Ah, the inclement joys of spring. The conclusion of week 3 meant the advent of the spring ECCC race season’s most important event: the notorious L’enfer du Nord, featuring the Dartmouth home criterium.
Benefitting from the home-court advantage, the team was able to stick around Friday afternoon, sprucing up the course, throwing together last minute logistics, and even offering a brief introductory clinic on proper criterium etiquette. With everything dialed and ready to go, folks were able to sleep in their own dorms, get the best possible sleep, and not have to worry about shoveling all their stuff in the van in only a few short hours.
Morning dawned cold but clear, as DCT leaders and officials lined up at the boathouse for the final set-up of the individual time trial. As the racers began to coalesce, the first race of the day started off at 8am sharp for Men’s C, followed by the rest of the fields. Dartmouth secured three top ten finishes in the Men’s A, with Wells Willett even securing first by a large margin. Ella Goetze soon matched this feat with a first-place finish in the Women’s B field. Another 16 riders further represented the Big Green in our strongest showing yet.
Finally, cue the main event: the frat row criterium began next at 10:30 with more sun but hardly any more warmth.
The Men’s C field, starting 39 racers, was some excellent publicity for Dartmouth: Ish McLaughlin missed the break but cinched a second-place finish in the sprint, with even enough time to post up; Asa Chalmers and Luke Allan secured 4th and 5th respectively; John Reilly and Ian Stiehl also pulled in impressive top ten finishes in the mass sprint.
The Women’s C field was equally impressive, with Katie Walther sprinting to second across the line and Amelie Bradley finishing top ten.
The intro clinic brought in several of our esteemed friends on the triathlon team, a few of which are now planning to ride and race this coming week.
The Men’s B race sent it off at 1.40 and was immediately beset by (some) tragedy: our star racer Nolan Holmes unclipped and lost a foot to his front wheel in the first lap and had to sit out the race. We’re looking forward to his triumphant return this Saturday! In contrast, Daniel Kranseler managed to hold onto the pack and finished a fine 8th place, as Raif heckled, and was heckled by, other schools in the pack.
Squeaking in right before the rain began to fall, the Women’s combined A/B field had another terrific race, with Ella Goetze beating the whole field for a B field 1st place and Maggie Lonergan cruising into 2nd in the A’s.
Just before the A’s, the weather took a turn for the dramatically worse: dropping temperatures combined with torrential rain for some noticeably unpleasant racing. The indefatigable Wells Willett decided he was too cold to slouch and instead double-lapped the field. Adam Schwendt maintained his less-than-professional relationship with the UVM hacks and pulled a strong top-ten finish for himself.
Some additional tea came in the form of a pair of well-trained alums, who viewed Carlos “Paul Revere” Lastname as the source of all evil. Promising to personally shut down this 60+ year old annual event, they remind all of the imperfection of the human spirit, the power of forgiveness, and the spiritual enlightenment possible on two wheels.
All in all, a fantastic Saturday. The biggest Big Green showing yet, overwhelming results, and the first taste of the infamous L’enfer du Nord weather made the first day of racing a success.
As the team geared up for Sunday, there were only two factors detracting from the possibility of a repeat event: a lil bug known as Covid-19 and the 4:30am wake-up necessary to make it to the Middlebury TTT. Unsurprisingly, a far reduced field volunteered to make the trek to nearby Vermont, making the Sunday TTT and road races significantly more intimate affairs.
The TTT was generally a wash: actual snow carpeted the gaps into the venue, and even the course saw a few flakes. The Men’s A team of Wells, Adam, and Raif skipped the and sat up the whole race; Raif even took a brief detour onto the grass during the steepest bit. Men’s B was a bit more dedicated, with Andrew Pike and Kieran Ahern actually hammering their way into second place (of two). Men’s C was best off, with Nathan and Dario Seyb treating the TTT as their race warm-up and finishing in third.
Thankfully the day continued to warm, if recalcitrantly, and by the Men’s C 10am road race start it was a balmy 40+ degrees (though still snowing). Dario and Nathan again toed the line and sent it with the pack. Having mechanical-ed out of the previous weekend’s road race, Nathan was especially on it to finish today, but no luck: a tight but nervous field pumped the brakes into a casual downhill roller and he half-wheeled the rider in front of him and went OTB. Fortunately, he landed right in the mud, sustained literally zero injuries, and was back up in a second. Unfortunately, his bike was not so lucky: the seat rails were wrecked, the handlebars twisted, and the chain (of course) dropped. Stay posted as we see if this coming weekend, UVM’s Mt. Philo race proves to be his triumphant first finish!
Dario had a much better time: staying upright the whole time, he got a little dehydrated coming out of the second lap but managed to hold on for a 22nd place finish; even as snow continued to spritz, he found a squad and chased in only a little bit down from the leaders.
The next phase of racing didn’t go off until 1:00pm with the Men’s A field, followed by Women’s A/B and Men’s B combined. Wells’s DI2 was fried by the rain on Saturday, so he soon found himself in a single speed; constrained as he was, the solution was simple: go faster, get the race done sooner. Bridging up through a hairpin corner (and off the other side of the road) he caught onto a three person break and proceeded to do more than his fair share of the rotations for the next 60k’s. Fortunately, he easily outsprinted his new buddies on the line for first. After succeeding in the arduous task of sitting up in the chasing group, Adam sprinted to fifth place in the field sprint.
Men’s B had a bit more of a tough time, with Raif, Andrew, and Kieran getting dropped on the first half of the first lap; meanwhile, Daniel stuck with the group the entirety of the race: pulling in his own 5th place finish, he made a strong argument for his eventual upgrade to the A’s. In contrast, Raif and Kieran joined up with a third rider from Hamilton and gave a phat rip to get back with the group, but for naught. Pledging instead to not get lapped by Wells, the happy trio yoinked it into a solid 9th through 11th place.
Fortunately, Women’s A/B was able to replicate the success of Wells and Daniel. Ella and Andrew caught up with each other after the rapid disintegration of the field and helped tow each other into the line, securing Ella’s second 1st place finish that weekend. Stay tuned for their imminent upgrade to A’s and near-certain nationals break-out success.
With the close of the Women’s A/B and Men’s A/B races, the weekend was officially at a close; in perhaps the most rapid pack-up yet seen in the DCT 2022 ECCC season, the crew loaded bikes, packed in their stuff, and hit the road. So concluded the Darty-Midd road weekend, prompting a serious break on behalf of the DCT leadership. We’re off the hook till next year, folks!
Stay tuned for this coming weekend, our UVM race at Mt. Philo!