2024 Easterns

2024 UVM Race – Easterns!

Issues began off sluggish in lovely Vermont. Some cleats had been forgotten on the lodge, some shifters wanted adjusting, some porta potty traces had been lengthy. All indicators of simply one other traditional race weekend. Did we heat up? Who’s to say…

ITT Highlights

Max acquired final place within the ITT however first place within the bike mechanic competitors. In just below 39 minutes, he was in a position to 1) begin the ITT 2) return to the beginning line to repair his entrance derailleur and three) end the ITT. We don’t assume anybody else may have accomplished the restore as rapidly as he did.

UPDATE: We managed to persuade the one and solely Alan Atwood to present Max the time from his second go on the ITT, netting him a good midpack end. Possibly Alan’s gone mushy in retirement…

Michael acquired 2nd place within the males’s C/D ITT rocking the candy TT helmet. He solely had entry to the massive gear within the entrance, however we predict that made him quicker.

Michael, Alex, Felix, and Bianca all wanting professional through the ITT.

Michael went full Roglič Monte Lussari for the mountain TT, whereas his fellow males’s C/D riders opted out of the extraterrestrial look…

Melissa and Chen put in sturdy efforts within the ITT, getting 4th and fifth respectively.

Max, Seamus, Felix, and Bianca hung round on the prime of Mt. Philo for some scenic images. Disc brakes acquired scorching and ears popped on the best way down.

RR Highlights

Melissa and Chen rode in a peloton of ten or so riders all through the ladies’s C/D race, after two smaller breakaways took off early on. This pack labored collectively and had nice vitality. At one level, a UVM rider even commented on the mountains within the distance and there was some oohing and ahhing within the group. Chen and Melissa, together with two Military riders, pulled the group for chunk of the time. Chen made the error of pulling by means of the ultimate windy sections with lower than 5 miles to go, leaving little or no gasoline within the tank for the ultimate dash. Melissa, the smarter one of many two, had a robust dash to the end.

Chen and Melissa upping the tempo within the girls’s C/D area

Bianca, Melisa, Vinh, and Chen practiced feeding Seamus through the highway race. Whereas ready on the feed zone, Chen was hit by a USAC P/1/2 rider’s bottle flying at 50 mph and ended up with a bruise on their forearm that didn’t go away for every week (biking is a harmful sport!). On the third strive, Seamus was in a position to maintain on to the bottle, however he forgot to create space in his bottle cage, so the trouble was in useless. We must always follow holding bottles with our enamel. Bianca is glad she acquired shoulder surgical procedure final summer time to resist the influence of the bottle move. We’re feeling prepared for feeding at nationals subsequent week!

Felix gracefully parted the peloton just like the Pink Sea when his chain snapped. A pleasant stranger donated a spare chain hyperlink so he may wander round Vermont. Seamus pushed by means of crosswind chaos within the final lap to complete seventh.

Vinh took the feed zone significantly, even post-race

Chen working towards feeding approach (beneath Coach Berk’s step-by-step directions throughout Nationals pre-race assembly), moments earlier than being hit by an almost-full flying water bottle

Girls’s C/D racers on the beginning line

CRIT highlights

Max “aero be damned” Katz-Christy channeled his MTB bike dealing with expertise into grabbing third place in his first crit (males’s Intro), bringing house MIT’s finest consequence on the day. Indefatigable, he then went on to take some cool photos and video of the remainder of the staff’s races (see under).

Melissa acquired 4th within the girls’s C/D Criterium after realizing on the ultimate dash that she didn’t in truth know how one can dash. Melissa later joined the ladies’s Intro race with Chen and pal of the staff Tatum Brown from Yale, turning this race right into a enjoyable TTT and cornering follow. This podium could not mirror who crossed the end line first within the intro crit, however we’re all associates, so who cares?

Seamus notched his highest energy for the lads’s B/C race off the beginning line in true cyclocross trend—the holeshot was important for the extraordinarily technical sequence of downhill corners on the primary half of the course. From there it was merely a “preserve the rubber aspect down” sort of race: at all times an achievement in its personal proper.

Solar’s out tongue’s out

Michael and Alex weren’t impressed with the power of the 50+ rider males’s C/D area to navigate the nook sequence and acquired caught behind splits. The course was so brief that they weren’t given a lot of a chance to chase again on earlier than the officers started pulling riders. Nonetheless, they each acquired some invaluable expertise with cornering and dealing with within the pack.

Day 2 squad promenade photograph

Easterns additionally means double omnium factors! After some frantic and flawed tabulations, the ECCC staff introduced that we acquired third place as a staff in each the championship weekend and season omnium standings! Within the particular person standings, Seamus received the lads’s B area this season (“podium” image however)!