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| Race Reports
Press Release Pubah's notes | Harvard University Cycling Association First Race of the ECCC season: Rutgers University’s Frozen-Toed Race Contact: Edward Young press@harvardcycling.com
www.harvardcycling.com – In the first race of the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Championship
(ECCC) season, Harvard University Cycling Association (HUCA) fielded
a large team of up-and-coming riders at Rutgers University’s Frozen-Toed
Race. Twenty of HUCA’s twenty-four starting riders were racing for
the first time. Heavy rain showers throughout the day made for slippery
roads during the short circuit race resulting in crashes in almost
all divisions. Out of a field of fifteen quick riders, HUCA ‘Pubah’
Amy Kredok took third place in the Women’s A race in a time of 49.50min.
“Amy looked like she was only getting warmed up when her race came
to and end,” commented HUCA teammate Brendan Dallas, “despite being
a little disappointed with her third place, she definitely saw the
potential of what’s to come.” Kredok came in behind Dartmouth’s
Amy Wallace in first and Rutgers’ Lori Romero in second place with
HUCA’s Lisa Young placing thirteenth. Meanwhile Jay Ku, HUCA’s leading
Men’s A racer, who rides for the TIAA-CREF Team, took an attacking
line throughout the race. “I saw Rutgers as a training race, with
my main objective to be really aggressive and get some points at
the end,” says Ku, who placed fifteenth after the University of
Vermont (UVM) dominated the field with seven riders controlling
the pack. UVM riders Dan Cassidy placed first, Kevin Bouchard-Hall
placed second and David Sachs placed fourth, with Elliot Holland
of Princeton placing third. Christopher Akana of Harvard, riding
for the first time in Men’s A, took thirty-seventh place. HUCA’s
favorite cycling couple pulled off a weekend of wedded bliss with
Iva Maxwell placing fifth in the Women’s B race, while husband Stephen
Maxwell won his first ECCC race in Men’s D with a final lightening
sprint for the line coming from behind to beat Matt Shectman of
Cornell and Robert Hardy of Boston University. Despite multiple
crashes in a jumpy pack HUCA’s women’s B team pulled off a solid
showing: Iva Maxwell in fifth, Catherine Jampel in eighth, Pam Kiely
in eleventh, Danielle Poulin in twelfth, Jenna Shoemaker in twenty-first,
Janet Lorang who chased back from two crashes in twentythird, Carmen
Oquendo in twenty-seventh, Sophia McKinley in thirtieth, and Tonia
Hsieh in thirtyfirst. Brendan Dallas, the only Harvard rider in
Men’s B, placed fourteenth. Next week Dallas is looking for the
support of teammates Jason Halaby, Dan Matross, as well as Mads
Jensen and Timotey Rostunov, who placed seventeenth and fiftieth
respectively in Men’s C. “We have ridden a lot together this fall
and winter and we have big plans for the races when all of us will
be together.” The Men’s D race, won by Maxwell, had a strong Harvard
showing, with one beaten rider later commenting: “At one point the
Harvard guys got in front and had a pace line going – all we could
do was just hold on.” Zachery Hoover placed eleventh, Nathaniel
Craig placed eighteenth, John Wiedower placed thirtieth, Nathaniel
Brahms placed thirty-fifth, Conor Evans placed fortyseventh, and
Johan Tabora placed fifty-sixth. With triple points up for grabs
in next week’s racing at Penn State University, HUCA hopes for a
strong turnout and plenty of tactical riding. Harvard University
Cycling Association (HUCA) is the official cycle racing club of
Harvard University and comprises undergraduate and graduate student
racers. HUCA is the leading tool to effectively grow the sport of
collegiate cycle racing. The strength of the team is built on community
involvement, world-class coaches, student organization and dedicated
riders. HUCA is a United States Cycling Federation (USCF) sanctioned
team. The UCSF is the national governing body for cycle racing in
the United States of America. HUCA is proud to be sponsored by Wheelworks,
Cannondale, Skyline Ventures, David Wagener, Mercedes Benz, Bank
One Equity Partners, Velo La Source, Arcadia Partners, Clif Bar,
Oakleys, and Peet’s Coffee & Tea. Without the kind generosity of
all our sponsors we would not be able to race. Race Report, Rutgers So yup, at 5am 29 people, 24 bikes, 10 trainers, 3 mini vans, 1
monster SUV, and 1 cargo van gathered in the rain for a day long
adventure to Rutgers! Out of these 29 people, 24 raced, and 20 were
brand new to the sport! We had 8 people in the record breaking 68
person Men's D field, 2 in the men's C, 1 in the Men's B, and 2
in the Men's A. We had 8 in the women's B huge field of 37!, and
2 in the women's A. The rain began as the D men started their race. The weather was either beautiful and sunny or pouring rain with horizontal winds... odd day. Steve Maxwell made an impressive move remembering what Ed said about staying on someone's wheel he got an amazing lead out to the line and went on to WIN the men's D race!!! Zach and Nathaniel came in with the main pack. Nate came in soon after having crashed near the last lap, followed by Stewart (who also suffered a crash), John, Conner and Johan. Great job to 8 first time racers!!!!
The Women's B had 9 first time racers!! The HUCA women stuck together
with Iva, Jenna, Janet, Pam, CJ, and Danielle controlling the main
front pack. Carmen found some nice UVM wheels to stick to (and gave
us a huge Carmen grin every time she came by!). Tonia and Sophia
smartly stuck together. Janet went down once, caught the field,
and then her and Jenna went down together on the final lap causing
them to miss the final pack sprint, but finished the race strong
none-the-less. Iva took a fantastic 4th place finish, followed by
CJ, Pam and Danielle all in the top 11! Everyone finished :). The men’s' B had brave solo Brendan who finished in the points!
(sorry Brendan I don't know details as I was probably changing my
outfit...). Both the men's A's and women's A's rode the crit at
the same time. THIS SUCKED and was totally unfair as the women's
A field had to neutralize 3 times and we had random A men stragglers
who kept getting in out way especially during the final spring...
grrrr.... but I'm not bitter! ... both fields also got their laps
shortened by 3 (which also sucked) cuz of time constraints. None
the less, Jay and Chris went out strong hung with the front pack,
and both placed in the points for Harvard! Amy and Lisa rode in
our small field of 14, and stuck with the group (only 2 people went
off the back). The final sprint landed Amy in 3rd (damn Cornell
straggler in my way |
