Another great day of collegiate cyclocross racing.
Bright and early this morning the unstoppable Rutgers CX team headed to the Lehigh Valley campus of Penn State University in Fogelsville, PA for the third (or fourth) round of ECCC CX.
The crew: Jay, Blake, Charlie, Don, Andy, Mark, and Kyle.
We were all a little weary from racing on Saturday. Most of the crew raced in CT, while I skipped the big drive and raced locally. Nonetheless, we brought our A game to PSU.
In the staging area, the race looked like a show down between PSU and Rutgers with 6 PSU riders and 7 Rutgers riders. Rob from UPenn was there too, having survived his gnarly crash in the sandpit at Beacon.
We line up at the start: Don, Blake, UPenn Rob, some PSU guys, and me. The gun goes off and Don simply killed it to get the hole shot. UPenn Rob hit the first tight corner in 2nd wheel, and I was in 3rd.
Coming into the swoopy sections of the course, Charlie came around me, and I latched on in 4th wheel. The boys piloted me around the course until the long uphill drag when UPenn Rob attacked. I followed his attack, and we quickly opened a gap on Don and Charlie.
Don and Chaz did a brilliant job of setting me up today. I could not have asked for more from either of them.
UPenn Rob and I stuck together for another lap and a half. He attacked once more on the looong uphill, and I started feeling the hills in the Walstib race on Saturday in my legs. I couldn't close the gap anymore, and he rode away.
I made a valiant effort to catch on in the flats and techy sections of the course, but I couldn't close the gap for first. Charlie and Don worked behind me to block any riders coming up, while a little farther back Blake and Jay worked over the lone PSU rider who was trying to bridge up to Don and Charlie.
With one lap to go, Jay flatted his front tire, but like a trooper he ran to the pit and grabbed a spare wheel to finish out his race.
In the end, UPenn Rob took a well-deserved win. I got 2nd. Charlie got 3rd. Don got 4th. Blake got 6th. I'm not sure where Andy, Kyle, and Jay wound up, but I'm sure it was in the top ten.
Huge thanks to everyone on the team today. I don't think any of us could have achieved these results without the collective work we put into the race.
We're still waiting on the final standings, but with our efforts yesterday at Chainbiter and today at Nittany, I think we may have successfully maintained our overall lead in the conference.
Next weekend the team has its home game at the HPCX. Look out for another massive Rutgers CX crew to come out.
-Mark
2 comments:
so pro.
I'll settle for pro-ish.
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