Jersey Devil Recap

Week 4 of the ECCC road season was hosted by Princeton this past weekend.  This weekend saw the largest single-day participation of the year by Lehigh Cycling, with 7 riders competing in the Col du Skillman Circuit Race.  As with almost every road race on this year's schedule, the theme of the day was climbing. And lots of it.  The course was 4.4 miles long, with a 1.4 mile/310 ft climb to start off every lap.  Men's A, B, C, and D did 8,6,5, and 4 laps, respectively, with Women's C racing 4 laps.  Breakaways were largely successful in just about every category due to the nature of the course.

To start off the day, Tom and Dave represented the club in the D2 race.  In a field of 44, Tom came in 9th place in a 6 man chase group, picking up his first road point ever!  Dave finished close behind, in 11th.

Brandon O. followed next, looking to match his success in last week's Philly Phlyer circuit race. Brandon, attempting to use his triathlete time-trialing skills to his advantage, launched an attack on the first lap.  He was caught, but finished in the top 20 in a very fast C2 race.

Next out on the course was Molly in the Women's C race.  In her first race of the season, Molly picked up where she left off at Easterns last year with a strong 8th place finish, out-sprinting riders from Boston College and Yale by 7 seconds on the finishing straight to pick up some individual points. 

As the Men's B race began for Brandon K. and Eric, dark clouds moved in and rain drops began to fall.  Luckily, there was only a light drizzle for the entire race, which ended in time for the A race that followed B's.  After 3 fairly easy laps, attacks were made each time up the climb beginning on lap 4 and the field began to fall apart.  Both Lehigh B riders were able to stay with the lead group on the 4th lap, but could not get into a race deciding 5 man break on lap 5 of 6.  Brandon was part of a 10 man chase group that followed the lead riders by 50 seconds.  In the group sprint, he finished fifth to grab 10th place, adding to his string of top 10 finishes this season.  Eric finished a minute and a half later for 19th.

The A race was last up on the schedule, with Marten representing the club proudly once again.  Fortunately, the light rain cleared in time for their 8 laps.  Just a few laps in, an experienced MIT rider making his ECCC debut went on the attack.  With the lead rider still in sight of the peloton, Robin Carpenter, an F&M rider, and Erik from Williams (an honorary Lehigh Cycling member who did a TTT with our B riders at UNH last year) bridged to the rider from MIT.  The four would stay away, finishing 100 seconds ahead of the field in an grueling sprint.  Marten came around after laps 6 and 7 right in the middle of the pack, in great position for the final lap.  As the peloton came around the last turn onto the finishing straight, Lehigh's lone A rider was well-positioned for what would be a massive field sprint with 32 riders.  In the most exciting spectacle of the day for ECCC fans,  Marten powered through for fifth in the sprint and 9th place overall, holding off many of the top sprinters in the conference.  This marks the first time in 2 years that the team earned a top 10 finish from one of our A riders.

Thanks to individual points from Marten, Brandon, and Tom, Lehigh Cycling picked up enough team points to finish in 14th in the men's circuit race.  Next weekend brings Penn State's Black Moshannon road race, where the team will look to follow up on successful results from our last trip there at 2011 Easterns.

Tom victoriously emerging through the fog at the summit of Black Moshannon at 2011 Easterns.