Mens A
Womens A
Mens B
Womens B
Mens C
Mens D

Press Report

Mens A

Womens A

Wow what a fantastically fun weekend! After this weekend I am completely, totally, and unconditionally hooked to this fabulous sport. HCTT: As you've already heard, the HCTT was...well...challenging. Freezing cold, windy flats and never-ending hill. I've never gasped and wheezed so much in my life. Fortunately, while I was getting passed by riders who started 1.5 minutes after me, Amy was flying by riders who started several minutes before her! Amy finished an amazing second place, and Lisa hung on at 12 place. Crit: I loved the pretty little town this course was in. The course put our cornering skills to the test b/c the two uphills followed sharp corners. You had to stay off your breaks as much as humanly possible rounding the corner in order to keep your momentum going into the hill. Amy went as "low as she could go" around one corner and her wheels slipped out from under her. But she ran to the pit and got back into the race scoring serious prime (preem?) points (2 first places, a second, and a third--although one of them didn't count b/c she scored it right after her free lap). We both finished strong at 6th and 7th place. RR. The killer little hill in this race shattered the fields in all of the races within a lap or two. Amy lead a successful break away up the hill on the second lap. She stayed with the group for a while, but then ended up riding a grueling six laps by herself. I fell behind after Amy's break away, but I found three other racers to work with.

Amy finished 4th and Lisa finished 6th.

Can't wait for this weekend!w

Mens B

Womens B

One correction - Pam would like me to point out that i got the results wrong, we were actually 4/5 not 5/6 in the crit. I never said I was good with numbers!

Three brave women’s B racers went out to Pennsylvania this past weekend for three awesome races. We all bonded in the van, had a blast, and hope that more of you join us next time!

ITT – The first time doing anything like this for all of us, and we all actually had fun! I’m proud to say that we all made it up the hill on our bikes (no running with the front wheel!), thanks to some fabulous uphill songs chosen in the van the night before. Pam deserves extra credit for making it up with only 1 functioning gear, while Sophia smartly chose her gearing to make it up comfortably and I practiced my newly learned standing technique on a steeper switchback after failing to convince “Muffy” into the granny gear. After crossing the finish, we picked up some much-needed extra clothing from George and Julie (thanks guys!!) and began the hardest part of this event: a 5 mile descent into the blowing snow, freezing our hands off even though we took several breaks to warm up.

Finish: Janet 5th, Pam 12th, Sophia 17th

Crit – After a sweaty warmup on the trainers during which I removed all my warm clothing, we headed over to the start/finish…. only to have Pam’s rear wheel fall off her bike! She kept a cool head about it (cooler than mine!), and Amy fixed it just in time for us to line up – in the worst position possible. During the first lap chaos, two riders escaped off the front (unbeknown to most of the field) and Pam and I worked our way into a better position, right behind a girl in blue (named Amy?) who really likes to pull. 25 minutes later, after 3 preems (only 2 of which had bells?), 5 sprint points, and ZERO crashes (a first for the women’s B!), Pam positioned herself to give by-now-thoroughly-frozen-me an awesome leadout, which I flubbed completely by unclipping on the last hill. Good thing we did all those one-legged drills! Meanwhile, Sophia finished strong and kept her cool in an encounter with the BU girl who I’ve heard didn’t do such a good job keeping her lunch.

Finish: Pam 5th, Janet 6th (4/3/3 sprints), Sophia 23rd

Circuit Race – Several confusing corners and a MONSTER hill made this a tough race to finish; I think 12 out of 28 starters did. The pack split up fast, especially after a crash in the second lap in which another racer took out Pam. Pam, uninjured and ready to race after our interval warmup, quickly caught and rejoined the main pack. She dominated the pack for the rest of the race, smartly avoiding crashes #2 and 3 (both caused by the same rider as the first, once in the SAME corner!). Struggling with the hill, I got dropped each time and chased back on only to be dropped again as soon as we hit the hill. I eventually couldn’t hang on and rode the last two laps or so on my own, stopping to try to figure out if I’d been pulled and making one wrong turn thanks to an addled marshaller. (Lessons learned: honking doesn’t mean anything, and memorize the turns!). Pam WON the pack sprint for third, while I wandered in at 9th.

Finish: Pam 3rd, Janet 9th, Sophia 23rd

Thanks everyone for a great time – I can’t wait till next weekend!

Janet

Mens C

Folks,

The Men's "C" contingent for the weekend consisted of myself, Jamie Wong, Ramses Ayala, Mark Pachucki (nickname="porn star"), and Alex Turnbull. The men's "C" had by far the largest fields in all in the events.

Saturday began with an individual hill-climb time trial. This was just kind of a low-gear five-mile suffer-fest. Officially, it was 4.8 miles and 1100' of vertical. As if the hill wasn't challenging enough, there was a stiff headwind for bottom flats. Nonetheless, Mark, Alex and I all managed to conquer the beast by dodging the icy roads, snow flurries, and roadkill. I'm happy to say I managed to wheeze my way to the best time in the men's "C" field. Mark and Alex managed to finish solidly in the middle of the field.

Men's "C" HCTT
1. Dan
15. Mark
32. Alex

Later that day, all five of us took the line for the crit. Jamie looked at my bike and said "Dude, you may want start in the big ring." Never having raced a crit before, I responded, "Why man?". Jamie said, "Just watch the start". And watch the start I did. As soon as the whistle blew, there were 50+ guys in front of me {including my teammates} and I knew it was time to lock in the big ring for the next 35 minutes. The course was only
1 km long, and the pace was furious at the beginning, and generally tough the rest of the way. No one scored any points, but we all had respectable results. The short course didn't leave much room to miss the pack--only 19 guys out 53 starters made it through to the end.

Men's "C" Crit
13. Dan
28. Ramses
32. Jamie
44. Mark

On Sunday, the road race began with 52 guys, and was definitely stacked with a combination of sandbaggers and scary, wobbly dudes you can only find in a men's "C" field. Again the pace was quick off the start. The sharp corners and the little, steep hill broke things up in a hurry.
Except for the UNH rabbit, and one guy who tried an ill-fated solo break, the front of the race was devoid of tactics--just some Princeton, Cornell, and a train of Penn State riders setting a moderate pace for lap after lap and slowing for the corners. In the middle pack, Ramses and Mark set tempo together, and Jamie found some wheels, but ultimately none of them could bridge to a front pack that dwindled to about 20 riders. It was a field sprint in the end, and I got shellacked. Ramses was unfazed by the race, and did a 10-mile run afterwards.

Men's "C" road race
13. Dan
31. Mark
32. Ramses
35. Jamie

Thanks to HUCA nation for your support and cheers,

--Dan

Mens D

Greetings HUCA nation!

First, I just want to thank everyone that made this weekend such a great time. Thanks to Margaret for getting us a perfect hotel and organizing all the logistics; to Amy for looking after us and for excellent Poobahness; to all the drivers for getting us there and back safely; to George and Julie for last minute words of wisdom and vocal support on the course, to all the racers for all the great rides and cheers, and to Corby for making us the envy of all the other teams at the weekend!

This is my best recollection of how the events unfolded - things sometimes got a little blurry during and after the race :) - so if I miss anything important, Steve, Nathan and Nathaniel can fill in the gaps. Also, since we are the most "developing" members of the men's development team, in addition to getting to hear about how the races went, you also get to hear about the lessons we are learning on the road. Here goes:

Individual Hill Climb Time Trial

For all the men's D racers, it was our first experience with the individual time trial discipline and Penn State did their best to make it memorable by choosing a 5 mile long hill for the setting. We arrived earlier than expected on Friday night due to Amy's awesome driving and decided to drive the course to see what we were up against. Our evolving perspectives on the hill...

The night before from the van: 2.5 miles of pure flat with 2.5 miles of a decent climb. No sweat!
The morning of the race from the van: 2.5 miles of pure flat with 2.5 miles of a scary climb. Are we on the same road?!?
The view from the bike: 2.5 miles of false flat (ouch!) and 2.3 miles pure, leg-burning fun!

Weekend Lesson #1: No matter how easy it looks from a rental van, its probably going to hurt...a lot.

The Harvard D racers started in alphabetical order about 6 minutes after the first rider in intervals of 30 seconds. We all had good rides up, even passing a Columbia rider who started several minutes in front of Nathan who stopped to take off his jacket in the middle of the race, but we also all felt like we could have gone harder at the end. That would bring us to...

Weekend Lesson #2: If you see orange cones on the side of the road, people off their bikes, and Penn State riders getting in their special (home-team privilege), heated lift to the bottom of the hill, start sprinting! It doesn't matter if your bike computer says you still have another half mile to go!

After a bone-chilling 30+ mph ride down the hill, we all settled in around the heaters at the community center to rest rest up and recharge for the afternoon crit.

Results: Nathan - 7th, Stewart - 8th, Nathaniel - 10th, Steve - 19th.


Bellefonte Crit

Despite being called a crit, the Rutgers race didn't really have any corners, so this was our first real test of all those skills rides at the top of office park last fall. The race was 25 minutes plus two laps, had 2 primes, a short but steep hill right before the third turn and a gradual uphill finish. Following our excellent coaches' advice, all the Harvard riders ended up on the front of the start line in a good position to begin the race. (Tip for future weeks, they have started on the right when they call the individual riders up to the line in every race so far this year, so get there and you can be first!).

When they blew the whistle, we all went hard off the line because the first corner was at the bottom of the steepest downhill on the course and wanted to avoid getting accordionned off the back. This worked great for all of us except Nathaniel, who unfortunately got stuck between a rider on his right who couldn't corner, and a rider on his left that did it a little too well, taking him out in the process. With torn tights, an injured knee and a sore shoulder, he rejoined the race a couple of laps later from the pits. Go Nathaniel!

Steve, Nathan, and I survived the first corner and had decided before the race that to push the pace early to break up the field. All three of us were up near the front with guys from UNH, Drexel, and Penn State. The field split up pretty early in the race and we all ended up in the front group.

On the first prime lap, we sprinted up the hill to the finish and Nathan took 2nd, and I took 4th. Shortly thereafter, two UNH guys got off the front and rode away from the field, leaving us to fight it out for 3rd place. On the second prime lap, Steve took 4th. The pace picked up on the last couple of laps and people started falling off the back. On the last hill, we all attacked and after we rounded the last corner, sprinted for the line. Steve came around the UNH who was on the front and got 3rd and I held off the two Drexel guys for 4th. Nathan finished in the points at 8th. Great teamwork throughout the race!

Prime Points: Nathan - 5, Steve - 1, Stewart - 1
Finish Results: Steve - 3rd, Stewart - 5th, Nathan - 8th

Weekend Lesson #3: Beware of squirrelly riders who can't corner!
Weekend Lesson #4: Teamwork is really helpful during a race (unless of course, its UNH doing the work)


State College Circuit Race

The course in state college was ~2 miles long with two hills, one of which was described as "steep - gradient unknown". Once again, the pace was fast from the start with UNH pushing the pace. All four Harvard riders were in the front group on the first lap, but Nathaniel's knee, still not heeled from Saturday's ride, forced him out of the race early. After our third (of nine) lap, the UNH guy who won both the time trial and crit on Saturday was off the front and UNH went into their now familiar blocking routine. I was feeling good so I attacked and bridged up to him. The two of us had about 15 seconds over the field when one of state college's finest in an unmarked police car started across the course at an intersection right in front of us. He finally stopped at the last second, leaving us a few feet of road in front of his car, which by then was taking up nearly the whole course. Pleasantries were exchanged as we slammed on or brakes and swerved around him, but no harm was done. With Nathan blocking at the front of the pack, the UNH guy and I stayed off the front for the next half a lap, but eventually, after telling me that he "wasn't really that tired", he attacked on the false flat leading up to the finish at a pace I couldn't hold. I fell off his wheel and sat up and waited for the field while he went on to ride the next five laps by himself, winning the race on his own by a couple of minutes. Can anyone say "its time to think about racing in a higher category?"

Back in the field, Nathan and I tried to organize a chase, but with UNH blocking and the Drexel guys complaining about how tired they were, nothing really got organized. We tried a few attacks over the remainder of the race to get off the front on our own, but nothing really held. Every time we hit the big hill (remember, steep - gradient unknown) the field split up a bit, but the long gradual downhill afterward always seemed to bring everyone back together. Steve also put in an awesome ride, hanging with the lead group on the hills and powering on the flats. On the last lap, the pace kept increasing and I fell off the back on way up to the finish, tired from all the attacking, but Nathan and Steve held on and finished strong with the lead group.

Much of the remaining details are hazy at this point, but to summarize: the course was awesome, the weather was good, the cheers and support were great, and much fun was had by all.

Results: Nathan - 10th, Steve - 12th, Stewart - 15th, Nathaniel - 38th

Weekend lesson #5: Racing with HUCA is a blast. Come on out and join the fun!!

Cheers,
Stewart

P.S. Results are now up on the ECCC website. Harvard got 4th overall for the weekend behind Penn State, Dartmouth and UNH, but ahead of Cornell, Brown, Columbia and Princeton by a comfortable margin!