Dartmouth/UVM; April 23-24, 2005


Yale racers produced notable results during the penultimate race 
weekend, a soggy slugfest in bucolic New Hampshire.  The Men's C TTT 
trio—Spooky, Rich, and Jorge—kicked off Saturday morning's races.  
Despite moving 66% of their team up from D's, they averaged over 23 mph 
and climbed the second half of the course at over 20 mph for a seventh 
place finish, less than 17 seconds out of the points, and with a time 
that would have taken second in D's.  The rain still hadn't abated when 
the campus crit started at noon.  The six-corner, 0.6 mi course 
featured one main climb that led into the straightaway finish.  MD: 
Chris was pulled midway through the D race, while Rich, despite 
starting all the way in the back, kept passing men the entire race, and 
was barely off the front break group for his finishing sprint in which 
he picked up a solid 13th place.  Spooky's MC race was simply 
ridiculous.  He started the race in perfect photo-op position (facing 
the field).  Apparently after this stunt the C-men didn't know whether 
or not to take him seriously: for the first 20 minutes Spooky 
repeatedly attacked the front pack, but no one went with him, and he 
easily picked up first place in the second prim.  His efforts 
splintered the C pack, and by the last 10 laps he sat comfortably in 
his eight-man break.  Coming around the final left-hand turn into the 
short final sprint Spooky and a UNH rider had a 15-ft gap on their 
group, but when Spooky looked over his shoulder to see who was riding 
his tail, his bike went with him, and he inadvertently drove the UNH 
rider close to the curb.  He lost by mere millimeters to the UNH guy, 
and immediate furor ensued.  The race officials relegated Spooky to 8th 
because of his seemingly unsportsman-like conduct, but the other C-men 
signed a petition absolving him.  Still, a certain corpulent race 
official, perhaps jealous of Spooky's prim prize (a bag of donuts), 
refused to reinstate his second place.  B-men Steve and Brooke had 
equally gutsy races.  Although gapped off from the beginning, Brooke 
persisted until he was pulled.  Steve was in the front pack, and 
despite a wet crash early in the race, took his free lap and hopped 
back in.  Steve clearly rode comfortably while in the speedy front 
pack: he leisurely SAT UP to remove and put on his glasses at least 
twice.  If he'd had extra lenses, he probably would have replaced them 
too.  His front group continually shucked riders, and in the final 
sprint, Steve picked up 9th place.  Michele nearly missed her WA race, 
but her faithful teammates had a backup plan that involved some Spooky 
stalling antics.  Fortunately, she rolled up just before the whistle 
blew.  She quickly moved up after her back-of-the-pack start, and by 
the end of the race, came in a respectable 17th place.  Eric also 
suffered a bad start during his MA race and was pulled.


Sunday's rainy road race was a 12.6 mi loop with some decent climbs in 
the first three miles, an acute-angle corner at the bottom of the hill, 
and rolling hills for the remainder.  D-men Jorge and Chris generously 
set up the tent before their 2-lap race, then proceeded to kick butt.  
Jorge rode in the front pack before slowly falling off during the 
rolling-hill section in the final lap; Chris, boosted by the pint of 
Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup eaten the night before, was equally 
happy with his race.  Final places: 14 (Jorge) and 42 (Chris).  Next, 
MA, MB, and WA went off.  During his six-lap (75.6 mi) race A-man Eric 
rode strong in the main pack after UVM's Dan Cassidy broke and was 
chased by a smaller group.  Eric took second in the final obstacle 
course/pack sprint involving a bunch of confused cars stalled along the 
straightaway stretch, for a strong 16th overall.  B-Men Steve-O and 
Matt Tebbe had awesome races.  Both of them were boxed in when a few of 
their pack attacked on lap 3 and couldn’t bridge to the six-man break 
group ahead of them, but during lap five, attempted their own attack.  
As Steve phrased it: "Matt Tebbe is really f**king strong and tore the 
MB pack apart on the climb on the last lap."  This attack didn't work, 
so the two sat up and waited for the rest of the chase group.  There, 
they plotted their final strategy.  Right after they passed the feed 
zone on the final lap, and with approximately a mile to go to the 
finish, Tebbe got out of his seat and blew past the Harvard guy who 
attacked off the front.  Steve-O hopped on his wheel.  The two of them 
powered past their pack and created a considerable gap going into the 
final straightaway where, with Tebbe's textbook lead-out, they picked 
up 1-2 in the pack sprint for a stellar 7 (Steve-O) and 8 (Tebbe) 
overall.  Michele also had a strong race, and was among the top women 
during the entire 63.1 mi race.  She had a third place sprint among her 
pack for 9th overall, while Kim was pulled and placed in 20th.


Next week is Easterns!  Train well and be prepared for some great 
racing.  Congrats to all those who've raced so far...this weekend is 
the real deal.


The quotes:
"I'm going to launch a delicious attack..." - Spooky, clutching a bag 
of prim-prize donuts and glaring at the "fat official" who relegated 
him to 8th place (from 2nd) despite a signed petition from the rest of 
the riders in his pack
"I'm pathetic." ­ Eric at breakfast; we just can't remember the context 
around it, but it was hilarious at the time (he was full of gems this 
weekend)