The season opened Saturday with an individual time trial hosted by William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA as part of their "Tidewater Winter Classic". The course: a 12.5 mile course along the York River with a short climb and tailwind at the start, a rolling stretch into a looping turnaround, followed by a separate hilltop finish into a headwind. Just like last year, starting times were delayed while William & Mary scrambled to get their stuff together, but eventually our racers were off beginning with Men's D and ending with Men's A. Our riders got in solid warm-ups under our nice "Hopkins Cycling" tent and benefitted from the days sunny weather and rising temperatures. Results were listed at the end of the day and Hopkins left its mark with riders earning points in every field. All in all, Hopkins boasted two "Top 5" finishes, three more "Top 10" finishes, and seven "Top 20" finishes. We also want to give a big shout-out to everyone from JHU and LSV who volunteered to lend us their aerobars for the weekend, especially Brancheau, Faisal, Jess, and Jason Kamps. We wouldn't have had these times without them!
Men's D
Eric Gou - 36:14 - 6th
Evan Sznol - 38:00 - 8th
Men's C
Peter Bolster 31:23 - 3rd
Cliff Smoot 32:08 - 5th
Jonathan Smits 32:46 - 8th
James Robbins 33:35 - 19th
John Lian 34:13 - 28th
Jacob Koening 34:21 - 31st
Steven Kornweiss - DNF (flat)
Women's B
Janine Knudsen 39:54 - 9th
Rebecca Kramer 42:55 - 12th
Allison Wilson 43:04 - 15th
Women's A
Katie Ross 38:16 - 10th
Men's A
Nathan Coleman 29:17 - 16th
Ryan Bloom 29:27 - 17th
William & Mary Road Race
2/25/07
Written by Cliff
The season's first road race promised to be a great way to kick the season into gear. The course was fairly simple: a 9.38 mi loop in Croaker, VA, with no technical corners and just a few hill jams, including a final one at the finish. The only real problem was the day's constant precipitation, which tended to waiver between rain and sleet, plus the continually falling temperatures that eventually caused some medical problems with the later races. Okay, so maybe not the best way to start the season after all.
The day began with the Men's D, an introductory field added this year to the conference in order to offer a better fitting field for rookies. Our own Evan and Gou joined this field of about fifteen riders to take on two laps. In the first lap, the field split into two groups of about five each, with a thirty foot gap between the two, and Evan and Gou holding strong in the second group. The field surged hard on the hill at the end of the first lap, leaving Evan off the back and Gou in even more trouble with rear mech problems with his derailleur that cost him some dear time. They both spent the rest of the race chasing down the pack and finished 12th and 13th respectively.
Women's B started in the same nice weather conditions, with the air in the mid 40's and the roads wet but skies dry, and two laps to race. For the first lap, the pack stayed together, moving at an easy clip and letting the riders adjust to the feel of the race, with our racers Janine, Rebecca, and Allie conserving their strength in the middle and back sections of the field of twenty racers. Just as in the Men's D field, the group shattered on the climb halfway through the race, and left Janine to fend for herself in the pack as Allie and Rebecca worked together along with another rider from Navy to chase down the pack for the last lap. Janine finished with a strong 12th place and Rebecca and Allie came in together at 16th and 17th.
The Men's C race was next, with 65 racers total, three laps to race, and JHU's squad of seven to take care of the job: Steve, Smitty, Jake, James, Bolster, John, and me. As a fairly practiced and prepared group, our plan was to split into pair groups and to repeatedly launch attacks until one finally would stick. I can say with (only minimal self-congratulatory bias) that it was JHU that controlled the whole race, keeping a minimum of three or four racers at the front at all times. Every single one of us launched at least one break off the front, and though none of them stuck, highlights included James and Steve's two-man break as well as John's surprise attack in the third lap. Our teamwork was due to great communication and pre-race strategizing, and really made an impact on the race, which had held a average of 22 mph (a blistering pace for Men's C) and struck fear into the hearts of other racers (at several points toward the end, racers were making a lot of comments like, "watch out, you got Hopkins on your left"). After a good deal of pulling and multiple attacks, Smitty fell off the pack and spent the last half of lap 3 working with other racers to chase down the pack. Steve too dropped towards the back of the pack, where he fell victim to the stereotypical Men's C "I'll crash for no reason" attitude when two riders went down right in front of him and left him no choice but to suddenly get off his bike and take a closer look at the pavement. The last mile saw a lot of sketchy riding, line-rule breaking, more ridiculous crashing, but luckily no real problems for JHU. I finished at 17th, followed by James at 21st, Jake at 22nd, Bolster at 24th, John at 28th, Steve at 28th, and Smitty at 40th. Overall, I would have to comment that it in terms of teamwork and coordination, this was the best squad I've ever been a part of and that there is some huge promise for the rest of the season.
Nathan and Bloomer were our stars in the Men's A field, which raced for six laps starting at 2pm and witnessed the toughest weather conditions of the day, with temperatures dropping into the high 30s. After an easy first lap, the pace (as well as the rain) picked up, alternating with surges and brief recovery periods until the end of lap 3, when a break with all the major teams represented escaped and started opening up a major gap. Around this point, Nathan's fresh legs started stiffening up badly, leaving him unable to even reach out for the gloves and windbreaker offered for him at the feed zone. Bloomer, due to a combination of good clothing layering and mental toughness, was able to hold onto his bike and follow through with the final 4 torturous laps, while Nathan (along with a total of eleven other A's riders) pulled out of the pack in order to keep from getting dangerously hypothermic (later in his shivering daze, he explained to me that he had been recently reading about this stuff for med school and didn't want his "brain to freeze"). Bloomer finished up strong, if cold, sticking with the main chase pack until the very end and finished with a truly superhuman 14th place.
Just like Nathan and Bloomer, Katie found out what it is like to be tossed into a slurpee machine and put into spin cycle during her race in the Women's As. After the TT on Saturday, a few of the already small WA field decided to take a breather and race with the WBs ladies. This left only 9 women at the start line for Sunday's race. The men's B got the pack rolling at quick pace from the start. The final announcement that the race would be 4 laps and not 5 gave a bit of hope to the riders as they rolled out, as well as extra incentive to push hard. The motto of the day really was "The faster we ride, the faster we get inside." The WA fell off the back of the Men's B pack a little early, but were able to regroup after a few unlucky men had a crash about 6 miles into the race. After this brief regrouping, riders began falling off the back. From there, the only goal was to finish. Katie finished 6th, and wants to thank the team for the cup of coffee and the warm towel, and Rebecca Kramer's gloves for saving her race.