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Duke Home Race Recap

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

A big congrats to Kaleb Naegeli, Coach Rusty Miller, and all the hardworking volunteers for putting on an excellent weekend of racing! The 9th Street Derby is on its way to becoming a crit-classic. 9th street businesses that were initially on the fringe about this event are now completely behind us for next year; Dain’s Place on 9th street was actually sold out of hamburgers by the end of the day. The fans were enthusiastic throughout the day, and the fan-base was huge by the time the Collegiate A and Pro/1/2/3 races rolled around.  We literally would not have been able to put on this weekend without all of the volunteer support from the local cycling community. Thanks so much for coming out this weekend!

A number of people shot awesome photos of Sunday’s festivities, including Rob L, Ben Knowles, and Colin Walmsley.  We’ve collected many of them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukecycling/sets/72157629477002319/with/6939350127/ Additionally, props go to Tyler Seuc of the Duke Chronicle staff for this excellent photo series documenting the event: http://shutter.dukechronicle.com/post/18535279930/ninth-street-derby.

Congrats to Scott Valentine for scoring his 2nd collegiate D’s victory on Saturday after crushing his competition and leaving them to die on the slopes of Mt. Willing.  Scott also scored a 2nd place finish in the Mens D Crit after an impressive effort to break away from the field. Great work, Scott! Dan Haughton also had a strong performance in the Mens D race, finishing 5th.  Joe Sroka turned in a solid performance in Mens C’s, finishing 4th, with Jonathan Crimins nabbing yet another top 10 finish for Duke in that race. The men’s A’s (Baard Haugen, Gaël Hagan, and Matt Howe) won the Team Time Trial, beating even mighty App. State by 15 seconds.  In the Road Race, Matt Howe got 3rd in the field sprint for 5th place overall.  In Sunday’s Crit, Baard Haugen was 7th and Matt Howe 11th.

In the womens’ races, Becky Woodruff and Gina Turrini represented in B’s this weekend, going 2/3 in the RR on Saturday and 2/5 in the Crit on Sunday (dominating all UNC riders in both events, we might add).  Clare Fisher had podium finishes in both the Womens C Road Race and Crit.  Great job!!

For a full list of results check out http://acccycling.org/Results.html

Be sure to fill out the Spring Break doodle (see Jeff’s recent e-mail) by Wednesday if you plan on coming to Cullowhee, NC to ride bikes for Spring Break.

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UNCW/ Campbell Race Report

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Duke scored its second official win of the season this weekend, with Baard Haugen taking the field sprint in the men’s A’s road race on Saturday. Demonstrating that last week’s impressive 2^nd place effort was no fluke and that he is a force to be reckoned with in this year’s Men’s A field, Baard hopped onto VTech’s leadout train, switched onto an NCSU rider’s wheel coming around the final corner, and pulled around him in the final 200m to take the win. Congrats Baard! Matt Howe also scored a top ten (8th) and Kaleb Naegeli was just outside of that with a 12th place finish. Matt Howe also scored a top ten finish in Sunday’s crit at Campbell.

The ladies also came out to play this weekend: Becky Woodruff got 3rd place in the Women’s B’s field on Saturday, and Gina Turrini snagged 4^th, both in a vicious sprint for the finish. Gina also took 2nd place in the women’s B’s crit at Campbell on Sunday in the rain and cold. Hilary Henry finished strong in her second and third Women’s C’s races of the season, getting top ten finishes in both. Congrats!

In Men’s B’s, Kurtis Gruters made the winning breakaway in Saturday’s RR (which he also initiated) and worked with the break to put over 10 minutes into the field by the time the race was over. Kurtis finished strong on the day with 4th place, and would have contested the win had he not gotten boxed in by a rider from UVA who couldn’t keep his line. Kurtis also finished 6th in Sunday’s crit, even after getting into a crash with a rider from NCSU half way through the race. It is not easy to finish a race after a crash, especially when it is 39 degrees and raining outside! To get a result after that is impressive. Jonathan Crimins got a top ten finish in the Men’s C’s crit on Sunday, and in Men’s D’s Kevin McDonnell and Ben Ramsey both had strong races, finishing in the top ten on both days.

Home Race This Weekend!

This weekend Duke will be hosting our 2nd annual home race – the Duke race will be the first difficult race of the season, and promises to be the first real test of rider fitness of the season. The RR is out near Hillsborough, and is on Saturday, and the crit (a.k.a. the 9th Street Derby) is on 9th street on Sunday.  Both of these will be exciting, and the weather forecast is currently looking to be *most excellent*. We still need volunteers for Saturday and Sunday!!! If you are considering coming out, do it. The weather will be great and the races are fun to watch. Here is the volunteer sign up sheet: Volunteer Sign Up Sheet. You get free shirts and food if you volunteer. If you have already signed up to volunteer, you will be receiving more detailed instructions mid-way through this week.

As always, be sure to send Jeff e-mail if you have any questions (jeffreydreidatgmaildotcom)

 

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2012 Wolfpack Classic Race Report

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Duke Cycling is off to a great start to the 2012 Road Racing Season!  This past weekend was the team’s first collegiate race weekend hosted by NC State.  Here’s how things went down:

Saturday race results:

The men’s A race started out with an unlikely breakaway in the first half mile.  Gaël Hagan was sitting mid-pack when he saw riders moving away from all of the important teams. With no response from the main field, he figured Duke would need representation in that group and so bridged up and hopped onto the break, which contained 7 riders. By the first time check the break was up 5 minutes on the field, but the cohesiveness of the group started to break down with some riders attacking and others refusing to take pulls.  A couple riders were dropped in the attacks, and the gap came down to under two minutes before finally going back up again to four.  Back in the main pack, Baard, Matt H. and Kaleb did some solid work to shut down any attempts to bridge.  In the sprint, though tired from doing more than his fair share of pulling, Gaël managed an impressive 3^rd and earns our vote for Most Courageous Rider award for the day.

 

In the Men’s B field, Kurtis Gruters finished just outside of the top 10,  and Jonathan Crimins had a top 10 finish in the men’s C’s field.  Congrats to both of them on a great job Saturday.

Sunday race results:

With temperatures lower than they’ve been all year and the winds howling, Sunday was a day for tough men and women to shine.  And we’d argue few were tougher on Sunday than Baard Haugen.

A lone App State rider broke away early, and no one thought he’d remain away–but he did, as the main pack couldn’t organize itself to chase.  Nothing really happened until the climb beginning the second to last lap.  Rumor has it at that point Matt Howe told Baard that if he felt like it to “go nuts,” and that Baard proceeded to down a Coke, and then jump away –  strongly and cleanly – so that nobody even thought about following him.  With only 8 miles left in the race and the gap at 4 minutes, Baard rode away from the field and came within 10 seconds of catching the lead rider, banking a thrilling second place finish.

Back in the main field, some of the App State team started attacking in a crosswind section, and Gaël  made a counter that ultimately took a group of 6 away from the peloton. The last lap, as Gaël described it, was “pure pain.” They drilled it the whole way and Gaël was doing everything he could to stay on, trying to slow the pace when he took pulls to prevent the groups gaining on Baard.  The group never even came close to catching him, though, and Gaël was able to hang on for 8th.  Though under the weather with a cold, Matt Howe finished 2^nd in the field sprint for 9^th (and so finished 10th) just barely getting edged out at the line.

In the men’s D race on Sunday, Scott Valentine won the field sprint, giving Duke its first win of the 2012 season!  And this was only Scott’s first weekend of bicycle racing.  A big congrats to Scott, who undoubtedly has great things ahead of him this year.

The C race on Sunday was a treat. Jonathan Crimins was in the mix with Joe Sroka. With only 2 miles to go on the first of four laps, Jonathan and Joe were there at a decisive moment, with Joe shouting that there was a break in the field due to the higher speeds on a downhill section.  The two of them ended up driving the breakaway of 6 guys, shattering the rest of the chase, and subsequently the entire field. Joe hung on for the next lap, but dropped off the pace, finishing mid-pack after his impressive effort in the break.  Jonathan held on as the committed breakaway heated up and built a lead of more than four+ minutes over the remaining laps.  He was popped by an attack just before the finish and cruised in for 5^th, up nearly 5 minutes on the remaining chasers, which rolled in in small groups. Jonathan’s concluding summary is fitting of the entire weekend: “It was a fun time” as well as a great overall result for Duke.

Kudos to all who braved the cold and came out to race this weekend. It is not easy to race bikes when it is 30 degrees at the start line!

Home Race

The Duke Home race is only two weeks away, and we still need volunteers! If you are on the fence about volunteering or not, let us say this: fun is guaranteed, T-shirts will be free, and breakfast/snacks/swag will be provided. If you have kids, consider bringing them with you – this will inspire them to get outside and ride bikes more . This race will be a big one, and one of the toughest on the ACCC race calendar, with the RR near Hillsborough on Saturday Feb. 25th and the 9th Street Derby on Sunday Feb. 26th.

Duke is the only school in the ACCC with a downtown crit as big as this one.  The 9th Street Derby will be a lot of fun to watch, and the fastest races of the day will have guys barreling down 9th Street at 30+ mph. Come spectate or volunteer, and check out what all the fuss is about. This is your chance to become involved in a new Durham tradition. Once again, fun is guaranteed. Visit this link (http://www.pedalgogy.com/the-ninth-street-derby/) for race details and the volunteer sign up sheet. If you’re lucky you might even get to see some gnarly crashes!

No rides are scheduled for this week, so be sure to hit up the list serve! If you are not interested in racing, but are thinking about leading some social rides on weekdays/weekends, pleast contact team co-president Jeff Reid (jeffreydreid@gmail.com) about potentially leading rides.

 

 

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Your 2012 DukeCycling Racing Team.

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Weekend results

Jonathan Crimins snagged another top 5 result at ACE Speedway this weekend in the cat 4/5 race. Congrats!

NCSU Race Weekend (Feb. 11th and 12th)
This coming weekend there are races at NCSU on Saturday and Sunday. Please come out and show your support for the team as we launch the 2012 season!

Retro Jerseys
There has been rumor that some surplus retro Duke jerseys from 5-6 years ago will be surfacing soon and will be for sale shortly.  Stay tuned.

That’s all for now, folks. Happy riding!

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Duke Road Race and Ninth Street Derby!

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

On Saturday February 25, Duke University Cycling will be hosting a
road race and team time trial in Hillsborough for the Atlantic
Collegiate Cycling Conference. We are in need of volunteers to help us
make this event possible! We need corner marshals as well as people to
drive lead and follow cars for the race fields.

If you are willing to volunteer, we would be very grateful. You can
indicate your willingness and preference on the following page:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGc2bktVQ2FnTnhYQXBxdXBoejNBdEE6MQ
We will provide some food for volunteers and reimburse drivers for
gasoline consumption.

Duke Road Race Event Flyer

The main event rolls into downtown Durham on Sunday, February 26 with
the Ninth Street Derby presented by Durham Cycles and The Happy Tooth.
The collegiate fields will take to the road in the morning,
culminating in the Women and Men’s A races at noon and 1pm,
respectively. After that, the course will open up to all USAC
categories with 4/5, 3/4, and 1/2/3 races. It’ll be a tight, fast
course around one of Durham’s nicest venues. (we also need a few
volunteers on Sunday if you are so inclined).

Ninth Street Derby Event Flyer

Registration is up (we think, we’re new at this online registration
thing) at usacycling.org.

So, come on out Saturday to watch the action (and volunteer!) and
Sunday to race!

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Are You Ready to Rumble?!?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some bicycle racing, and Duke Cycling is ready to rock.  The 2012 ACC Road Racing season kicks off the weekend of February 11 and 12 at NC State.  Here’s the full racing schedule for the season:  http://acccycling.org/Schedule.html

In the meantime the annual Triangle Velo Winter Speedway Series at ACE Speedway started last weekend, with props going to our own Jonathan Crimins for finishing a very strong 6th in the Mens Cat 4/5 Criterium last Saturday out of over 50 racers.  There’s more racing to come next weekend at this awesome venue, so see the link above if you’re interested.

And by the way, don’t forget to come out for the team photo at Duke Chapel this Friday at 7:30 AM!

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