ride. The remaining days of the week should be fairly easy, perhaps two days aerobic, one active recovery, and two days off. Sleep lots! Take the final week or week and a half of October as a taper before the double-race weekend Nov 1-2.
If you haven’t been diligently training and fear that hard workouts could induce a stroke and/or torn Achilles, but you still want to do some races, consider the easier plan:
– Ride your bike 4 to 5 days per week, however you feel like, for the next three weeks. Take a recovery week at the end of the month.
– Get lots of sleep, eat well, etc
– Tune up your bike, make sure it’s in great shape, and then pray to the Gods of Pinch Flats and Dropped Chains to strike down upon your competitors with great vengeance and furious anger.
“INDOOR TRAINING”
Watching other people ride their bikes is a great way to learn how to ride yours. Some good cyclocross videos here:
http://www.cyclocrossvideos.com/
http://www.crosstube.net/
http://www.cyclofile.com/
http://www.youtube.com
For training advice from a pro, check out some of Adam Myerson’s articles:
http://cycle-smart.com/articles/index.html
For ‘cross related news, race coverage, etc:
http://cxmagazine.com/
To find out how you stack up against your favorite pros (or teammates!) play with the gizmo here. Extra credit if you can come up with a superior ranking algorithm and prove to me why it’s superior:
http://www.crossresults.com/
If you need to buy cyclocross parts, this is the place to go. They’re located in Massachusetts, so regular ground shipping is generally next day, and they’re super great folks too.
http://www.cyclocrossworld.com/
You *may* be able to learn a thing or two from the chat rooms. The first is full of propeller-heads debating things like which brake straddle cable is the most aerodynamic, while the latter seems to center around the quality of the cupcakes at last year’s Sucker Brook race. Mostly inside jokes, but occasionally a worthwhile post.
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=47
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/necyclocross/
Lastly, if you want to improve your Flemish before making the leap to the Benelux ‘cross circuit, read up here:
http://www.sport.be/nl/wielrennen/veldrijden/
That’s all for now. In a few weeks, our sixth and final (yay!) newsletter will discuss race-day preparation.
Bill
UNH Kingman Cross Country Race Report
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.
MIT Cycling Takes Division Two National Collegiate Track Title
The MIT Cycling Team captured the Division II team omnium at the National Collegiate Track Cycling Championships held last week in Colorado Springs. The MIT team of six riders — Jason A. Sears G, Michael L. Garrett G, Anthony J. Schrauth G, Yuri Matsumoto G, Katherine S. Lovejoy G, and Martha W. Buckley G — came from behind to edge out DePauw University 687-608 and capture the team omnium.
MIT-FXDD Cycling partnering with Felt Racing and Landry’s Bicycle
MIT Cycling is pleased to officially inform you that the team will be sponsored by Felt for the coming season.
In addition to sponsoring MIT, Felt Racing sponsors several professional teams including the Garmin-Chipotle Pro team, and members of the 2008 US Olympic Cycling team. Felt has an impressive line-up of bikes, covering road, cyclocross, full-suspension mountain bikes, hardtail mountain bikes, track, and time trial and triathlon bikes.
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Track National Champions
A strong team of Jason Sears (G), AJ Schrauth (G), Michael Garrett (G), Yuri Matsumoto (G), Katie Lovejoy (G) and Martha Buckley (G) traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado to contest usacycling’s collegiate track national championships. After finishing second last year to the United States Military Academy, the MIT cycling team was determined and focused to take one step up the podium this year. After organizing the ECCC track season and spending many days at the New England Velodrome and on the road, the team was well prepared for this last step up.
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