10 Hopkins cyclists met in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on March 30th after journeys of differing degrees of difficulty and time to produce a very successful weekend. After a prologue-style individual time trial and two criteriums, Hopkins saw points put on the board by a large number of riders. This was partly due to awesome courses, partly due to emergency bananas obtained at the crack of dawn, partly due to good race tactics, and mostly due to a few awesome breakout rides by two first-year cyclists. Special thanks to Dr. G for lending his car rack again, as well as to Kris Auer from Joe's Bike Shop and Charm City Cycling for his mechanical help.

Non-racing Weekend Highlights: Jump-starting Gou's car twice while his fuel gauge sat on E. 9 hour drive due to DC traffic. The awesome, soul-saving mattresses and the extra hour of sleep at the hotel due to "daylight savings time". I also heard Bolster got some cute pink booties at his baby shower. And a new eye patch.

Prologue:
Saturday morning arrived with a Tour de France-style prologue to begin the weekend's racing. It was also a prologue to the many hiccups in the officiating of the weekend, as start times were pushed back by almost half an hour. The course was a fast 4.7km with a few rollers, some technical turns, and a rickety wooden ramp to start from. After completing the first half of the course, riders turned around and came back, finishing with a screaming sprint through the start/finish line.

Highlights:
In Men's D, Hopkins award-winning safest driver, Eric Gou, completely blistered every other Hopkins cyclist with a 2nd place time of 6:23. Gou has been specifically geared for this type of course, as he has admitted to training rides consisting of two campus loops and a commute, roughly 3 miles. Faisal raced on pure talent (and no training) to a 7th place finish.

Allie fell off the ramp, (we're trying to figure out how) then charged back to a 7th place finishing time.

Smitty's first appearance in B's ended up in the money with 15th.

Crit #1 (The one where no one had any idea how many laps were left)

The first crit of the weekend was a small 0.5 mile loop with a downhill turn, followed by a slight uphill, then an uphill turn and a few meters of flat until the line. There was plenty of room for spectators, which provided a lot of energy for the riders. There was also an experiment with bells going on, Pavlov-style, as a few people by the start/finish rang bells at random intervals, but gave away no indication of their meaning. I'm pretty sure Sid salivated each time.

Highlights:
In Men's D's, Gou and Faisal worked together to score Gou his second podium finish of the weekend. Sid was forced to retire due to recurring knee problems.

James picked up a prime and his first points of the season along with some confidence in crit racing in Men's C's.

Cliff picked up two primes in the Men's B race, along with a solid 11th place finish.

Crit #2 (The one where no one had any idea how many laps were left)
Sunday's crit was held on an (abandoned??) race track at the Dixie Fairgrounds. The course was complete with freaked-out geese, metal trap doors, closed manholes, and good racing. There was a fast front stretch with a slightly technical turn at the end, an S-shaped turn in the middle, and a wide turn leading back to the front stretch.

Highlights:
Janine in Women's B's worked with the pack and made her moves on the last lap to secure a 3rd place finish.

In Men's C's, James scored 2 primes and finished up 12th while Gou started moving towards the end of the race and finished 9th in the field sprint.

Women's A's saw the break of a UNC rider who lapped the chase group while K-Ro and a pseudo teammate from UVA worked together to get back on.

Smitty scored a prime and hung with the pack, doing the Lord's work as always

Cliff started his first A's race and was pulled from the field along with about ten other riders after 45 minutes of racing. He was heard to comment later, "Those A guys, they arenŐt messing around."

Weekend Results:
A very successful week for the team! Though our roster was relatively small for this weekend, take a look at the results and you'll notice something: nearly everyone scored points! Without a doubt, the team is racing stronger than ever.

Prologue: 4.7km
Men's D, Field of 19: Gou (2nd, 6:23) Faisal (7th, 7:22) Sid (9th, 7:30)
Men's C, Field of 31: James (21st, 7:12)
Men's B, Field of 33: Smitty (15th, 6:43) Cliff (30th, 6:57)

Women's B Field of 15: Allie (7th, 8:15) Janine (9th, 8:30) Rebecca (11th, 8:39)
Women's A Field of 12: Katie (11th, 7:45)

Crit #1
Men's D, Field of 20: Gou (3rd) Faisal (9th)
Men's C, Field of 41: James (11th)
Men's B Field of 44: Cliff (11th) Smitty (40th)

Women's B, Field of 19: Allie (13th) Rebecca (14th) Janine (17th)
Women's A, Field of 13: Katie (12th)

Crit #2
Men's C, Field of 34: Gou (9th) James (12th) Faisal (31st)
Men's B, Field of 30: Smits (25th)
Men's A, Field of 28: Cliff (DNF)

Women's B, Field of 18: Janine (3rd) Allie (16th) Rebecca (17th)
Women's A, Field of 10: Katie (8th)