Also, big congrats to the always-classy Jeff Salvitti of Bucknell for taking the yellow jersey! Unfortunately, Ross's success came with the expense of a cracked rim...hopefully QCW Cycling carbon-repair-guru Aaron Ritz can fix it, otherwise it will be hucked into the Schuylkill River :)
I rolled in unceremoniously in 13th...tried to get away a few times once the break was gone, but UVM was all over me. Good position at the bell, but wussed out and lost it with people diving the corners on the chicane.
In Men's C, Colby Samstag rocked the house-- after getting gapped off the lead group in the first few laps with bad position, he clawed his way back up to the lead group, bringing Temple friend Sean Butler along for the ride. Colby then proceeded to lead the chase of the Columbia rider who had been off the front most of the race. Everything was all together in the final few laps. Colby sprinted solo for 400 m on the windward side of the finishing straight, and still picked up 2nd. Killer job! Someone will be upgrading soon (maybe after a crack at the C KOM jersey at Yale ;))
In Men's D, Nick Chen and Tony Altimore made the lead group chasing a break of three, with Dave Slochower playing teammate in the next group on the course. The break of three stuck, but wiley vet Tony won the field sprint convincingly, with Nick coming in fourth, for seventh overall. Dave won his group for 10th on the day, and fresh upgrade to D's Russ Leino pulled down 12th, after clawing back riders all race. I think the C field at Yale will see a few new entries next week :)
Saturday was marked by disappointment at the call to shut down the first legitimate (and hilly) road race of the year, but Penn rocked the TTT-ITT combo with panache. In the Men's A TTT, we took second, a half-second behind Harvard, led by "where the hell did that guy on the red trek come from?!" Losing a long TTT by a slim margin is disappointing (see Philly Phlyer) but second isn't half-bad. We will get our ish together for Easterns, you had better believe it. Colby and new B-upgrade Doug Schaefer did a two-man TTT in the B field...and took fourth! With two men and no aero helmets or deep-section wheels, very impressive! Our D men also took fourth with a strong ride, battling snow?! near the far turnaround of the course.
I was worried about competing against fresh riders in the ITT after essentially laying down a half hour of FTP work in the morning, but those worries were apparently unfounded, as Ross and I took 2-3 in the A ITT, two seconds apart (we're adorable) again behind "wtf harvard." Doug put in a strong ride for 18th in his first B competition, and Colby picked up a solid seventh place in C's. New D rider Russ Leino proved that absurd VO2max and cross country running prowess is very transferable to cycling with a third place in his first D race. Nick took fourth a few seconds behind, and Dave picked up tenth.
