The Williams College Cycling team journeyed to the Great State of New Jersey (“Welcome to Mahwah, the World Capitol of Hydraulic Bolting Tools”) this past weekend to participate in the ECCC Season Opener at Rutgers University. Much has been said about the impressive numbers the Ephs posted in the various races, but the true, complete race experience simply defies quantification. Highlights from the weekend include:
-The following, overhead in a gas station at 9pm on a Friday night, 20 minutes over the border into New Jersey from New York:
Woman (addressing cashier, and wearing a short black dress, 4 inch heels, and sunglasses)—“Honey, I haven’t seen you in a while! You know why? I was seeing this kid, you know. But it turns out he’s married, overseas. So you know what I did? I took his credit card number and had myself a little shopping spree, and then I broke up with him.” She was dead serious.
-The Courtyard by Marriot front desk staff, apparently worried that the team would throw a rager before waking up the next morning at 5:30 AM to ride a time trial, informing JJ of the strict no party policy.
-Waking up at 5:30AM to get ready for the ITT. Gross.
-Amy taking her hands off the bars to wave at the team every time she went by during the tutorial laps for the intro crit.
-Coach Cruz’s two favorite things to yell during a race: “GET CLOSER TO THE WHEEL IN FRONT OF YOU” and “GO FASTER”.
-Todd earning his official BAMF credentials by booting during the Men’s D points race and not even getting off of his bike, then fighting his way back into the race after practically everyone got shelled by Ian’s first sprint.
-Ian eating an immense amount of food all the time.
-Todd teaching Henry and John how to drive like New Yorkers.
-The tent, which put up a valiant effort for 90 minutes but couldn’t handle the wind.
-JJ’s trustworthy GPS.
Next week, the Ephs once again make the trudge down to Dirty Jerz to participate in the Stevens Duck Country road race.
Pros of racing in New Jersey: less snow than Billsville at this point, drive is really not that bad, Bruce Springsteen is from there (also Ted Leo and the Pharmacists).
Cons of racing in New Jersey: having to spend time in New Jersey.
Another quick note: just in case you haven’t spent enough time staring at the official race results at velocityresults.com, check out http://www.road-results.com, which will analyze the race results and combine them with your racing history to produce a number of fascinating and entirely useless graphs and charts. It will show you your nemeses and victims, and also allows you to predict race outcomes based on who has registered for a specific event on BikeReg.
That’s all for now. Until next weekend.
