Dylan Glatt takes the win in the Men’s D RR

[Dylan Glatt] Men’s D’s and Women’s C’s began frustratingly slow – seriously, no more than 17mph for the first 3 miles. As the course entered the first few hills, VT began attacking. Dylan and a Duke rider reacted quickly, spreading the field by 50m or more with 4 or 5 other rides. Feeling strong, well positioned, and knowing the cat 3 climb was approaching, Dylan then pulled off hard the front to separate from the pack. Duke held on to his wheel, but he expected this. The two worked together through the next few miles, separating themselves until the pack was out of site. Leading up the first big pitch of the 3.6 mi climb, Dylan (unintentionally) started to pull away from the Duke rider. Once the Duke rider fell off, and feeling strong enough to continue solo, Dylan thought, “hey, what the hell? Just try to catch the car.” Dylan finished maybe 2-3 minutes ahead of 2nd place, and proceeded to take a second lap around the course in reverse – it was, as he later joked, a long way to drive for only 16 miles of bike racing!

[Graham Hawkes] Canceled the climb for no reason. Cold as balls. Finished 7th. (B race)

[Evan] – B race started out a little faster than I was prepared for. had a tough time hanging on and got dropped on the 2nd lap climb. Then my cable snapped. Womp womp.

Virginia Tech Criterium – Photos

Suzanna Dupee and Ericka Malow lead the Women’s B criterium.

[Women's B Race]
After an unfortunate USA Cycling license snafu preventing Suzanna Dupee from competing in the road race on Saturday, she was ready to drop the hammer on the snowy Women’s B criterium on Sunday. The Women’s B and C fields lined up to the falling of white flurries amidst the freezing cold weather. There would be 4 primes for the B’s and 3 for the C’s. Suzanna and Ericka both had a phenomenal start off the line, quickly assuming a strategic position. Suzanna took the lead for the first few laps of the race, setting a grueling pace that resulted in a 4 person break with Navy, VT, and Duke. After launching several attacks and placing in all primes, the race came down to a sprint. Suzanna was tragically nabbed at the line by Duke, but placed a respectable 4th in a strong group of Women’s B riders. Not bad for a girl who sucks at criteriums!

[Men's D Race]
A few too many the night before put Dylan Glatt a bit farther back than desirable on this punchy up-and-down crit. After 2 laps of settling in, Dylan realized there was a good opportunity to cut a fast, downhill corner tight; he did just that and picked off 8 riders in about 200m. Now in 3rd and following the same Duke rider from the RR the day before, the two spoke briefly and were off, pulling away from the pack – they never looked back. Each pulled lap for lap, and their lead grew on the pack with each round. Dylan was fortunate to pick up both primes along the way. Dylan led coming into the final lap – not an optimal position – but a bit of good luck fell into place: they were lapping riders, so Dylan sat on the wheel of a lonely rider to save energy for the sprint he knew would come. Just before rounding the final corner, the Duke rider jumped, taking the inside and accelerating quickly up the hill towards the finish line. Dylan responded immediately, jumping on his wheel and exploding up the hill to Duke’s inside. 200m later, Dylan squeaked out the sprint.

Still sore from her injuries following an epic crash at the sprint at NCSU, Ericka Malow was the sole rider from UNC in the womens B field for an early morning start in the rain. The 10 mile course was mainly flat though featured a short kicker halfway round each lap. After 2 laps there were no successful breaks and the pack finished together on the uphill false flat finish with Ericka picking up 5th place.

Graham Hawkes setting off on his second breakaway of the day

The Men’s B race was reduced to 4 laps and Graham Hawkes looked to repeat his breakaway performance at NC State. Halfway round the first lap Graham launched an attack only to quickly be reeled in. Again on the second lap Graham attacked this time with an App State rider, their break seemed to be successful as the pack was unwilling to work together. However with around 5 miles remaining, Duke and Navy finally cooperated and brought back the break. In one last attempt to break Graham attacked again with around 3 miles to go, however with the end in sight the pack was unwilling to let him escape. The race finished in a bunch sprint with James Huckle taking 7th in his first B race and Graham ultimately finishing 14th after his multiple attacks.

W&M Crit

A wet W&M crit featured five technical turns. The best result of the day was Ericka Malow’s 4th place finish in the Womens B field, in addition to taking 4th in all available primes. The men’s B race had multiple crashes and Richard Frye, Graham Hawkes and James Huckle finished 17th, 18th and 19th respectively in a race that is better forgotten. The poor conditions and tight corners ultimately ended in the cancellation of the Men’s A race.

To view more photos from the weekend, click here! 

Mollie Brewer navigating through some serious mud

While Chapel Hill experienced unseasonably warm temperatures last weekend, cycling team members found themselves in unfamiliar snow, ice, and cold temperatures in Verona, WI for Collegiate Cyclo-cross National Championships.  This is the finale race of the year as cycling teams come from across the country to compete for the final prize: the top podium step and a stars and strip jersey.

Team members Mollie Brewer and Grace Chappell made history by being the first members to attend cyclocross nationals from UNC-Chapel Hill.  The collegiate race was held on Saturday with temperatures in the upper 30s.  The course had thick slick mud that forced riders to hop off and shoulder through technical sections and steep uphills.  As the race progressed, the thick mud clumped to pedals and gears making the bike heavier and harder to maneuver through the obstacles.  It became a true test of power and endurance for Mollie and Grace.  In the end, Mollie finished 17th out of about 50 girls (which quite the achievement factoring that she has only raced cyclocross for about 2 months) and Grace finished closely behind, matching riders who hold professional cycling racing licenses.  This was enough for UNC-Chapel Hill to finish a respectable 8th place for their first season of cyclo-cross.

“This was the best race experience of the year,” Mollie reports. “It was an absolute blast to try out conditions such as mud and ice that I am not familiar with coming from NC.  The collegiate atmosphere is great and very welcoming, which made the race a lot of fun.”

Grace Chappell enjoying a tasty snack mid-race

Speaking of fun, another uniquely awesome component of cyclocross is the involvement of spectators (affectionately known as “hecklers”).  It is not uncommon for spectators to ring cowbells and hold out Twizzlers or dollar bills for racers to try to grab as they ride by during the race.  We were able to capture an awesome picture of team member Grace, taking a Twizzler by mouth in the middle of the course.  Tar Heels have some serious skills!

Be sure to keep updated as we now move on and prepare for road season.  Our first race is at NCSU on Feb. 8-9.

Suzanna over the barriers on the way to her Women’s B victory

[For more photos, click here!]

Last weekend, the team headed to Boone, NC for the first weekend of collegiate cyclocross racing. It doesn’t get much better than cyclocross in the fall: crunchy leaves, crisp weather, bursts of oranges, reds, and yellows against a blue-tinted mountainous backdrop, Halloween costumes, heckling, and cowbells galore… we had an amazing weekend, to say the least!

Grace leaping over the barriers

Six of us made the journey to the mountains: Mollie, Grace, Suzanna, Jessica, Tracee, and Brian. App State hosted the collegiate race on Saturday afternoon, and the team stuck around to race the non-collegiate NCCX race on the same course, the Boontown Throwdown, on Sunday. Suzanna and Brian started the day off with a bang, each winning their category (Women’s B and Men’s C, respectively). It was Brian’s first cyclocross race — and he dominated the field on a mountain bike! Jessica and Tracee completed their first collegiate cyclocross races in style, even while rolling up to the race site a mere few minutes before the start due to some wrong turns and traffic mishaps. Mollie and Grace were up next in the Women’s A category. Due to a series of unfortunate bike malfunctions, Mollie ended up RUNNING an entire 2 laps carrying her bike! Grace raced smoothly and strongly, nabbing third place in the small (but fast!) Women’s A field.

Mollie on the super steep run-up

After the race, we refueled with delicious burritos at Black Cat in Boone, and then we headed to Espresso News for some coffee and studying before another day of racing. The next morning, we trekked back to the race site for the USAC races — larger fields, crazier costumes, free food, and TONS of fun! We had some impressive results at this race as well: Suzanna claimed 2nd in the Women’s Cat 4 field, Grace and Mollie finished well in a very competitive field of Pro/1/2 women, and Brian finished in the top 3rd of one of the largest Men’s 4 field sizes we’ve ever seen!

Read below for individual race reports! And check out the official collegiate results here and the Boonetown Throwdown results here!

Individual Race Reports

Jessica

Jessica schlepping the mountain bike over the barriers… and smiling at the same time!

I had been looking forward to racing at ASU all week. It had been a few weeks since I tried my first cross race in the preseason and I was ready to get back out there and use that experience to improve this time. We left Chapel Hill with plenty of time to make it to App to warm up and get ready before the race but somehow Tracee and I ended up getting to the race site TWENTY MINUTES before the race was supposed to start. We still had to put our bikes together and pick up our numbers to pin on. Forget warming up or getting a lap in on the course, it was basically get out of the car and go.

One major problem with this (well there are actually a lot of problems with this but the one I’m actually going to talk about…) is that I was borrowing a new bike that I had never ridden before. I went from having a super light and speedy cross bike to racing on a flat pedal mountain bike. I happened to forget the differences in bikes until I tried to go over the first barrier. I very nearly fell flat on my face when I first tried to pick up the bike to go over the barrier since it was MUCH heavier than I remembered.

I’m really unsure of how I actually did on Saturday according to the results but it was actually kind of nice. It was kind of refreshing to just go out there and push myself as hard as I could but also just try and have as much fun as possible with it. I’m actually pretty happy with how I did. I wasn’t blazing fast but I definitely took a lot more technical chances than I did during the preseason race…it’s the small things that matter!

I thought we woke up plenty early on Sunday to avoid the same mistake that happened the day before. We weren’t staying very far away from the race site but time always manages to fly by right before a race. It was pretty much time to start by the time I got everything together and pinned my number on!

Unfortunately, I ended up having to drop out of the race because some pretty severe back pain. It was disappointing but after going to physical therapy this week, I’m just happy that I didn’t end up hurting myself worse all things considered. Either way, the race Sunday was so much fun and I loved seeing all the crazy Halloween costumes people were wearing in the races. I have to say though I saw wayyyyy too many men in speedos and lacy underwear.

Overall, it was a really fun weekend with a great group of people! I’m definitely looking forward to doing a few more cross races before the season ends!

Suzanna dusts off the cyclocross cobwebs (‘cross webs?)

Thanks to Berger Hardware Bikes in Raleigh, the team just wrapped up 3 consecutive weekends of pre-season cyclocross racing! The last race was a super muddy one after a serious rainfall the night before. As any ‘cross racer will tell you, these are the PERFECT conditions! Hopefully we’ll have more muddy pictures to share with you soon.

This race series provided the team with some awesome training and skills practice, AND we were able to introduce cyclocross to several new members of the UNC squad. We had some pretty rad results, too — especially from our women’s team. We’ve got some particularly hardcore chicks this year!

Our first collegiate race is October 27th at Appalachian State. We are SO ready! Mark your calendars to come watch us in Boone!

Austin definitely has the “look super cool whilst leaning against bike” thing down.

Austin Black (aka “Awwwstin”), our treasurer, was the lone UNC mountain bike racer at NCSU’s race in San-Lee County Park on September 15th. Although this was Austin’s first mountain bike race, he certainly did us proud as one of our main club goals this year is to improve the off-road skillz of our team. Great job, Awwwstin!!

We had a bunch of other racers lined up for Sunday’s race in Crabtree Park in Raleigh, but the race was sadly canceled due to rain.