Bridging Gaps Across Teams - Duke Weekend

This weekend's rolling Colonial contingent went to Durham and had a pretty good time, generally.

SATURDAY: ROAD RACING IN SCENIC "BAHAMA"

The RR Saturday was in Bahama, NC. Our guys had mixed results.

The Ds were first again - Josh, Ben, and John set off with a field in which almost everyone had trouble clipping in up a slight incline (though Josh got his correct). At the beginning of the race, John had a slight mechanical that sent him to the back of the field, while our other two set about following the motion of an uneasy peloton. The most prominent climb on the course was approximately 2 miles from the start/finish, and with the Ds only completing one (14.25 mile) lap, the hill provided most of the crucial action of the race. Up the hill, Ben took off, Josh stayed more or less where he was, and John fell off the pace. Ben dropped some knowledge on the field down the finishing stretch to take 2nd, while Josh finished 9th and John 18th.Josh and Ben get ready

Ben charges down the stretch to take 2nd

Andrew showed the C field what another week of training gets you, and finished 27th, performing better in the field than the previous weeks.

To finish up GW's day of racing, Nick took to the streets in the Bs. He was having fun and executing his plan of sitting in all day in the large field, but if you thought the D pack was nervous, well, hey, you haven't met this year's B field. Nick made an attempt to chase back on, along with the UNC rider that went down as well, but the two decided to just watch the finish instead.Nick has way too much fun with this

No, that isn't any of our guys crashing, but this is nuts

Your heroes then adjourned to the team hotel.

However, Saturday was made much more fun by the post-race activities: GW went to dinner with the guys from William and Mary staying down the hall, and then spent the evening hanging loose with the other teams at the Days Inn - WVU, UMD, and Hopkins. Fun was had, noise was made in the courtyard, and maybe, just maybe, a children's bike was ridden into a pool (we will neither confirm nor deny this statement). ACCC teams bonded over bicycles and hilarity.

SUNDAY: MAYBE IF WE ASK NICELY, IT WILL RAIN A LITTLE HARDER

Sunday was a technical parking lot crit, on a course which went from "wet" to "wetter" to "underwater" as rain picked up over the course of the morning.

The Ds kicked it off. Josh discovered his big chainring and the concept of "hairodynamics" (we are not sure what this means either). Ben went on the attack (Josh did some blocking and said it made him feel "super pro all over") but paid for it, as he bonked a little more than halfway through the race and fell from OTF to OTB. Josh hung tough and used his newly discovered big chainring to win the group sprint for 3rd! John hammered the entire way to finish 8th. Ben rolled in at 13th.

The Cs started racing with Andrew and Luke, who rolled in at 9:24 for a 9:30 race. Because the officials knew him, they allowed him to race numberless and told him to sort out his registration later. Luke stayed in the top 10 of the strung-out field the whole race, keeping various doomed solo attacks in sight, and finished 6th. Andrew moved up from the day before, to finish 23rd.

Look closely! There are 2 GW racers at the starting line of the C race!

Just before the B race, the rain started. Nick toed the line in the downpour and tried not to worry too much about it. However, the sheets of rain and puddles of water proved too much for his twice-crashed psyche, and he watched the race ride away from him in each of the 9 corners of the course, unable to pull back enough on each straightaway to make a difference. When he took his gloves off after the race, he was able to wring absurd quantities of water out of them.Nick was carrying his glasses in his mouth?

Everyone's bikes got clean in the rainstorm that the team then had to drive home through.

The GW Ds have been putting up some sweet results. If you see them, tell them to upgrade.

The team now heads into a rest weekend, created by the void left in the ACCC schedule by the cancellation of the GW home weekend, which is really too bad.

Photos by John. Body by milk.