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MIT Cycling Team Blog
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Tim Humpton likes races that feel like battles. He’ll have plenty of those in Men’s A

Q: Where are you from, what are you studying, what year are you?

Tim: I’m from Jamison Pennsylvania. It’s a typical suburban area that is within shouting distance of Philadelphia (around a 40 minute drive) but is still far enough away that the roads are great for cycling. I’m a Junior (class of 2010) and am currently planning to graduate with degrees in Biology and Chemical Engineering (officially Chemical-Biological Engineering). Although I’m not in the lab 24/7 like the grad students on the team, I am doing research in the Amon lab at the Koch Center for Cancer Research here on campus. I’m working with yeast on the question of aneuploidy and its relationship to tumor development. Could it possibly be a cause of tumorigenesis!? Is it just a consequence of the process? Maybe before I graduate I’ll find out something about these questions…

Q: How did you get into cycling?

Originally, I got into cycling as a way to cross train between other sports seasons in my senior year of high school. In high school, as well as in my first two years at MIT, I was a two sport, three season varsity athlete in soccer and track and so obviously, I needed to pick up another sport to pass the time in between. Anyway, at that point training was well and good, especially in scenic Bucks County, but there is only so much scenic riding that a person can handle. I entered one race my first summer because it was practically right on my doorstep, I was tired of just riding for the sake of riding, and I wanted to maybe win a trophy. From then on I was hooked into bike racing. It has everything that I liked about running track, but at a level that was amped up orders of magnitude.

Q: What kind of races do you like, and why?

I like races that end up feeling like battles. My favorite and ideal races are those that have hard changes of pace, lots of long steep climbs, solo breakaways and really anything else that forces everyone in the pack to kind of dig deep. If you are familiar with the running movie Without Limits, I would say that my racing philosophy is similar to Prefontaine’s. I really don’t like sitting in the pack or getting pulled along at a pedestrian pace. I would much rather be at the front or off of the front attacking and making the tempo. Because of this, I would say that I am much more of a road race and stage race man because it seems like these races are the most likely to be long and grueling and I think that this leaves me with the best chance to do well in them.

Q: What are your goals for the season?

Since the racing hasn’t gotten underway yet my goals are all very ambitious. This is my first season of strictly cycling (I stopped running track and playing soccer) and I feel like I am ready to rock the collegiate field. My main personal goal is to win a road race in the A field this year. Tentatively, I think that the Dartmouth and PSU road courses best favor my strengths. I also want to be in the conversation for the conference points race which will entail stacking up some solid performances on a consistent basis. Again, I feel strong going into the season! Obviously, the pinnacle of the season is Nationals, and putting the other aspirations aside, I want to be on top form then and have a season ending goal of a top 8 finish in the RR. And of course, the goal of both the conference and the national team championships.

Pre-Season Racing: Boston Triathlon Team Indoor TT

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.

-Michael Hamilton – MIT Cycling Vice-President

Here are the team results:

MIT Women:
FIRST NAME LAST NAME FINISH TIME AVG MPH AVG WATTS
MELISSA GYMREK 20:20.5 18.88 236.97
ZUZANA TRNOVCOVA 21:22.2 17.97 205.48
MIT Men:
JOSE SOLTREN 17:08.5 22.4 391.88
JON DREHER 17:44.9 21.64 362
MICHAEL HAMILTON 19:09.1 20.05 291.36
ZACH LABRY 19:28.5 19.72 292.95
NICK LOOMIS 20:55.8 18.35 304.33
CAL LANKTON 21:04.2 18.23 253.07
ALEX CHALEFF 21:14.9 18.07 255.21

Cyclocross Nationals Wrapup

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.

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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.

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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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To glory in the wind tunnel and beyond