After Mother Nature intervened on Saturday to cancel our home road race, the Hostetter-Hampstead Road Race, UMD was still ready to host its race on Sunday: a classic criterium for all of our enjoyment. The course is about as technical as can be, with two narrow chicanes, two 90 degree turns, and a hill going straight up the president of UMD's driveway. Since we were still on Spring break, most of our racers were out of town and our roster was less than half of its usual size. Still, we were definitely the rowdiest and most supportive team spectating at the race this day, and the results show some huge improvements. We also wanted to say thanks to Carma's CafeÊfor the big bag of breakfast bars - they helped keep us rolling fast.

The day started with our Men's D riders, Eric "Gu" Gou and Siddarth "Sid" Singh. Despite some minor difficulties along the way (a small crash for Sid) they both finished off with stellar results, 6 th for Gu, 8th for Sid.

Our Women's B stud, the sassy Allison "Allie" Wilson, fought her way through the ferocious pack of women's B's to finish up with a cool 11th place.

Next up was the Men's C where we had another 2 riders, John "Smitty" Smits and Jake "Jake" Koenig. Smitty got into a decisive break early and finished up 3 rd overall, while Jake battled it out in the pack finishing up 11th with a decent field sprint.

In Men's B we were represented by our fearless leader, the ever faithful, Cliff "Clif Bar" Smoot. Clif Bar, after tossing a few elbows in the pack to keep all those rowdy B men in line, took 3rd and 4th in two primes and 17th overall, hardly breaking a sweat (which could have had something to do with the sub 40 degree temperatures and strong winds).

For the next race of the day, Women's A's rider Laura "?" Hanlon, an experienced racer new to our team, battled it out. After fooling us all day, making it seem as if she was a sweet, quiet young lady, Laura revealed her true self during the race, showing no mercy to her competitors she rolled in an impressive 5 th place.

Finally, in the Men's A race, Ryan "Bloomer" Bloom and Toby "T-bone" Weatherall went to work for last collegiate race of the day. Bloomer, after grabbing 3 rd in an early prime, was on the wheel of some shady UMD rider (who I could have sworn I saw wearing a Towson jersey last year), took a line a bit too close to a curb and caught a back wheel on its edge, flatted, and due to the lack of ten-speed wheels in the wheel pit, was forced to abandon with a mere 10 laps to go. However, he did fare better than the Navy rider behind him who broke his nose in five places and left an impressive bloodstain on the course. T-bone on the other hand, had no such bad luck and battled furiously in the pack, finishing 6th in the field sprint and 11th overall (a mere 10 places behind a real live national champion).

As a bonus for the day, two of our racers, Cliff and Bloomer, raced a second time in the USCF category 4 field later in the afternoon. Joined by teammates (Wilson, Paul, Bruno, and Mike) from our mentor club, Kelly Benefit Strategies/LSV Amateur Racing, the two did their best to hang tough in the one hour of racing in a huge pack full of racers with fresh legs. The pace was furious from the start and the field shattered as small gaps opened up in the corners and strong headwinds (and weak legs/minds?) kept racers from closing them back down. After about 20 laps of this demanding and chaotic racing, six people were in various breaks and a peloton had reformed, though Bloomer had been forced to pull out of the race when both of his contacts were blown off his eyes (due to the dangerously high speeds at whichÊhe was traveling). Cliff stuck with it and finished 10th in the field sprint, landing 16th place. Other highlights for LSV that day were Adam Berg's impressive 4th place in Cat 5 and Nick Pakulla's tremendous win in the Cat 3/4. Also, big thanks toÊPaul for giving Cliff and Bloomer a ride home after the race.

Results Summary:

Beyond the "war stories" of each particular race today, the results demonstrate some of the immediate gains that we made during last week's training camp. Of the eleven of us, two finished in the top five, another two placed in prime laps, and in total seven of us finished in the top fifteen. This was a good raceday for JHU Cycling, and only more are coming.

M:
Gu - 6th
Sid - 8th

M:
Smitty - 3rd
Jake - 11th

M
Clif Bar - two primes, 17th

M:
Bloomer - one prime, DNF
T-bone - 11th

W:
Sassy Allie - 11th

W:
Laura - 5th

U:
Clif Bar - 16th
Bloomer - DNF