THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
NCCA Championships: Home team represents
They played down the home-course advantage, but it couldn’t have hurt the chances of the four-man team from Cal-Berkeley when it came time to contest the team time trial at day two of the NCCA national road championships in Northern California on Saturday. After all, the 13-mile lollipop-shaped circuit was designed by one of the club’s members, and the Bears also had the benefit of going last, meaning they knew where they stood during most of their near-hour trip around the scenic rolling countryside near Livermore.
But the bottom line when it comes to time trialing is power, and on this day Berkeley had the biggest output.
With underdog Fort Lewis posting the early fast time of 55:41 after finishing their two laps of the circuit, all the expected big hitters — UC-Davis, Colorado and Midwestern State — came up short, leaving only Berkeley out on the course. But just as the clock at the start/finish ticked past 55 minutes, the team of Paul Reichardt, Benjamin Haldeman, Matt Dubberley and Roman Kilun crested the last hill, then came tearing down the final straightaway. Initially it looked like it was going to be close, but when the front wheel of the third rider crossed the line, the clock read 55:29, giving the Bears a 12-second win.
“This was the most important event for us,” said Kilun, whose team is the defending Division I overall champions. “It really is the race of truth.”
Fort Lewis, the small liberal arts school located in the mountain-biking hotbed of Durango, Colorado, would settle for second.
“We could be racing Division II but we wanted to mix it up with the big boys,” said FLC coach Rick Crawford. “We knew we could compete.”
UC-Davis took the third spot, with Colorado and Midwestern State rounding out the top five.
The women’s Division I race didn’t go quite as well for the host school. They fell to last year’s TTT winner Midwestern State of Wichita Falls, Texas, though the outcome wasn’t decided until the final seconds. Berkley, third to last out of the start gate, posted the day’s best time of 1:04:31, only to see the Indians nip them by seven seconds.
“I think we were down the whole way,” said MSU’s Stephanie Hannos, who picked up her second title in two days after winning the criterium on Friday. “Our strength today was definitely on the downhills, so it was a good way for us to finish.”
Former Ironman Hawaii competitor Janna Jackson and Ivana Miucic were the other two members of the victorious Midwestern State team.
In Division II, it was the women of Dartmouth leading their school to the top of the omnium standings. The threesome of Kristina Eaton, Amy Wallace and Christina May outgunned Yale’s two-women duo of Andrea Schettler and Marissa Kellogg in the TTT, wining by a slim 25 seconds (men’s and women’s teams could have as many as four starters, but the women only needed two to finish, while the men needed three).
“I think that was the longest time trial I’ve ever done,” said Dartmouth’s Wallace. “But we wanted this so bad. We were second to Yale the last two years.”
The day’s other winner was the crew from Johns Hopkins. The trio of Kris Hedges, Reid Mumford and Edward Brignole posted a 55:51 (good enough for third in DI), easily beating second-place finisher Colorado College, who finished in 57:22. Johns Hopkins also won the TTT in 2002, and all three of this year’s riders were members of that squad as well.
In the DII omnium standings, Dartmouth held a commanding 316-to-255 lead over Colorado College. DI standings had yet to be tabulated.
“Today was huge,” added Wallace. “But we want the overall team jersey too.”
Racing in California concludes Sunday with the road race in Crockett. Action is set to commence at 8 a.m., with the DI women’s 77km affair. The DII women will contest the same distance starting at 8:10. The DI men’s 124km race starts at 11:30, followed by the DII men at 11:40. Check back to VeloNews.com for a full report, results and photos.
