Columbia Grants Tomb Criterium

New York, New York - We all groaned slightly when we woke up at 5:10 am to see rain. Two and a half hours later, however, once we eventually stumbled upon Grant's Tomb in Manhattan, the rain was thankfully no longer falling...

The Women's C were first to ride the course, so after a bit of a hectic rush to get numbers and warm up Hannah found herself at the start line ready to race her first ever race. The course was great fun-there were some fairly tight corners, with a nice gentle uphill stretch on the finishing straight, all made more interesting by wet manhole covers and grates straddling the best lines. Though the only MIT rider in the women's C, she had plenty of team support from the sideline and was amazed at how much concentrated sound can come from such a small person - aka Yuri! Undoubtedly her shouting helped propel Hannah across the finishing line in first place.

Next were our Men's D riders, David Singerman, John Romanishin, Jared Dominguez, Alex Chaleff (who officially is the sole representative for Longy, but from our point of view is an MIT rider through and through), and Nader Shaar, who was also making his racing debut. This was a really exciting race to watch, with plenty of action and sprinting for the "cookie primes". Alex completed two impressive sprints to score in the first two primes, but unfortunately around the corner and out of sight he was caught in a crash which took him out of the race. David was also momentarily caught by this and consequently lost his place in the leading pack and had to battle his way up the final stretch alone. Ah, cycling is a cruel sport. Meanwhile John worked solidly within the main pack and completed an impressive sprint finish which earned him a fantastic 7th place. David finished 12th with Nader close behind at 14th.

The sun was beginning to come out and so at our base camp sunglasses began to come out to watch the dramatic Men's C race! Tim Humpton rocketed to a promising start to score in the opening prime and Sagnerie joined him on the scorer's board for the second prime. Meanwhile Nick Loomis and Michael Hamilton powered onwards comfortably within the pack and so did Zach Labry, Chewie and Paul Nerenberg. But a tragic tale unfolded: Chewie came down in a crash and so was left on the course with a dodgy rear wheel. After Issao yelled at him from the sidelines to go to the pit and take advantage of his free lap, Chewie was back in the race working hard to catch the peloton. Paul dropped back to work with Chewie, though then suffered a bout of cramps causing him to pull out of the race. In the meantime Zach's chain came off and though he was dropped from the pack he stoically fought by himself to the finishing line. After all this action Tim finished a fantastic fourth, Tony crossed the line 6th and Michael, the last of MIT in the points, came in 11th.

Zuzka Trnovcova and Katie Lovejoy represented MIT in the Women's B. Katie did an excellent job of working to stay with the pack, especially fighting valiantly to make up a 20 second gap that developed after the first 3 laps. With both Zuzka and Katie eventually in the pack, they were able to work together, and Zuzka took over the race for several laps and positioned herself perfectly over the penultimate lap ready for a sprint finish. Except that what with the excitement and adrenaline of the race she didn't actually realize it was the final lap. Whoever said that MIT students can count? Nevertheless, she finished 15th in the pack and Katie, who was annoyingly caught off-guard by a crash immediately before the final stretch, finished 19th.

By the time of the Men's B crit the sun was shining brightly and a beautiful sunny spring day had somehow overtaken New York. A small group went to ride in Central Park, led by our own private tour guide, Singerman, who also happens to know the best place to get real proper New York bagels. Meanwhile, Issao Fujiwara and Seth Behrends were racing their hearts out. Issao brilliantly placed himself second in the two last cookie primes. The final battle to the finish was tight and after a hair-raising sprint finish Seth finished 11th and Issao 16th.

Our Women's A riders, Yuri Matsumoto and Martha Buckley, showed excellent form in their race. Yuri, exemplifying coach Nicole's sprinting technique, cruised over the finishing line to win the third prime and Martha did more than her share of work pulling the pack to get things moving. Havard's Anna McLoon made a successful break and managed to maintain a significant margin. The rest of the pack stayed together fighting it out for second. Martha finished 7th and Yuri 9th.

The final ECCC race of the day was the Men's A, and Jason Sears and Eric Edlund went forth to do battle. The race started well, with the pair working together within the pack, and coming 3rd and 5th respectively in the second prime. Army's Ben Showman made his usual countless attempts at a breakaway, just as Jason had slyly predicted. Unfortunately for Sears, his fourth attempt was successful and he took Yale's Luekens with him. This left the rest of the pack madly trying to close the gap. Eric made a valiant attempt at bridging, but unfortunately his efforts were not rewarded and afterwards there was little left in him for the rest of the race. Sears in the meantime concentrated his efforts and finished 13th.

Although the ECCC had finished racing many of the same riders got back on their trainers to warm up for USCF criteriums. Jason, Martha, Chewie, Michael, and Issao all mustered up the energy to race a second time and all put forward great shows in these much larger and faster races. For many it was their first USCF race, and given that they'd all raced earlier in the day they all did remarkably well. The most notable results were provided as usual by Issao who, obviously not content with his performance earlier in the day, won a pair of nifty Adidas shades in a prime and finished an impressive 6th. Jason raced in the P/1/2, which he called one of the hardest races he'd ever done. From Jason Sears, that is saying quite a lot.