"The team has been really strong for about 10 years now," race coordinator and team member Erik Newman '09 said."There are definitely a few guys and gals who come here every year just for cycling, but a lot of good guys and girls are people who started racing in college."
The cycling team competes in 10 cycling competitions over the course of its season. The races are hosted at different Eastern Conference schools and culminate in the ECCC championships. The championships are hosted every year at the school that puts together the best presentation to host the event.
"20 to 25 teams make presentations for races sort of like the way the Olympics work," Newman said. "At the last moment we decided we wanted to go with this particular race over Mount Moosilauke, and everyone was floored."
The planning of the event, which started last December, was an enormous committment for the team. The preparation paid off, however, and the competition went off without a hitch.
"One of the collegiate cycling officials said it was the best road race he'd ever been to," Newman said.
The races were held on three different courses over two days. The team time trial and criterion were held in Hanover on Saturday, and the road race took place the following day on a 51-mile loop that began in North Haverhill and went over Mount Moosilauke.
The team time trial race began at the rugby field house and continued north down Route 10. Each college or university presents a team for each section, A-E for men and A-C for women -- A is the most difficult level of competition and counts for the most team points.
"Usually the teams that win are the teams with the biggest number of the best riders," Newman said. "The point system tends to work out in that way."
Teams of four from each school competed in the race. Dartmouth's men's and women's A time trial teams came in second. The men's team was composed of Eric Schildge '10, Kevin Wolfson '08, Toby Marzot '09 and team captain Rudy Awerbuch '07 Th'08. The women's team included Jen Stebbins '09, first year medical school student Eve McNeill, Arielle Filiberti '11 and Elle Anderson '11.
The criterium, a short course lap race designed for sprinters, took place later on Saturday.
A crowd of Dartmouth students gathered on the lawn of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity as the fraternity hosted a barbeque for spectators of the race.
"On Saturday we had a band on the Sig Ep lawn, so there were a lot of people out watching," Newman said.
The course wound around Webster Avenue and looped around Choate Road, at which point Dartmouth fans were able to catch some of the racing, including a few crashes.
Stebbins was second in the women's A criterium, while Anderson took first in the women's B race.
Newman commented that Anderson's skiing abilities have translated well to cycling.
"She's actually a skier primarily, so this was her first year bike racing," Newman said. "There's usually a fair crossover between the skiers, particularly the Nordic skiers, onto the cycling team in the spring."
Schildge finished third in the men's A criterium.
The road race took place throughout the day on Sunday. Although planning the course was difficult as it covered so much terrain, it evoked the highest acclaim out of the courses in the championship.
"The courses run through certain towns, so families would come out and there were kids watching, which is nice to see," Newman said.
The higher category of racers on the longest races peddled a 51-mile loop including climbs up Kinsman and Moosilauke mountains. The course was the longest in collegiate cycling history, and arguably the most difficult.
"The big loop included a climb over Mount Moosilauke, which is just enormously difficult epic climb, so it was just a lot of fun," Newman said.
The longest race of the day, the men's A competition, was 102 miles long. Toby Marzot '09 finished first in the race, with a time of approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes. Marzot is the reigning road race national champion.
"Certainly a course like that is just really, really difficult, but all the racers were like, 'that was awesome,'" Newman said.
The competition went smoothly throughout the weekend, as races stayed on schedule and there were few difficulties. Dartmouth's talented cyclers, in addition to coming away victorious, presented a positive image to the ECCC.
Newman is hopeful that Dartmouth will host another race in the future.
"The race just went swimmingly," Newman said. "And hopefully we'll get to host one of the smaller races in the coming years."
