The cycling team flew to Lawrence, Kans. in the wee hours of May 11 to compete in the cycling national championships. Dartmouth, the Division II national champions in 2002, 2003 and 2004, finished sixth.
While the Big Green placed lower at nationals than any other year in recent memory, the results were not particularly surprising or disappointing. After graduating a number of solid contributors from last year's team, a squad that finished third at nationals, cycling endured a rebuilding year. The sixth place finish was about what the team had expected.
"We knew we weren't going to do particularly well, but we're looking to win next year," Jonathan Awerbuch '08 said.
Another national championship may not have been in the cards this year, but there were a few positive results.
Kathryn Carr '06 and Jennifer Stebbins '09 finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in the women's road race. The pair finished at the top of the field sprint, falling only to an eight-rider breakaway pack. They both pedaled to times of 3:54:48 on the 56.4 mile course.
Former Dartmouth rider Todd Yezefski '04, now at the University of Chicago, also had a successful road race. Yezefski finished the 84.6 mile course in 3:41:20. He finished second, clocking the same time as the winner and the four riders behind him, but didn't have enough left to take the victory.
The road race played host to some solid Big Green performances, but a pair of other styles of races were also run. The competition opened with a team time trial. Neither the men nor the women finished well, although their paths to disappointment were quite different. The men's legs couldn't carry them to the finish line quickly enough, while the women had more trouble with the starting line, arriving, quite flustered, a couple of minutes late.
The competition concluded with an early morning criterium race, a highly technical race of about an hour on a one mile course with a number of tricky turns.
