Races
Results and Reports

Race Report
By Priscilla Pang
WVU Race Weekend Report (4/16-4/17/05)

Racers:
Lora Bankova
Matt Brancheau
Jess Chin
Faisal Karmali
Peter Kuhn
Amber Leis
Priscilla Pang
Katie Ross
Cliff Smoot
Fred Tan
Toby Weatherall
Becky Wolff

What a doozy of a weekend! For those of you that don't know, we at Johns Hopkins have a special rapport with the West Virginia University kids that all started way back during our Spring Break shenanigans involving some toilet paper, shaving cream, and Gef Moy's bare ass.

So without further ado, let the race reporting begin.

Our group of 12 kiddos left Balto Friday afternoon expecting to pull into Morgantown around 10pm. But, true to Hopkins Cycling fashion, we were distracted by a pitstop at Chipotle (good pre-race food) and several other stops for gas (Fred's car has a peanut-sized tank), and didn't get into the city until 11pm. Thinking we were still relatively on schedule, we drove through the winding streets of Morgantown looking for the roads that would get us to Chris and Amanda's houses. Yeah. Right. Turns out, Morgantown doesn't follow any conventional rules of civil engineering. After getting so lost that they had to drive out to find our car, then to Matt's car on the OTHER side of town, then back again to the first side to pick up Peter and Faisal et al, it was close to 12 and we were ready to crash for the night. (In our defense, verbal directions in WV aren't given by street names, but rather by number of traffic lights one has to cross, hills to go over, etc. It gets confusing.)

Saturday: Those of us staying with Amanda were woken up to the 'gentle' sound of Amber's FREAKING NEBULIZER. That's right. For this experiment that she was part of, Amber had to suck down some drug 3 times a day with the help of this crazy machine that would have put a jackhammer to shame. Good thing it was so funny to watch her or else we'd have come back one rider short.

In any case, we arrived at the site of the circuit race, rip-roaring and ready to race. The course was a fast 4-mile circuit through a residential neighborhood with one short, but potentially pack-breaking climb. We were all a little nervous about the roads covered in gravel, but after seeing the part of the course that was painted a nice, bright orange, we decided gravel wasn't so bad after all.

The races started with the Men's C's followed closely by the Wm's B's. In the C's were Cliff, Faisal, and neo-racer Peter Kuhn. Cliff and Faisal set a blistering pace and finished in the field with a great 10th and 12th, respectively. Peter hung in bravely and came in an impressive 16th place in his very first race EVER! For the Wm's B's, Jess and Amber teamed up to take on the women while Becky brought up the rear of the blue train to take 5th, 6th, and 7th consecutively, shutting out all the WVU girls!

After them came the Men's B/Wm's A field - but in a slight rebellion, claiming dangerous gravel as an excuse - the women were allowed to race in their own field. Matty B and Freddy T (in a slightly miscalculated move) were our guys in the race. Matt had strong legs, powered in to win the field sprint and came in an awesome 4th! Fred - a former C rider who upgraded just to help out the women - gave it his all with a respectable 19th. Lora, Katie, and myself were in the WA's but due to an unfortunate accident involving a tight turn, gravel, Lora's pedal and the forehead of a UMD girl, Lora didn't finish the race. I outsprinted another UMD girl for 6th, and Katie pulled in right behind us at 8th.

In the Men's A race, Toby and Chris (from WVU) got dropped from the blazing pack, but worked together for the 30-something miles. In the end, Toby took him on the line for 26th.

[NOTE: Toby actually slid out on a turn on the second lap going 30 mph. Chris selflessly waited for him to dust himself off, and they team time trialed for the remaining 30-something miles. Chris, you’re the man!]

Saturday night: A delicious dinner prepared by WVU and then an illicit crit/conference party, part of the WVU cleaning staff, and cops at the end. What goes on in Morgantown, stays in Morgantown. All I can say is "YEAH! f***ing naked guy!"

Sunday: Waking up none the worse for our night out the A and B/WA's were first to go. Our plan was for Matt to do this own thing (since he does it so well - he got 4th AGAIN), while Lora and Fred were to help Katie and I through the two long, tough climbs in each lap, which they did ever so well. I rolled in at 8th, Lora in 9th, and Katie as 11th.

For the C's, the field got so shattered that there was no pack anymore, so Cliff and Faisal teamed up and worked together for half the race to come in at 9th and 10th. In the Wm's B, Jess was our little superstar, hammering for a beautiful 4th place, while Amber soon followed in 6th, and Becky with 7th (even after the idiot road marshals left and caused Becky and another girl to go out of their way by miles and miles).

All in all, it was a wknd of great racing and merry-making!

p.