Saint Louis University Cycling Team

The second collegiate race weekend for SLU is over and it turned out to be my most successful weekend on a bike. Saturday consisted of a 34.5 mile road race hosted by the University of Missouri. I felt pretty confident going into the race because I had ridden the course last year and it suited me fairly well with some decent hills. Our warm up time for the C’s race ended up being the first lap of the 11.5 mile loops after it seemed that no one had gotten in a proper warm up and the weather was under 30. Needless to say, I complained to Cam (my only teammate for the race) for the first 2 laps about my potentially frostbitten hands. Oh, and my bottles were frozen when the second lap came around…nice.

All complaining aside, we had some racing to do. The field was smaller than usual and Cam had told me he was willing to do some work for me all day. He came through to say the least. I sat in the first 10 wheels of the race the majority of the time as he did a little bit of work up front and the rest of the field took it pretty easy. The mixture of freezing temps, a slow pace, and Cam’s impatience got to him during the second lap on a very, very fast downhill. He attacked and gained a fairly substantial lead as the field felt no need to chase him down. That’s all Cam really needed to see. After being eaten up by the pack on a really stiff wall of a climb, Cam let me know that he was just testing the waters for an attack on the last lap at the same point. It was a wise move, and before I knew it, we were hitting the section where he had attacked before. I felt fine at this point and really hadn’t been put into danger at any point throughout the race. Right before the downhill came, Cam flew out of the pack like a wild man and hit it on the downhill. The pack wrote him off and someone said, “He’s a big guy, he’ll have trouble on the hills,” or something to that extent. As the pack hit the short, very steep climb again, I was sitting in about 4th place in the lead group (it had thinned out to less than 9 guys by this point in the race) and Cam was keeping about a 10-15 second lead in front of the group. About halfway up the climb, I decided to hit the gas and bridge up to my teammate. No one had grabbed my wheel. I caught up to him, encouraged him to work together with me to try and stay away for the last 4 or so miles, and looked back to see that the pack wasn’t quickly closing the gap. Cam and I shared turns taking the wind as we put some time into the group and I was pulling as we hit a long, steady uphill. Cam unfortunately didn’t have the gas to stay on my wheel at this point. I was so nervous that the pack was going to come fly from behind and shoot us out the back, so I decided to have my own go and solo until the finish. I got into an aerodynamic position and put the hammer down. From time to time I looked back only to see Cam in the distance, and as I made the turn onto the final stretch that had a couple of climbs, I knew I had it in the bag. I crossed the line in first (MY FIRST WIN!) about 30 seconds ahead of Cam and the field was supposedly about 20 seconds behind him.

After getting my win on Saturday, I decided that I was going to be super aggressive in Sunday’s criterium at Lindenwood University to keep the race easy for my teammates. About 10-15 minutes into the race, a Milwaukee rider jumped off the front on an attack. I had been sitting in the pack up until this point and flew off the front to chase him. He was pretty strong and it took me a few minutes to be able to get on his wheel. A Wisconsin rider had also joined behind me, and so we began to work together. The gap between us and the field grew (I later found out Ben and Cam did some blocking to keep the group from chasing us down right away…very niiiiccccceee) with the 3 of us in the breakaway working very well together. No one skipped pulls, and we had agreed that we need to work together to try and stay away. I realized with about 3 laps to go that we were probably going to stay away from the rest of the field. By this time, 1 very strong rider from Concordia Seminary had bridged up to us. Most of his matches were burnt from his effort and I wasn’t too worried about him for the sprint. The final lap started, the bell rang, and I began to play out what I was going to do in my head. As we went down a huge hill and flew through the wicked final turn that was about 200 meters from the finish, I was sitting 3rd wheel behind the Wisconsin rider. He jumped around the Milwaukee rider, I grabbed his wheel, and the sprint was on. I came around him on the inside and we came up to the line neck and neck before I gave my bike the final throw to win the sprint and my 2nd race in a row by about 6 inches! Check out the photo finish further down the page. To make things even better, Cam and Ben sprinted out of the field to a 6th and 10th place finish. 3 top 10 finishes for SLU in the same race!

The rest of the team performed well again and got some valuable experience. Angela looked good again in the women’s b’s and the rest of the crew enjoyed themselves as well. Austin had some trouble in the tough left turn following the downhill in the d’s race and went over the handlebars…ouch. Get well soon. I’ll have to get one of these guys to give a race report soon because I’m sure you’re sick of hearing my perspective.

Thanks to everyone who yelled at me during the races and congratulated me after…it’s nice to have all of the support. See you on the road!

Here’s a teaser from this weekend’s crit at Lindenwood University. Full race report coming soon. Congratulations, Matt!

After some unfortunate weather last week in Ohio, SLU cycling got to kick off the season by taking a trip to Greencastle, IN for a road race and criterium to be hosted by Depauw University. We had several new racers this weekend, all of whom I believe enjoyed themselves after diving into the fray that is bike racing.

Saturday: The course was an 8-mile or so circuit with rolling hills and a fair amount of twists and turns. The men’s c race ended up doing 3 laps/25 miles and contained a field of 57 starters. We had a fairly big group in the race; 5 total. The first lap was fairly civil until an Indiana rider attacked from the group. No one seemed to be worried about the move (me included), yet Cam decided to spice things up and go after the attacker. After a short time, both were eaten up by the peloton and Cam had now cemented a position on the front. Props to him for working his butt off all day up front as I sat within the first 20 wheels for the first couple of laps just enjoying myself.

After a relatively uneventful first 2 laps, things started to get more serious on the last lap. Unfortunately for me, I realized a little too late that both Ben and I were at the tail end of the group without even realizing it. Cam was still drilling it up front. Ben and I both knew we had to move up to put ourselves in decent position for the finish by this time. Moving up became harder and harder with a fairly tight course and lots of turns. After a small crash and a ramping up of speed in the last few miles, I found myself a little bit further towards the front. I still wasn’t quite where I needed to be and that would lead to bad positioning when the sprint opened up. In the final 1k or so, Michigan State hit the gas at the front and the sprint was on. After grabbing a couple of wheels, I found myself passing a couple of riders here and there. My legs said no to getting out of the saddle at this point. I rolled in for 11th overall, just outside of my goal of top 10 for the day. Cam and Ben ended up 24th and 27th respectively. As for the other guys, Carleton dropped his chain on the first climb of the day and Andy wasn’t feeling so hot throughout the weekend, ending his race early.

Congrats to everyone else who battled through on Saturday…especially those first time racers.

Sunday: The crit course was flat, long, and windy. Nothing technical about it, just a test of staying out of the wind because it was harsh at certain points on the course. The field was smaller than the previous day. There were probably between 35 and 40 riders that started. The first couple of laps were fairly boring and I again found myself way too far back in the pack, something I knew I needed to correct. I was able to fly up the side of the strung out peloton on the front of the course and I jumped in the first 10-15 riders. Ben had grabbed my wheel and was following me by this time as well. Before I knew it, 2 Indiana kids had gone off the front and a 3rd one was quickly behind them. Even though Cam had made a point of telling me he wasn’t going to be as aggressive as he was in the road race to preserve some energy for the finish, he was quickly flying out of the pack to join the 3 IU riders. Because there were 3 guys from the same team up the up the road, I expected some of the bigger teams to cover the break as quickly as possible. For some reason, no one decided to close the gap. I soon saw the break gaining some time on the field and had made my way within the first 10 wheels of the main group. I wasn’t too worried about the break at this point considering we had Cam up the road and I was confident that the peloton would get its act together as the race went on.

Cam’s move allowed me to stay at the very front of the group without actually doing any work. I kept skipping pulls and felt very little fatigue. Cam’s effort eventually faded though and he drifted back to the field. At this point, I was realizing that the break had a very good chance of sticking, meaning the group would have to get serious and organize a good chase. Both Cam and I put in several efforts on the front, but it seemed that very few other riders wanted to do much of anything. I was riding off the front at one point, looking back to see if anyone was interested in really picking up the pace to get the break. Again, there was no sense of urgency. With 3 laps to go, I had conceded the first 3 places to IU and tried to sit in a little bit more to save myself for the field sprint. The main field had been whittled down to about 12 riders at this point and I couldn’t tell you why. Cam lead me out on the final lap, only for him to come in one place ahead of me. He ended up 5th overall and I got 6th. Not bad results, but I was still in awe at the fact that none of the big teams were remotely interested in bringing back a break with 3 riders from the same team. Weird stuff happens sometimes. For the record, Ben didn’t have the legs today yet still rolled in and finished. Carleton and Andy were in the same sort of boat, but didn’t quite last till the end. We all have our rough days.

Again, awesome job to all of the first time racers in the crit.

Overall, it was a successful first weekend. I think we all had a lot of good fun (I was the victim of a few good jokes) and we were able to get that first race weekend out of the way. Next week is a road race at Mizzou and a crit at Lindenwood University. See you out on the road!