2024 UVM Race – Easterns!
Issues began off sluggish in lovely Vermont. Some cleats had been forgotten on the resort, some shifters wanted adjusting, some porta potty strains had been lengthy. All indicators of simply one other traditional race weekend. Did we heat up? Who’s to say…
ITT Highlights
Max bought final place within the ITT however first place within the bike mechanic competitors. In slightly below 39 minutes, he was capable of 1) begin the ITT 2) return to the beginning line to repair his entrance derailleur and three) end the ITT. We don’t suppose anybody else might have accomplished the restore as rapidly as he did.
UPDATE: We managed to persuade the one and solely Alan Atwood to provide Max the time from his second go on the ITT, netting him a decent midpack end. Possibly Alan’s gone gentle in retirement…
Michael bought 2nd place within the males’s C/D ITT rocking the candy TT helmet. He solely had entry to the massive gear within the entrance, however we predict that made him quicker.
Michael, Alex, Felix, and Bianca all wanting professional in the course of the ITT.
Michael went full Roglič Monte Lussari for the mountain TT, whereas his fellow males’s C/D riders opted out of the extraterrestrial look…
Melissa and Chen put in robust efforts within the ITT, getting 4th and fifth respectively.
Max, Seamus, Felix, and Bianca hung round on the prime of Mt. Philo for some scenic pictures. Disc brakes bought sizzling and ears popped on the best way down.
RR Highlights
Melissa and Chen rode in a peloton of ten or so riders all through the ladies’s C/D race, after two smaller breakaways took off early on. This pack labored collectively and had nice power. At one level, a UVM rider even commented on the mountains within the distance and there was some oohing and ahhing within the group. Chen and Melissa, together with two Military riders, pulled the group for a very good chunk of the time. Chen made the error of pulling by means of the ultimate windy sections with lower than 5 miles to go, leaving little or no fuel within the tank for the ultimate dash. Melissa, the smarter one of many two, had a powerful dash to the end.
Chen and Melissa upping the tempo within the girls’s C/D discipline
Bianca, Melisa, Vinh, and Chen practiced feeding Seamus in the course of the highway race. Whereas ready on the feed zone, Chen was hit by a USAC P/1/2 rider’s bottle flying at 50 mph and ended up with a bruise on their forearm that didn’t go away for per week (biking is a harmful sport!). On the third attempt, Seamus was capable of maintain on to the bottle, however he forgot to create space in his bottle cage, so the hassle was in useless. We should always follow holding bottles with our enamel. Bianca is glad she bought shoulder surgical procedure final summer time to face up to the affect of the bottle cross. We’re feeling prepared for feeding at nationals subsequent week!
Felix gracefully parted the peloton just like the Pink Sea when his chain snapped. A pleasant stranger donated a spare chain hyperlink so he might wander round Vermont. Seamus pushed by means of crosswind chaos within the final lap to complete seventh.
Vinh took the feed zone critically, even post-race
Chen training feeding method (below Coach Berk’s step-by-step directions throughout Nationals pre-race assembly), moments earlier than being hit by an almost-full flying water bottle
Girls’s C/D racers on the beginning line
CRIT highlights
Max “aero be damned” Katz-Christy channeled his MTB bike dealing with expertise into grabbing third place in his first crit (males’s Intro), bringing house MIT’s finest end result on the day. Indefatigable, he then went on to take some cool photos and video of the remainder of the crew’s races (see beneath).
Melissa bought 4th within the girls’s C/D Criterium after realizing on the ultimate dash that she didn’t in truth know easy methods to dash. Melissa later joined the ladies’s Intro race with Chen and good friend of the crew Tatum Brown from Yale, turning this race right into a enjoyable TTT and cornering follow. This podium might not replicate who crossed the end line first within the intro crit, however we’re all pals, so who cares?
Seamus notched his highest energy for the boys’s B/C race off the beginning line in true cyclocross style—the holeshot was important for the extraordinarily technical sequence of downhill corners on the primary half of the course. From there it was merely a “maintain the rubber aspect down” sort of race: all the time an achievement in its personal proper.
Solar’s out tongue’s out
Michael and Alex weren’t impressed with the flexibility of the 50+ rider males’s C/D discipline to navigate the nook sequence and bought caught behind splits. The course was so quick that they weren’t given a lot of a possibility to chase again on earlier than the officers started pulling riders. However, they each bought some worthwhile expertise with cornering and dealing with within the pack.
Day 2 squad promenade photograph
Easterns additionally means double omnium factors! After some frantic and flawed tabulations, the ECCC crew introduced that we bought third place as a crew in each the championship weekend and season omnium standings! Within the particular person standings, Seamus received the boys’s B discipline this season (“podium” image however)!
Michael’s second place within the ITT was acknowledged by getting to face atop a metaphorical illustration of Mt. Philo
We discovered later that Seamus had truly earned first place, however then he wouldn’t have gotten to face within the disgrace bucket 🙂
Alex’s Belgian instincts kicked in as he zipped up his jersey for the sponsors
To recap the weekend (and as an task for his documentary-making class), Max made this actually cool video!
MISC
Photograph credit: Max Katz-Christy, Tatum Brown, Felix Knollmann, Nolan Rogers, Bianca Champenois
