2024 UVM Race – Easterns!
Issues began off gradual in stunning Vermont. Some cleats had been forgotten on the resort, some shifters wanted adjusting, some porta potty traces had been lengthy. All indicators of simply one other traditional race weekend. Did we heat up? Who’s to say…
ITT Highlights
Max received final place within the ITT however first place within the bike mechanic competitors. In slightly below 39 minutes, he was capable of 1) begin the ITT 2) return to the beginning line to repair his entrance derailleur and three) end the ITT. We don’t assume anybody else might have accomplished the restore as rapidly as he did.
UPDATE: We managed to persuade the one and solely Alan Atwood to provide Max the time from his second go on the ITT, netting him a decent midpack end. Possibly Alan’s gone comfortable in retirement…
Michael received 2nd place within the males’s C/D ITT rocking the candy TT helmet. He solely had entry to the large gear within the entrance, however we predict that made him sooner.
Michael, Alex, Felix, and Bianca all wanting professional through the ITT.
Michael went full Roglič Monte Lussari for the mountain TT, whereas his fellow males’s C/D riders opted out of the extraterrestrial look…
Melissa and Chen put in sturdy efforts within the ITT, getting 4th and fifth respectively.
Max, Seamus, Felix, and Bianca hung round on the prime of Mt. Philo for some scenic pictures. Disc brakes received sizzling and ears popped on the way in which down.
RR Highlights
Melissa and Chen rode in a peloton of ten or so riders all through the ladies’s C/D race, after two smaller breakaways took off early on. This pack labored collectively and had nice vitality. At one level, a UVM rider even commented on the mountains within the distance and there was some oohing and ahhing within the group. Chen and Melissa, together with two Military riders, pulled the group for a great chunk of the time. Chen made the error of pulling by the ultimate windy sections with lower than 5 miles to go, leaving little or no fuel within the tank for the ultimate dash. Melissa, the smarter one of many two, had a powerful dash to the end.
Chen and Melissa upping the tempo within the ladies’s C/D discipline
Bianca, Melisa, Vinh, and Chen practiced feeding Seamus through the highway race. Whereas ready on the feed zone, Chen was hit by a USAC P/1/2 rider’s bottle flying at 50 mph and ended up with a bruise on their forearm that didn’t go away for every week (biking is a harmful sport!). On the third strive, Seamus was capable of maintain on to the bottle, however he forgot to create space in his bottle cage, so the hassle was in useless. We must always observe holding bottles with our tooth. Bianca is glad she received shoulder surgical procedure final summer time to resist the impression of the bottle go. We’re feeling prepared for feeding at nationals subsequent week!
Felix gracefully parted the peloton just like the Purple Sea when his chain snapped. A pleasant stranger donated a spare chain hyperlink so he might wander round Vermont. Seamus pushed by crosswind chaos within the final lap to complete seventh.
Vinh took the feed zone severely, even post-race
Chen training feeding approach (below Coach Berk’s step-by-step directions throughout Nationals pre-race assembly), moments earlier than being hit by an almost-full flying water bottle
Ladies’s C/D racers on the beginning line
CRIT highlights
Max “aero be damned” Katz-Christy channeled his MTB bike dealing with abilities into grabbing third place in his first crit (males’s Intro), bringing residence MIT’s finest end result on the day. Indefatigable, he then went on to take some cool photos and video of the remainder of the workforce’s races (see under).
Melissa received 4th within the ladies’s C/D Criterium after realizing on the ultimate dash that she didn’t the truth is know how one can dash. Melissa later joined the ladies’s Intro race with Chen and good friend of the workforce Tatum Brown from Yale, turning this race right into a enjoyable TTT and cornering observe. This podium could not mirror who crossed the end line first within the intro crit, however we’re all associates, so who cares?
Seamus notched his highest energy for the lads’s B/C race off the beginning line in true cyclocross style—the holeshot was important for the extraordinarily technical sequence of downhill corners on the primary half of the course. From there it was merely a “maintain the rubber facet down” sort of race: all the time an achievement in its personal proper.
Solar’s out tongue’s out
Michael and Alex weren’t impressed with the flexibility of the 50+ rider males’s C/D discipline to navigate the nook sequence and received caught behind splits. The course was so brief that they weren’t given a lot of a chance to chase again on earlier than the officers started pulling riders. However, they each received some helpful expertise with cornering and dealing with within the pack.
Day 2 squad promenade picture
Easterns additionally means double omnium factors! After some frantic and flawed tabulations, the ECCC workforce introduced that we received third place as a workforce in each the championship weekend and season omnium standings! Within the particular person standings, Seamus received the lads’s B discipline this season (“podium” image however)!
Michael’s second place within the ITT was acknowledged by getting to face atop a metaphorical illustration of Mt. Philo
We came upon later that Seamus had truly earned first place, however then he wouldn’t have gotten to face within the disgrace bucket 
Alex’s Belgian instincts kicked in as he zipped up his jersey for the sponsors
To recap the weekend (and as an task for his documentary-making class), Max made this actually cool video!
MISC
Photograph credit: Max Katz-Christy, Tatum Brown, Felix Knollmann, Nolan Rogers, Bianca Champenois
