Cycling Report From Bucknell
March 24-25, 2007
Pennsylvania
Your Cortland Red Dragons showed up this weekend at Bucknell with their game faces on. Our warriors represented C-State in the most categories yet. The weekend started before the sun rose and the fog was able to burn off with one of the most last minute Team Time Trial formations in our history. With the absence of one of our power time trialists we needed to think fast. Our team pulled together as usual with Bobby Taylor and Mike Madden stepping up to the plate. Both of them not knowing they would be riding until they got there and bobby riding a nicks bike and numbers strapped in ready to ride the coat tails of Steve “Speed” Sloan and Paul “the Animal” Eisele on their aero time trial rigs. Not and easy task with middle names like those. The team would take 5th place scoring 30 points for the mighty red dragons.
The TTT set the weekend off to a great start and the Road Race to follow would keep it all going. Ken Hammond and Adam Zimmerman would line up for their very first bike race in the men’s intro category. They had their eyes on the prize and something to prove. Two accomplished runners answering the age old question, can runners ride bikes? The answer… Heck yes they can! After breaking away from the field and returning Adam would take it all in the sprint with Ken a few places behind him in 5th. Elyse and Sophia would hold it down in the women’s intro class working hard as a team and finishing strong. Nick Fioretti showed his strength in the Men’s C race, but would fall victim to the treacherous road conditions and DNF with a flat tire less than a mile out of the final stretch. He had his sprinting legs ready, maybe next week Nick. The power house that is known as Steve Sloan road his race like a pro. Un-phased by a wicked slide out in a gravelly corner, he would take 13th place in the sprint.
After a long day we awoke early the next morning to arrive to a severely delayed criterium. The extremely technical course wound through the streets of the bucknell campus with a host of tight turns and very little wind. It was fast. The highlight of all the races was nick fioretti bridging a massive gap alone to catch a three man breakaway in the men’s C race. The four would work together and gradually increase their lead as the race continued racking up all of the sprint lap points and giving the crowd an epic ride to watch. In the end nick took 4th in the sprint and ending strong. Sophia and Elyse would further strengthen their team skills in the women’s intro crit. Mike Madden made his debut for the season with this challenging crit course. After taking 2nd in the pre race road sprint and winning a bag of cookies, he road strong for the whole race showing that he didn’t skip a beat with the long off season. In the end he finished 13th. Adam, taking 2nd, and Ken, taking 6th, would further show that runners can ride hardcore and that Cortland was there to race. After the results were tallied and team scores were compared, the dragons would receive their first team point ever due to their overall consistency and greatness throughout the weekend. WE ARE ON THE BOARD BABY!
For more racing information check out www.eccc-info.com
BOSTON HERE WE COME!
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