Busy Rutgers Cycling Weekend Recap - HPCX and ALS Spin-a-thon

Will gives us this weekend recap:

Friday: ALS Spinathon

Led by the club vice president, Rich K., the team gathered at the student center to spin on stationary trainers for 16 hours to raise money and awareness for ALS research. A few heroic members of the team defied sacred college doctrine by getting to the student center at 6AM. They set up the tent and materials and got the spinning underway in less-than-warm conditions. More and more riders joined the spinning until mid afternoon, at which time the buzz of spinning trainers reached its busiest hum.

Fiona sat on that bike for 15 hours!

We worked to get the already-poor college students to empty their pockets of their precious laundry quarters. I rode around in kit to add some novelty to the giving experience.

It was hard to avoid me when I hunted you on two wheels.

Chaz helped by sprinting and causing hubub each time somebody dropped a donation. The team took turns in the sprinting “hotseats” and others quickly jumped in to pass along information and collect money. There was bonding, laughter, and the general sense of doing something for a cause greater than our usual exploits. Fiona took the day by managing to ride 15 hours straight, while the bulk of the team logged at least 4 hours on the trainer. The group spun well into the dark, even whilst the student body had retreated to dorms and apartments to prepare for Friday night.

Joe: “MONNNNEYYYYYYY, NOWWWWWW”

While money towards an ALS cure and raising awareness are great outcomes, I most enjoyed observing the selflessness and generosity of both my teammates and the Rutgers campus. My teammates skipped classes, paying jobs, and gave their busy college time without hesitation. The campus received our efforts with polite thanks and generosity, choosing to stop and hear our cause when they could scurry by on a busy Friday afternoon.

A bus driver honked at me and did a drive-by donation

Saturday: Course Setup, Highland Park Cyclocross Race

With butts still reeling from too many hours on a bike seat, the team again assembled on Saturday to prepare the course for the annual Highland Park Cyclocross Race. Much raking, staking, and taping comes together to make an offroad, grass course on which silly cyclists will crash and beat the anaerobic crap out of each other.

The course was beautiful, to say the least.

Sunday: HPCX

(Before recounting Sunday’s events, let me say I have ridden a lot of miles on a road bike, but could count my offroad riding experiences on one hand.)

With butts still reeling from too many hours on a bike seat on Friday, and hands blistered from a day of manual labor on Saturday, the team again assembled (this time at 5:30AM) to get the race promotion flowing. We all pitched in to various odd jobs, while AngryMark and Rob orchestrated the intricate unfolding of a bicycle race. I convinced Jenks to lend me his bike (a less-than-safe gamble, considering his race was directly after mine) so that I could give this cyclocross business a try. I’ll spare you my race report because I did not crash or do anything particularly blogworthy. I will say that it was great fun and will add, quite unhumbly, that the field would have been in trouble if I had the confidence to blast the first lap, rocketshipstyle.

Will P. storms the barriers.

Others on the team had some solid races, with Jenks taking fourth in the B’s and the RU team sweeping collegiate podiums like nobody’s business.

Jenks is a blur, as usual.

This weekend tested the cycling team’s resolve, but the troops rallied and made it happen. The rest of the ECCC conference would do well to notice this growing team from New Brunswick.

~ by wcuk on November 12, 2007.