The Dartmouth cycling team used strong finishes by team members in all categories in the last two weekends to gain momentum going into the final regular season race next week in New Hampshire.
The weekend of April 11, the Big Green cyclists traveled to West Point, N.Y. for three races in two days. This past weekend, the team travelled to Williamston, Mass. and hosted the L'enfer du Nord among the hills of Norwich, Vermont.
On April 12, the Bear Mountain road race was held at Harriman State Park in upstate New York. A pack-finish contained the volatile finishing sprint of Steve Weller '05 in the men's B race, holding him to an 11th-place finish, while Christina May '05 and Kristina Eaton '04 used motivation unbeknownst to the rest of the lady riders in the women's B category to pull out second and third, respectively.
Women's captain Amy Wallace '04 was escorted from the women's A race not by the victor's gold medal but by an EMT, as she fell victim to the course's first turn.
In the men's premier A race, men's captain Todd Yezefski '04 and teammate Michael Barton of the Thayer School of Engineering finished third and fifth, respectively.
"Mike was a great help," Yesefski said. "We broke away with Tyler Wren and Elliot Holland [both of Princeton] about three miles from the finish, and Mike provided the perfect leadout for me at the end. It was great teamwork."
Sunday, April 13, featured the Army criterium, followed by the hilly team time trial. In the criterium, Barton broke off the front with five other riders and placed second, followed by Yezefski in sixth and Tim Clement '05, who rebounded from mechanical failure on Saturday to finish 20th. Eaton and May again used their hidden inspiration to finish eighth and 11th respectively in the women's B race, while Wallace ignored her injuries to place 10th in the women's A race.
The afternoon's team time trial featured the men's "A-train" of Yezefski, Barton, Clement and Tom Temple '03 finishing second, a short 50 seconds out of first. The women finished fifth and the men's B time trial team, steam-headed by Weller, finished eighth on the day.
The Big Green pedaled away from the criterium hosted by Williams College this past Saturday with a third-place finish overall, surpassing all Ivy competitors and narrowly missing second place. Nine of the 15 Dartmouth cyclists finished in the top 15 in their respective categories, led by Wallace's third-place showing in women's A and senior Breyton Osgood's fifth-place finish in men's B.
On Easter Sunday, Dartmouth played host to the best cycling teams in the east as Big Green riders traversed the familiar Vermont hillsides, avoided church-goers and fed off local support to finish third overall out of 20 teams.
Yezefski again finished strong, beating the pack in the final sprint to take fourth in the men's A race. Eaton and John Welsh '04 were the day's surprises, racing for the first time in their respective categories and both pulling out top-10 finishes.
Dartmouth fielded a team of 34 riders with 14 top-15 finishes. Eaton summed up a common sentiment among the team members: "when you're on home turf with more familiar faces than usual on the sidelines, there is definitely extra motivation to stay up."
Yezefski left both weekends with the Men's Easter Collegiate Cycling Conference Maillot Jeune, making it four straight weekends donning the coveted threads that signify the points-leader for the season.
Both captains are looking forward to the two upcoming weekends, which marks the pinnacle of the intercollegiate road-racing season. Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton all have a shot at the Ivy title this weekend at the Eastern Championships.
"As for the Ivy title," Yesefski said, "we'll have to put in our best performance of the year to win. It's definitely possible, but everyone will have to come up big."