Welcome to our Live Coverage of the Men's A Criterium, held on the campus of Bucknell University. The course is almost completely flat, with 6 corners and a long drag to the finish line. The A's will be racing for 55 minutes. SpikyHairWill fought hard yesterday, but is confident that he's left enough in his legs to stick it to his field.
1:09
How is this possible, you ask? After a wildly successful morning (Rich 1st D, Chris 3rd C, Alex 4th B), the Rutgers Crew is basking in our glory in a coffeeshop located at the 5th corner. And there's wireless!
1:16
And they're off! Will is sitting in 10th wheel in a field of 50
1:23
A group of 4 went off the front and was soon joined by 3 more. Will is sitting comfortably in the field, letting some of the teams with more riders do the work to pull back the break
1:26
Yale, UNH, Dartmouth, Army, Bucknell, Columbia, and Penn State are all represented in the break. Lehigh is leading the chase.
1:32
The gap is 30sec, with riders from Dartmouth now blocking at the front. Will is in 15th wheel in the chase group.
1:39
With all of the primes being swallowed up by the attack, and with most of the bigger teams represented in the break, there's not much happening in the peleton. The gap is now 55 seconds.
1:41
A lone rider from Brown from was attempting to bridge, but he's been caught a lap later.
1:43
The break is really moving, with both Dartmouth and Yale represented by 2 riders each. A rider from each school is contributing to the pacemaking at the front, really stringing out the small group.
1:45
The chase group is strung out as well, perhaps trying to avoid being caught by the attack, which is now 30 seconds behind them.
1:47
Will is sitting in 7th, but as 53x12 has noted, his body is really rocking as he closes gaps up the sprinters' hill between turns 5 and 6.
1:50
53x12 was wrong. Will seems to be climbing the hill rather comfortably, and was actually seated the whole time.
1:52
The gap between the two groups is only 10 seconds, and the race-moto is no longer between them. The attack doesn't seem to be making up much ground, although the chase group seems to have eased off a bit as well.
1:58
With the race entering the endgame, Will is still positioned very well, about 10 from the front and looking hungry. The break has caught the main pack, and the tactics have just gotten a lot more complicated.
2:00
A rider from Bucknell has attacked! The pack strings out in pursuit. Is this the rider who is up a lap? Or one of his teammates?
2:02
The pace is brutal. There are a lot of riders looking pretty miserable, with tongues hanging out of mouths and plenty of yanking on the handlebars.
2:06
BeastMasterChris, our reporter at the Finish Line, has reported that a rider from Bucknell and a rider from UNH put in late attacks to cross the lne first and second, although it's unclear who actually won the race. Will had been shuffled back in the last lap as the pace ramped up to EyeBlood-inducing speeds, finishing a strong 19th after a 55-minute war of attrition.
2:09
That about wraps it up. I'm going to go pack the car and drive home... back to the real world! Congratulations again to Rich, Chris, and Alex, as well as all the rest of our racers, for thir exciting performances this weekend. See you in Boston!
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