Yale's team makes lactic acid sacrifices at Penn State Pagoda
March 12-13, 2005


Throughout the weekend, 40-degrees and sun boosted the hardy Yale 
squad.  Due to snow on the ground, the weekend's races were changed to 
a crit and a road race, which both featured a notorious 8% (avg) hill.  
The weather also affected navigation: Michele and Curtis traveled the 
entire length of Route 287 and took almost seven hours to get to the 
hotel, while Adam and Eric circled for an hour before finally finding 
the race location, which was a mere eight miles from the hotel.


Saturday's crit was a 1.2 mi strand with turnarounds on both ends (up 
on way, down the other) and a hilltop finish.  In every race, non-Yale 
riders cracked on the hill and DNF-ed like water off a duck's back.  
Franco Woolf (GRD '08) kicked off the fun in the 6-lap Men's D race.  
He put in a strong effort throughout and pushed up the hill for a solid 
17th place finish out of the 32 starters.  Pete Chiu was next in Men's 
C.  He rode strong in the first few laps, and despite slowly falling 
off the main pack, persevered and finished midpack.  In Women's B, Kim 
consistently picked off women on the uphill and finished in a solid 8th 
place.  Then, Big Steve (Neri) and Steve-O (Kriss) put down the hammer 
in Men's B.  Big Steve was gapped off the main pack early, but donned a 
tell-all grimace and ground up the hill the whole race while lesser men 
dropped out.  Steve-O also raced with élan and rode with the lead pack 
the entire time, occasionally exhibiting some Thomas-Voeckler-rubber-
band action that elicited frenetic cheers from his groupies.  In the 
final sprint, he powered up the hill and dropped riders along the way 
for a great 15th place, plus a sprint point.  Big Steve was close 
behind in 27th.  A Woman Michele Flagge also put in a plucky race.  She 
pushed the pace early and stormed up the hill ahead of the pack on the 
first lap and third wheel on the second.  However, she had trouble 
descending and over the 12-lap race slipped back into a "lucky 13" 
finish.  But she won the Happiest Rider award: her smile at the top of 
each lap made every man on his trainer swoon (the UNH coach even 
growled at his A-men to concentrate on their warm-ups, not the race).  
Men's A was a thrillfest.  Not-so-secret weapon Adam Winck pulled up to 
the line just before the race went off, but his late appearance was 
just a ploy.  Indeed, it threw off the other riders, who were unable to 
respond when he went with a seven-man break early in the race (which 
soon dropped a Cornell cohort).  He pushed the pace throughout, and 
picked up sprint points along the way.  In the final uphill sprint he 
went so early that Tim Clement, Dartmouth's standout rider, told him 
later he was unable to suck Winck's wheel for the whole time and simply 
fell off.  Adam's phenomenal 3rd place finish had race officials and 
women alike pleading with Yale's team for his bio.  Captain and 
resident strongman Eric Diamond also had a great race.  Winck's group 
broke the field into four groups (his six-man break plus the Cornell 
chaser, a four-man chase group, 10-man pack, and numerous stragglers).  
Diamond spun beautifully and singlehandedly pulled his 10-man pack up 
to the four-man chase group, and then continued to ride strong and 
smooth up every hill.  He went early in the final sprint and was 
swallowed up, but put in a valiant effort among other notable riders 
(and trounced Harvard's "semi-pro" Jay Ku), and put himself in the 
points in 19th place.  Curtis pushed the pace and pulled the entire 
pack up the hill on the first lap, but was plagued by a pinched 
muscle/artery and had to pull out.


Yale's team then made a dinner visit to cycling heaven: $3.99 all-you-
can-eat pizza/pasta/salad buffet ($4.23 with tax).  An average of 4.5 
plates was eaten, topped off by oven-fresh chocolate-chip pizza.  
Unfortunately, the after-dinner excursion to a local massage parlor was 
not so heavenly.


Sunday's sufferfest road race again revealed Yale's grit.  The 3.6 mi 
loop had a 2-mi climb (an extension of the previous day's crit course) 
and fast, sometimes dodgy descent.  Franco again put in a solid D race, 
and commented on his 11th place, "It was fun.  It was a good race, 
yeah."  Hours later awed D men identified him simply as "the Yale rider 
with the ski goggles."  Pete Chiu's Men's C race report was censored 
due to the amount of expletives used to describe Delaware after one of 
its riders presented him with a lovely gift of road rash and a broken 
derailleur.  Despite such hardship, Pete still finished his race.  Kim 
then picked up a 13th place in her Women's B race.  All she needed was 
a spoiler to keep her superlight bike on the ground during the descent: 
she was within seconds of four other women and closing in quickly on 
the uphills when the finish line cut her short.  A Woman Michele pushed 
the pace with the top five women during the first two laps, but didn't 
enjoy the descent and 150-degree turns.  In lap three she bridged the 
gap and pulled the second group back up to the first along the uphill, 
but was then subsequently dropped by the ungrateful descending women. 
Although she's still cutting her teeth in road racing tactics, Michele 
still managed to pick up another lucky 13 finish.  B-man Steve Kriss 
had another superb race in which he rode at the front for the entire 
time and helped reel in the lone attacker.  He dropped no lower than 
third wheel the entire race, and on the last lap shattered his 20-man 
front group with his power-climbing skills.  In the final uphill sprint 
he was well positioned for 3rd place but was simply too strong for his 
gearing and was nipped at the line for fifth.  He later ruefully 
reported, "If I'd just thought to shift up..."  The races ended with a 
fabulous Men's A race.  Adam was boxed in and prevented from going when 
UVM's Dan Cassidy attacked on lap 2.  But he formed and dominated a 
seven-man chase group.  Every time he tried to whip up the tempo on the 
climb so his group could reel in Dan, his cohorts begged him to slow 
down.  Actual teleological trash talk* during the race:


Tim Clement: You're strong, but use your head.  Keep a good tempo on 
the climb so we can keep it together.  Race with your head, man.
Winck: If we don't push the pace we won't catch him.  Race with your 
legs.


Although he was nipped at the line by the winner of Saturday's crit, 
Adam's pair of third-place finishes garnered respect from the field.  
Eric Diamond, known for his dazzling smile and bicep-flashing ways 
during hillclimb events, also had a great race.  A few laps into the 
race he again ended up in the third pack, but kept his resolve and 
again singlehandedly bridged uphill into the second pack, and 
triumphantly finished in 19th place.  Throughout the weekend, every 
Yale rider put in a great effort and finished the tough races. Kudos to 
all.  We won't print it, but you'll have to ask Winck for his PBJ 
secret-recipe.  It's what gets him up the hills.


Quotables:
"Pete, you'd better pace yourself or you'll blow up." ­ Eric
(seconds later) "Ohh, Pete, looks like you peaked too early." ­ Adam
(conversation refers to Pete's buffet prowess)


*terminology courtesy of Adam