The Big Green cyclists have returned from Madison, Wisc., with their third straight Collegiate National Championship Team Title.
The University of Wisconsin hosted this year's race, which attracted hundreds of collegiate bicyclists from across the nation looking to take home a piece of national glory. The three-day event featured a downtown criterium, a challenging road race and a fast team time trial.
The criterium was contested on a short, technical circuit, where in the Division II women's event, Chrissy May '05 and Kristina Eaton '04 patrolled the front of the race. In the final laps of the race, Eaton strung out the field, setting up co-captain Amy Wallace '04 who sprinted to a second place finish. Meanwhile, Eaton netted a sixth place finish and May ended up 17th.
The men's race was abbreviated to 30 minutes due to thunderstorms and tornado warnings, which made for treacherous racing conditions. Tim Clement '05 and Thayer Engineering student Mike Barton made it in the front group, where Clement drove the pace and made critical late-race attacks. Barton counter-attacked Clement late in the race and soloed in for the win. Clement was caught behind a last lap crash rendering his bike useless, and he sprinted across the line on foot for 10th place, just seconds ahead of the next nine riders to cross the line, one of whom struck Clement from behind, knocking him to the pavement.
The next day saw a late-day improvement in the weather, and the racing continued in the wet hilly terrain of Black Earth, Wisc. On the women's side, Eaton got into a select breakaway group with seven others, who stayed in the lead through the 60-mile race. This left Wallace, May, and Jenna Farleigh '07 in the chase pack of 12 girls. One by one, riders started falling out of this group, but the Dartmouth women held tough. The three in this group finished ninth, 14th and 15th respectively, and soon learned that their teammate Eaton had finished sixth in front of them.
Following the women's event, the men set out on five hilly circuits totaling 75 miles. They found themselves in trouble early in the race due to missing a key breakaway. A dangerous group had escaped from the main field, and it was up to Barton, Clement, Todd Yezefski '04 and Bing Knight '05 to go on the defensive and chase it back. Once the break was caught, Yezefski immediately countered and was in a group of 12 guys which stayed clear of the main field for the next 15 miles. On the penultimate climb, Barton bridged up to the Yezefski group, while Knight and Clement patrolled the main field from behind.
The Yezefski-Barton group held a five-minute advantage going into the final sprint, where Yezefski sacrificed his finish and led out the final 500 meter sprint to the line. With 50 meters to go, Barton repaid the team's hard work and took the win. In an amazing display of strength, Yezefski was able to hold on for second place. Knight and Clement also scored valuable team points at the finish after completely sacrificing themselves for Barton and Yezefski.
The last day of competition featured a 25-kilometer team time trial at the Trek Bike factory in Waterloo, Wisc. The Dartmouth women were hoping to defend their national title from a year ago, and the men also had their eyes on the gold. The women went first, but ran into a bit of bad luck. May flatted about 10 minutes into the race, and Farleigh dropped off after another 10 minutes. This left Wallace and Eaton to finish the last half, but both were tired after Saturday's road race. They gave all they had, but it was only good enough for second place.
The Dartmouth men's team, featuring Barton, Clement, Knight and Yezefski, had a rough start but pulled it together, displaying some great teamwork, and won the event by a slim six-second margin over the US Air Force team. The win capped off the fantastic weekend on the men's side, which netted three individual national titles and two team national titles. When the dust settled, Dartmouth had won the National Team Title for a third straight year.
Besides winning the weekend, we also received more exciting news at nationals -- Todd Yezefski was chosen to be the "lucky number 13" rider on the TIAA-CREF U-23 professional development team headed by Jonathan Vaughters. This means he is riding for an elite cycling team this summer and is living the dream of many collegiate cyclists.
The cycling team has high hopes for next year as well, but will sorely miss all of its seniors: Yezefski, Barton, Eaton, Cosmo Catalano, Dave Morse, Rachel Bender, Dale Apgar, Ryan van Hoff and Chester Areson.
Mike Barton and Amy Wallace are members of the Dartmouth cycling team.
