Whitman was
lucky enough to have returning riders to the national championships this
season. Nationals this year were a bit
different from previous years as the collegiate nationals served as a test
event for the world championships that will be happening in Richmond in
2015. This meant that we got a crack at the
same roads the pros will ride on in a year’s time. We were able to take 8 riders total; 4 on the
men’s side and 4 on the women’s side allowing for each of our team time trial
teams to have full numbers. We would
like to give a big thank you to all our team supporters and fans that showed
their support to the team by providing donations as well as cycling equipment. Additional thanks to Dave and LeAnn Tupper,
Debi Toews, Whitney Griggs, the Ogden Family, the Weigel Family, and the Geiter
family who made the journey out to Richmond to help support our riders by
providing assistance with preparation before races as well as meals. Additionally a big thank you to the
Guzy-Sprague family for their help in providing trainers and coolers for our
team. Without the incredible support we
had, this event would not have been possible.
Here is a brief recap of what went down while in Richmond:
We left on
Wednesday morning bright and early around 3:30am. Since Nationals happened in Richmond, VA this
year, it was necessary to fly our bikes, something riders usually cringe at the
thought of with TSA and whatnot. Flying
from Pasco to San Francisco went smoothly.
However in San Francisco, we hit a bit of a speed bump since our flight
out of San Fran was delayed due to weather in Newark, NJ. Flying into Newark was a bit of an experience
as Newark was reporting heavy flooding in areas. Arriving in Newark, we missed our connecting
flight to Richmond however luckily because of issues with finding a captain;
another flight was delayed flying into Richmond. We ended up able to talk our way onto that
flight! We ended up basically having a
chartered plane-we we 8 out of maybe 10 passengers. Great way to start our trip! We arrived in Richmond around 1 am after
almost 24 hours of traveling. Once
discovering our bikes had not made it (again flying bikes is never fun) we went
to the hotel to sleep and prepare for Thursday.
Thursday
morning we collected our bikes at the airport and went to work on rebuilding
the bikes. Luckily we didn’t find anything
wrong with them and we decided to roll out and go do some scouting of the
courses. Oh boy, scouting turned in to
getting lost and trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. Luckily we made our way around downtown
Richmond riding the time trial course and the road racecourse. For the road racecourse, we had the
opportunity to ride cobblestone sections, something many of us had never done
and a portion of the course that would create some memorable experiences. Overall it was an excellent day of riding and
it was incredible to see how many people were so excited about having the
races. People kept asking us if we were
racing and wishing us good luck in the races.
People in Richmond are so friendly!
We enjoyed a nice meal and prepared for out TTT on Friday morning.
The time
trial course was a very fast-paced, yet technical course winding through the
city streets of Richmond. Our men’s team
did very well competing against stiff competition, although finishing 11th,
the team shows promise in future years as only one member of the team is
graduating this May. Our women’s team
yet again pulled out an impressive performance finishing 3rd
overall. Again the women’s side has a
bright future ahead as there will only be one rider from that group graduating
as well. Finishing the time trial early
in the day allowed for some nice relaxation time in the afternoon as we
prepared for our criterium races the next day.
Saturday
presented our riders with a fast technical mile long course again weaving
through downtown Richmond. The women
again showed dominance staying well protected in the peloton until the final
lap where freshman Dessie Weigel sprinted herself into 3rd
place! Not bad for a first-timer at
nationals. The men’s side was a slightly
different story. With about 90 riders on
the start line, the pace was all out from the start as both of Whitman’s riders
were shelled off within the first half hour.
Ultimately the field was cut down from 90 to about 25 riders who
actually completed the 75-minute race.
Although slightly disappointed, no Whitman riders crashed or were
injured. Again there was relaxation time
as the team prepared for the final event, the road race, which would be taking
place early on Sunday morning.
The women’s
race took off bright and early at 7am as riders weaved through the 9.6-mile
downtown course. Included in the course
was the infamous cobbled-climb up Libby Hill and ultimately one of the coolest
portions of the race. A flat tired
reduced the Whitman field to a single rider in the main group. Senior Rachel Geiter looked strong to the end
taking 18th place overall in the DII field. On the men’s side, again the pace was high
from the start. Riders were shelled off
the back as the 100+ rider field was again reduced to a size of 35 by the
finish. Our racers finished in the
mid-pack again with a strong effort against stiff competition.
After a
long weekend of racing, we headed back to Whitman early on Monday morning. Unlike our flights out, the trip home went
smoothly with no major issues. Now all
that was left was to survive through the rest of the semester.
Coming off
of a strong performance last year, Whitman continued to do well finishing 7th
overall as a team against the 54 other schools represented in division II. Again Whitman showed that they could contend
with some of the larger schools like MIT, Duke, and Colorado Mesa. The team has a lot to be proud of after
another strong season and the future looks bright as 6 out of the 8 riders
represented at Nationals will be returning riders next year. We appreciate everyone’s continued support of
the Whitman Cycling Team! We are truly
blessed to have such incredibly devoted fans.
Stay posted for next year and as Whitman will again be in strong
form!
Luke Ogden
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