Speed Sprints

There is one of those signs that display the speed of cars as they drive by over on Baribeau Drive. The cycling team went over and did 3-4 passes sprinting by it to see what our max speed would be. Unfortunately there was a viscous head wind but we were still able to make it to 31 or 34 mph. It was very applicable after we had just discussed sprinting in a race skills session.

PS- Dartmouth and MIT were highly successfully for us with our first ever TTT with both a group doing the Women B race and the Mens C race. We scored a bunch of points at Dartmouth but Duncan probably had the best race with a narrow second place (1 tire width) in the Frat Row Crit!

Yale Weekend

Luke chilling in the pack during the crit.
The view down to the start area from the top of East Rock.
Yas starting the time trial under the sweet Red Bull banner.

The cycling team had a big weekend at Yale with the most riders in a collegiate race (6 total) and the most ECCC points scored in at least the last 5 years if not ever! Saturday consisted of a mostly uphill time trial up East Rock in New Haven. The weather turned for the worse about half way through and it rained hard straight until the last few laps of the final race of the day. The best results for Bowdoin in this event that is hard to train for around Brunswick was from Yas with a 6th place in the womens B Race. Saturday afternoon was a short crit like circuit race that ended with a finishing spur that climbed East Rock again. It was cold as balls and a little bit slippery but we all made it through all right with the exception of Yas's rear wheel. Notable results came from morgan with a top 20 in the Men's A race and Duncan and Luke finishing 14th in the Men's D and Men's C races respecitivley. Saturday night for the Bowdoin Cycling team consisted of eating about 1/2 a large pizza apiece at Modern Pizza in New Haven (its really good and somewhat famous) and then passing out around 8:30. Sunday fortunatley had sunny skies but it was still brisk and windy for the criterium. The Men's D race was the highlight of the weekend for Bowdoin, with Nick, Duncan and JB taking 4th, 5th and 7th respectively in some exciting team tactics and good timing. All told it was a sweet weekend with some good racing!

PS- honorable mention to Luke who has a date with a hot West Point female cyclist for next weekend.

Bowdoin Cycling on Youtube!

Morgan, Luke, Lukes Brother and I went down and represented Bowdoin Cycling at the Scarborough Training Crit on Sunday. Besides taking 4 of 8 primes, Morgan with the A race stage win and me with 4th place in the B race we also made it on to youtube, Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYo41U1FxUs

check back from more details from Luke and possibly photos.
-Nick

New Jerseys!

New Jerseys have arrived and we look even more stylish on our group rides now. Apparently they also got great reviews at the races in philly from fellow riders. I'll try and get a picture of someone sporting the new jersey up soon.

If you're intersted in purchacing one, they will be for sale in the Bowdoin Bookstore. They are very high quality, made by Louis Garneau, very functional and most importantly good looking. If you're interested contact the bookstore as they may not be on their online store yet...

Many thanks to Morgan and the Bookstore for making this happpen!

RAD Mountain Bike Ride

Erika, Cory, Nat, Morgan, Isac, Luke and I went on a totally rad mountain bike ride. We found some deep mud over on the North Side of Pleasant hill. then we crossed over pleasant hill and rode the Crystal Springs Farm trails over to the Brunswick highschool. We showed off at the highschool for a while but didn't pick up any girls. Then we cut over to merepoint road on some trails that i didn't really know where they went. We walked/ attempted to ride a 1/8th track over to the commons and came back to campus by way of the gully trail. Nat and morgan had a brief shower (aka waterfight) at the outing club while the rest of us cleaned the mud off of our bikes with the hose.
Morgans tire was going flat and he took a bite out of my finger trying to pump it up and Corry had a great endo into the sand but other than that a great ride.

RAD- Nick

L.L. Bean Time Tial- Nick's account

It was hard for me to get out of bed at 5:30 on Sunday morning because it was poring rain and 40 degree weather outside. I had raced the day before in the Polar Bear Triathlon the day before so as kind of a fair weather rider I had already had my fill of riding in the rain for one weekend. We ended up driving down to Freeport because the ride down and back would have been miserable in the nasty weather. After registration when I went to pedal my bike around I wasn't sure if I was warming up or just getting cold. Anyhow race time rolled around and it started off with a 6-8 mile slog North on Route 1 from Brunswick to Freeport. Most of this time I was wondering what I was doing out of bed at that point and when Luke who started 30 seconds behind me would roll past me and spray some more water in my face. After turning onto Woodside Rd. and seeing Maresa volunteering at the Pleasant Hill intersection I was feeling a little more excited about the race and started putting the hammer down. It was a little tricky without aero bars but i tried to stay low for most of the race. I think there are some sweet pictures of us bombing down the road that the photographer got but I haven't found them yet. Anyhow I made it through the hilly section on Flying Point Road near Wolfsneck with quite a bit of pain and thought I had a fast flat cruise back to Freeport on Foreside Road. When I rounded the corner that Bruce Macleod was volunteering at my legs were very disappointed to see another unexpected hill. Its not actually much of a hill but at this point in the race I had to drop it down into the low gears and tough it out once again. Finally i got to the finishing straight and was excited to see that I held Luke off but that he was close to me in the results. I certainly didn't have the fastest time of the day (Morgan was up there) but I did a pretty good job of winning brunch once we made it back to campus around 11:00. Looking back on the event it was a good time and many thanks to L.L. Bean for the free race and to Bruce and Maresa for volunteering in the rain.
The view from the bike- well not actually but you get the idea at least.

Full results at http://live-timing.com/race2.php?r=8893&u=0
Have your own story from the weekend? Let us know at bowdoincycling@gmail.com and we'll post it.

Polar Bear Triathlon

Congratulations to all the cycling club members who did the Polar Bear Triathlon. We had some rainy weather making the bike a little tougher but still some great results. Barry Logan and Forrest Horton were the first two Bowdoin Men while Katherine Creswell and Maresa Nielson were the first two Bowdoin Women.

Check out full results at:
http://live-timing.com/race2.php?r=8892
Bennett rounding the final turn

Maresa looking good on the bike