Spirit of 1869 RU-Princeton Report - Men's C

The Rutgers Mens C team rolls deep. Part of the problem is that at least two of us would like to be in the B's, but have been denied a Cat4 upgrade.

Princeton Crit
On a previous training ride, FroJoe and I decided to attack the crit from the gun. I took the helm for the first few laps and the field was successfully split. Two UPenn riders must have had a similar idea, countered FroJoe, a Temple Rider, and me, and got away. The three of us worked together for a bit, but we were not able to bridge up. Temple went back to the chase group, and Joe kept at it, keeping the hope to bridge up alive. I tried to stay away from the chase, but with about three to go, the chase seemed so close that my desire for their draft overcame my sense of heroics. In hindsight, I should have gone for it, because the chase wasn't moving too fast, and the two laps with them weren't long enough to recover for a sprint. Poor choice, but still a great race for Rutgers. FroJoe stayed away with a truly amazing display of fitness, securing third place, and the majority of the rest of our team was in that chase group. The Rutgers C mens squad took four of the top ten spots, with the performances of C$ and Matt B in 7th and 8th, while I came home in 9th.

Rutgers Circuit
On Sunday, my legs were a bit worked, but they warmed up as the race went on. McGill and a number of other schools were making sure that no breaks were getting away, so I sat in 'till the last two laps. Me and a UPenn guy from Saturday's break had a bit of a gap with 1 1/2 to go. I asked him if he wanted to go for it or wait for the sprint finish. He wanted to wait - my legs were glad to hear that response. FroJoe took a big dig at the begining of the last lap. He inspired a series of other riders to keep it lined out for the majority of the last lap. Going into the last corner, it was the UPenn winner from Saturday, the Temple Rider from Saturday, Matt B, and then me. A gap opened behind the Temple rider. I surged to try to cover it. My surge fell short of bridging the gap, but opened a big gap to the rest of the field. A bit of terror overcame me as I realized I'd have to fight into the headwind the entire length of that long finishing straight in no-man's-land. Stand up, sit down, spin, stand up, sit down, spin, stand up for the finishing sprint... held off the field by about 4 inches!!! The second third place for RU this weekend, not bad.


(photo: Velocity Results' finish camera)

Smilin'Kyle came out of the bunch, propelling himself to a 6th place finish. We've seen his explosiveness on the training rides, and it was great to see it in a race today. Of special note, I'd like to thank FroJoe for getting the pace of the last lap up so that it wasn't crowded at the front, thank Matt B for delivering me safe to the finishing straight, and congratulate Ray for excellent work in the field and a great 17th/48 finish.

Rutgers C mens team... rollin' deep, and getting some results. Hopefully, we'll be able to spread some of us into the Mens B squad by next weekend, relying on the rest of the C team to keep the results coming, while supplying some more teammates towards the B mens effort.