ZOMG RACING HAS STARTED

The season kicked off at Rutgers this weekend, and it was a blast! Thanks to Rutgers for hosting a quality weekend of racing, in the face of serious adversity (needing to find two new courses, get permits, etc in a VERY short time span) and intermittent drizzle and downpour on Sunday. Chapeau.

Penn rolled deep this weekend with about 20 racers in categories A through D. No women, sadly..we must smell bad :(. Penn friend, USC rider, Virginia Solomon made the trip though, with her adorable face-licking doggie, Georgia. Big ups to her, she pulled down 4th in the ITT, 3rd in the crit, and 12th in the points race.

Saturday Results:

Men's D ITT: Patrick Glover 8th/52, Nick Chen 12th, Alex Brown 14th, Schuyler Cadwalader 21st (you wish your name was that cool), Derek Lee 46th

Men's C ITT: Colby Samstag (computrainer hero) 14th/57, Jason Ruth 22nd, Doug Schaefer 23rd, Kevin Krebs 24th (the three of them separated by less than a second)

Men's B ITT: John Farrell 6th/41, Nick Bessman 12th

Men's A ITT: Ross Marklein 2nd/52 (Holy crap, Ross got fast!) Matthew Furlow 6th, Eric Poeltl 40th

Men's D crit: Patrick Glover 9th/56 (first ever mass start race, nice!) Tony Altimore 10th (SCOURGE OF THE D FIELD) Alex Brown 14th, Nick Chen 19th, Schuyler Cadwalader 27th, Derek Lee 47th

Men's C crit: Doug Schaefer 10th/60 (also in his first mass start race) Jason Ruth 20th, Kevin Krebs 32nd, Colby Samstag 33rd

Men's B crit: John Farrell 6th/49, Nick Bessman 21st

Men's A (twilight-ish) crit: Matthew Furlow 2nd/58, Eric Poeltl 18th (pulling down points in his first ever A race, nice!)

I was very proud to see Penn riders racing confidently, near the front of the pack, in every category. Looks like those skills clinics are paying off! Ross would have been high up in the crit-- he looked amazing in the TT and spent several laps off the front chasing "he who cannot be caught"-- but he unfortunately fell victim to a crash that spanned the entire road. Bum luck. Minor injuries, bike is ok, he should be back shredding at Columbia. In the A race, I found myself in a late move with Jeff from Bucknell, after a flurry of activity all race (the only constant being Austin off the front, solo) that we managed to stick ahead of a rapidly-closing chase group of three, followed shortly by the pack. That was pretty awesome.






Sunday results:

Men's D points race: Patrick Glover 4th/45 (yeah extended podium!) Nick Chen 17th, Ian Murray 28th, Daneel Schaecter 30th

Men's C points race: Doug Schaefer 9th/49 (two top 10s in his first weekend, solid!) Colby Samstag 25th


Men's B points race: John Farrell 2nd/43 (UPGRADE TO A, GOSH), Nick Bessman 30th



Men's A points race: Matthew Furlow 17th/46, Eric Poeltl 22nd
The points race was interesting. I couldn't wrap my head or legs around it, and got a mediocre result. Poeltl was solid, spinning up the hill cooly every lap, and throwing down some hard efforts when called upon. Mr. Farrell crushed it in B's, solo-ing away for the final sprint. Can't wait to have him ripping up legs in A's!

Random note-- D2 is looking STRONG this year-- top 4 spots in the Men's A overall. Way to go, small school guys.