The Williams Cycling Team had a simply stellar outing at the season opener at Rutgers this past weekend. Not the crashes, nor rain, nor mechanicals got in the way of superb results.
Highlights of the first day include Erik Levinsohn’s storming ride in the Men’s C time trial for second place, Ian Nesbitt’s outright victory and John Hawthorne’s 5th place in the Men’s D time trial, and Amy’s 4th place in the Women’s Intro time trial. Also notable was rookie Henry Schmidt’s excellent 15th place in Men’s D.
John put in an tremendous ride for 3rd place in the afternoon crit. This was the race where Ian showed a fierce attack to string the front group out, only to throw his chain and bollix up his drivetrain. After a bike change, he would make up a lap and half still finish a tremendous 9th. Amy was again in the top 5.
On Sunday, Erik put in an incredible five lap solo breakaway, where he first shredded the field and then put his head down — spittle and snot flying — to collect all the intermediate sprint points and victory. Williams was definitely on the minds of the spectators during this display of fitness and concentration.
Earlier, Ian again showed his nordic ski season fitness and innate bike handling skills in riding on a too-small borrowed bike at the front with one other racer for multiple laps. Ian would have been in contention for the victory if a lapped competitor hadn’t taken him down, creating a small gap to the eventual winner. Ian came in 2nd. In the same race, John methodically picked off riders to finish a superb 3rd, while Todd Brenner stayed calm and collected and finished with the second group. Todd is clearly just a race or two away from staying with the top riders in his field.
For this second day of racing, Amy moved up from the intro category to test the waters in women’s C. She put in what must be one of the rides of the weekend to not only stay in the front group of eight, but eventually to hang tough for an astonishing 5th place.
Congratulations, team.
Cruz
RESULTS
Time Trial
Criterium
