The squad this weekend: Andrew, John, Nick, Sam, Matt, Josh (with what is obviously Sam's bike, right?).
SATURDAY:
Early start Saturday with the Men's D field setting off at 8:10. Staged on the line were Josh and John for GW - Josh in his first bike race, and John in only his 3rd mass start. From what we hear, a crash marred the neutral rollout, but our boys trucked on, enduring the early morning cold and some field splits to come in at 11th and 15th.
Nick and Sam then rolled out at the same time in the combined Men's B and Women's A field. By their start, the weather had warmed up a little bit. Nick enjoyed riding at the front of the field until he suffered the consequences of what he describes as "poor race planning" and cramped up, getting himself dropped. Sam, on the other hand, vanquished most of the women in her field for 2nd place!
Last up for GW was Andrew, who found himself behind what he said was "two simultaneous but unrelated crashes" and took a bike part to the shin.
Early start Saturday with the Men's D field setting off at 8:10. Staged on the line were Josh and John for GW - Josh in his first bike race, and John in only his 3rd mass start. From what we hear, a crash marred the neutral rollout, but our boys trucked on, enduring the early morning cold and some field splits to come in at 11th and 15th.
Nick and Sam then rolled out at the same time in the combined Men's B and Women's A field. By their start, the weather had warmed up a little bit. Nick enjoyed riding at the front of the field until he suffered the consequences of what he describes as "poor race planning" and cramped up, getting himself dropped. Sam, on the other hand, vanquished most of the women in her field for 2nd place!
Last up for GW was Andrew, who found himself behind what he said was "two simultaneous but unrelated crashes" and took a bike part to the shin.
The team then decamped to the hotel (with Sam setting off to visit some friends from her days living down North Carolina way), and set off eventually for the local Ruby Tuesday's to attack the salad bar and some burgers. With Sam not around to make sure we did not get into trouble, the rest of us spent the evening "broing down."
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY:
Sunday was another early morning for the Colonials. Men's D started at 8, and the team hotel was about 40 minutes away. The criterium course that made up Sunday's race was a very short 4-corner loop on the NCSU campus, smooth and scenic, if a little narrow.
The D men started off in the still-cool morning air, and the field quickly broke up, with lapped riders leading to confusion all over. However, our guys looked out for themselves: Josh made it into the first chase group behind a 3-man breakaway, and John settled into a group behind him. When the smoke cleared, Josh had finished 5th (in his first criterium, with his wife and son watching!), and John 7th.
Andrew was next in the C field. Unfortunately, he got off to a rough start, and couldn't make up enough ground to avoid getting lapped. Because the course was so small, officials were pulling lapped riders pretty quickly, and Andrew fell victim to it.
Sam was next up for the Women's A race. WA is always a small field, and Sunday was no different, with only 6 riders lining up to race. The ladies worked together for the whole race except for the last lap (though Sam complained that some of the rotation was a bit choppy), and Sam took 2nd in a close sprint finish, with a late push through the middle of the group.
Nick was the last GW racer of the day, in a sizable and excited Men's B field. The race started off fast, remained fast, and finished fast, and he stayed near the front the whole time, helping chase down attacks and keep the pace high. At the end of the day, an App. St. rider managed to open just enough of a gap on the last lap to stay off the front, but Nick sprinted off the front of the field to take a definitive, and hard-earned, 2nd place.
During the B race, the team gathered in a corner and yelled "HAMMER" at Nick throughout the race, which he appreciated. Following the race, the team went across the street to the "I heart NY Pizza" and stuffed their faces in an effort to replace glycogen (Nick was a little woozy for a while there).
Go team! Everybody had fun, and GW did well enough for 2nd among D2 teams on Saturday, and 1st on Sunday! GW is tied with Duke for 1st in the conference team standings, and the racers are excited for next week.
In overall standings, Josh is in 7th in Men's D, John is in 9th in Men's D, Sam is in 3rd in Women's A, and Nick is in 4th in Men's B.
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