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Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference Championships
Laramie, WY, April 30
Colorado vs Colorado in RNCCC finals
By Tim Esterdahl
Colorado State University won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference title April 30 in Laramie, WY after battling the weather and the University of Colorado.
Fort Lewis College had been in the lead by over 1,000 points to CSU, however, because their school had let out two weeks prior to the race that weren't able to field a large team. This left the CSU with the opportunity to win the conference as long as they could gain every point possible.
The University of Wyoming hosted the two day event, April 29-30, which was also part of the conference championships. The event included a road race, team time trial and a criterium through downtown Laramie. A great benefit to CSU this weekend was that triple points were awarded for those teams competing in all three events.
The road race started at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday in the tie city parking grounds off Happy Jack road. The start was delayed due the snow and wind as the riders struggled to keep themselves warm.
Once the race got started the men departed heading west for the 36 kilometer addition to their race. They would race a total of 101 km while the other classes, Women's A and B as well as Men's B and C, raced 65 km. All the races were an out-and-back, finishing at the start. Starting elevation was 8420 and the men's A would climb a total of 3,660 feet.
The rolling terrain was made more difficult as temperatures rose to the mid 30 high and the winds blew at 22 mph while gusting to 35 mph.
"The wind is the worst thing you can face on a bike," Metro rider Cory Davis said. "I can handle hills, I am not afraid to ride up a hill, but the wind, it's just horrible."
The wind at times was blowing across the road packing the groups of riders close together. This along with the racers not being allowed to cross the center yellow line as the road was open caused a crash in the women's A, that sent a rider to the hospital and a CSU rider broke her collarbone.
Some riders braved the gaps between the pack into "no man's land."
"Bridging the gap was the most painful thing you can imagine," Davis said.
After over two hours of racing, the Men's A race was a sprint finish from a quarter of a mile out won by CU rider Chris Stockburger. CSU rider Patrick McGlynn finished second followed by Colorado College rider Josh Gerwitz. They had joined a breakaway early in the race and were able to keep the break going through the entire race.
"It was a head wind and uphill most of the way to the finish and we dropped 2 guys on the way back leaving Patrick, a DU rider (3rd place), and me for the finish," Stockburger said. "The gap was from 30s-1min for most of the race but at the end we had time to hesitate and set up a sprint. I took it in front of Patrick and was happy to get a win."
In all the other races, sprint finishes would be the norm as the cold temperatures allowed small breakaways to last.Later in the afternoon, CU and CSU dominated the team time trails. In the wind and cold, CU managed to ride 12 miles in 30:48, followed by CSU who were 25 seconds off the pace. CU coach Ainslie MacEachran said that the team averaged 44 mph with the weather and the climb.
"I was so proud of my guys," MacEachran said. "One guy was running 56x17 and he was spinning the gears."
Even though CU had won the events, CSU had hung with the CU riders in most of the breaks. Points given were such that first place was 70 points, second 35 and it went down slightly from there through a total of 15 riders. The combination of having many riders in the top 15 and triple points being awarded, they left Saturday only down 530 points to FLC.
Sunday began with the same cold morning that Saturday had. The weather became warmer as the day's racing action got hotter.
The race course, a little over 2 miles, was a series of two straightaways connected by one set of turns with a short straightaway to the north and 4 turns to the south with no straightaway. The field would do laps until the time limit for each event was reached.
CU would win the Men's C when a breakaway containing CU's Justin Taylor sprinted past his breakaway partner to the finish.
Men's B would be a repeat as an attack lead by CU's Clay Albracht with help from teammate Taylor Jung lasted for most of the race. Jung tried to keep the pace of the chasing pack down as Albracht created distance between. CSU let them go for a while before taking the lead in the pack to increase the tempo. Albracht was later caught by the pack and finished 13th.
CSU's Chris Sims would sprint past Colorado Colleges' Tim Ruggles for the win.
The women's races were equally hard fought sprints won by Utah's Gassie and Mesa State's Naticia Slusler. CSU and CU managed only to get two of the four remaining top three spots.
As the skies cleared and the sun came out, the Men's A race was set to begin. CU's Adam Blanchard and Brad Bingham sprinted from the start created a gap from the very beginning. CSU would send several riders into the break including Evan Ruzanski and Tim Doud. The breakaway was out in front for more than an hour of the 75 minute event.
During this time, sprint points were awarded six times and with CSU in the break, as they had done much of the day, they were able to pick up valuable points.
Metro rider Ian Stanford along with CU's Chris Stockburger were in the lead chase group as the pace set by the breakaway destroyed the field, stringing out the packs while dropping many riders.CSU's director Andy Clark was trying to get more of his guys in the break to overcome the two on one disadvantage.
The chase group finally started making some head way as of the ten minute mark, they were only 8 seconds behind. The breakaway had been as much as 45 seconds ahead.
On the back stretch, the chase group was about to make contact with the break when CU's Chris Stockburger attacked and slipped away from both groups."When we got close we also were about to lap the field so I launched a big move knowing it would be messy to get through the field," Stockburger said. "I made it past the leaders and into the field solo and scrambled to the front. By the last lap 9 guys had
lapped the field but I attacked with half a lap to go to win solo."While CU dominated in winning the races, the conference title would come down to team points. CSU's Clark said that they had talked about points before the race as every point they had counted. He told them no matter how tired they were, they needed try to get as many sprint points as possible as well as finish strong.
"Are team comradery has really given us our success," CSU's Clark said.
As the other teams starting leaving the CSU team stayed in force awaiting the results.
Earlier when asked about their chances in nationals, "I think we can bring home some hardware," Clark said.
After an hour in the now hot sun, USA cycling official Tom Vinson posted the results. CSU had won, defeating FLC by 104 points. The celebration had begun with Clark being raised in the air and the cheers filling the now empty streets in Laramie.
"I can't talk enough about how well my riders road all season and their comeraderie," Clark said.
Results - final general classification
Nationals D1 1 FLC 2 CSU 3 CU 4 Wyoming 5 UU 6 Metro 7 USU Nationals D2 1 CC 2 DU 3 USAFA 4 Mesa 5 Mines 6 UCCS 7 UNC 8 UCHCS 9 Western Confernce D1 1 CSU 2 FLC 3 CU 4 UU 5 Wyoming 6 USU 7 Metro Conference D2 1 CC 2 DU 3 USAFA 4 Mesa 5 Mines 6 UNC 7 UCCS 8 UCHCS 9 Western 10 UNM Men A D1 1 Chris Stockburger (CU) 2 Evan Ruzanski (CSU) 3 Robby Ketchell (CSU) 4 Patrick McGlynn (CSU) 5 Alex hagman (FLC) Men A D2 1 Justin Rose (DU) 2 Glenn Murray (UCCS) 3 Sheldon Taylor (DU) 4 Josh Gerwitz (CC) 5 Corey Carlson (UNC) Women A D1 1 Lila Hickey (CSU) 2 Stephanie Swan (FLC) 3 Onawa Pelham (FLC) 4 Melissa Doherty (Wyoming) 5 Sarah Germundsen (CSU) Women A D2 1 Kasey Rumrill (CC) 2 Kathy Rakel (USAFA) 3 Jenna Lipscomb (CC) 4 Naticia Slusher (Mesa) 5 Kandi Henderscheid (USAFA) Men B D1 1 Ian Burnett (FLC) 2 Brett Tack (CSU) 3 Will Cromwell (FLC) 4 John Parks (CSU) 5 Nate Kane (CU) Men B D2 1 Tyler Ruggles (CC) 2 Andrew Kemendo (USAFA) 3 Tom Hunter (DU) 4 Alan Alumbaught (Mesa) Women B D1 1 Julia Keedy (CSU) 2 Alicia Gibson (FLC) 3 Kelly McFall (CSU) 4 Lindsay Anderson (CSU) 5 Katie Gasser (UU) Women B D2 1 Genieve Hale-Case (CC) 2 Katie Ronsee (DU) 3 Casey probst (USAFA) 4 Anne Whetzel (CC) 5 Alison Greening (UNM) Men C D1 1 Ben Staab (Wyoming) 2 Justin Taylor (CU) 3 Kim Fessenden (CU) 4 Martin Guess (CU) 5 Joshua Hodges (USU) Men C D2 1 David Pinto-Carpenter (CC) 2 Shayne Berns (Mines) 3 Jason Milheim (Mines) 4 Randy Gilbride (DU) 5 Albert King (UNC)
Local results 2006
