Season Wrapup

Dover, NH -- The MIT Cycling Team finished its season strongly, taking second place overall in Division II at the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference Championships hosted by the University of New Hampshire on April 24 and 25. The 3-event weekend provided ideal preparation for National Championships, with a road race on Saturday followed by a team time trial and criterium on Sunday. The team showed its stuff with brilliant individual and team performances in every event, proving its strength as one of the top teams on the East Coast. With the results from the conference championship weekend, MIT has earned a team berth to Collegiate National Championships, to be held May 21-23 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Saturday's long road race course covered a rolling 17-km loop, with one steep climb and a nerve-wracking 80-kmh descent. The Men's D category had the shortest race of 3 laps, while the Men's A rode the loop 7 times. Each race finished with the ascent of Parker Mountain, a 3-mile extension to the last lap. First-year racer Melanie J Michalak '06 led the team with 5th place in the Women's B event, while Dye-Zone A Chen G claimed 7th in the Men's B. Men's A riders Isaac J Dancy G, Ariel M Herrmann G, and Jason A Sears G worked hard throughout their 120-km event to keep MIT represented at the front, and ultimately succeeded with a strong 11th-place finish from Herrmann. Caitlin Bever G held her own without any teammates in the Women's A event to finish 19th.

MIT used Sunday's team time trial to pull ahead from the other teams in the overall competition. Bever and Michalak rode to 7th in the Women's A time trial, while the Men's A team claimed 5th with the help of time-trial specialist Mark Cote '07, and the Men's B team took 4th place.

The last event of the weekend was a downtown criterium in Dover, NH. The fast, four-corner course featured large crowds to cheer the racers on, while increasing winds made the higer-category races into tactical battles in the afternoon. Melanie J Michalak '06 capped off a standout weekend with 4th place in the Women's B race, securing second place in the omnium (combined points) competition at the championship weekend. Men's B riders Kieran F Culligan '06 and Dye-Zone Chen G attacked and counter-attacked relentlessly in the Men's B race, decimating the field and taking 3rd and 5th place. Their results moved Chen into 3rd place in season omnium points and gave Culligan his first podium appearance.

Strong performances across the board gave the MIT team its best weekend result of the season, taking second place among Division II schools for the ECCC Championships and 5th place overall for the entire season. The team looks forward to recruiting more riders to build its strength for next year and beyond, while its elite riders prepare to represent MIT at Collegiate National Championships.

MIT riders Caitlin Bever G, Kieran F Culligan '06, Isaac J Dancy G, Ariel M Herrmann G, and Jason A Sears G will join teams from Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Yale, and the United States Military Academy in representing the Eastern Conference at Nationals in Division II.