Frat Row got an early wake-up call last Sunday as Tufts played host to the technical criterium leg of the sixth annual Boston Beanpot Classic.
Over 500 cyclists participated in the Classic, the largest collegiate bike race of its type in the country. Cyclists darted around a 0.6-mile loop starting and finishing in front of Health Services on Professors Row.
The Tufts team put on a show for onlookers, many of whom were late-rising Tufts students. The team finished 10th in the team rankings in a field of over 40 programs. Their 213-point total was 21 shy of ninth-place Cornell University and over 500 points behind the event's winning school, the University of Vermont (UVM), which repeated its 2005 first-place finish.
The Tufts squad was satisfied with the top-10 finish, given the strong competition.
"UVM, [the University of New Hampshire], MIT, they're the real cycling powerhouses," freshman cyclist Vince Chavanon said. "MIT just dominated the team time trials."
Junior Caitlin Thompson placed 12th out of 33 cyclists in the Women's A race, earning 15 points for Tufts' team score, the most of any Jumbo in the technical criterium. Thompson, who moved up to the Women's A races only three weeks ago, has shown significant improvement and has been a key to the team's steady success. She credited her finish, a personal best, to the strong support she received at the race.
"I had 11 family [members] and friends, not including my friends at Tufts, watching me," she said. "My parents and grandparents flew in to watch the race. They decided to watch from the most dangerous corner of the course, which pretty much inspired me not to crash, because one of them probably would have had a heart attack."
Thompson feels her performance in the A race will help Tufts on its way to Nationals.
"Now I'm confident that the three Women's A racers, Katie [Dunn], Olivia [Jaras], and I will be heading to Nationals this year," Thompson said. "We've all performed well when we needed to."
Chavanon, Tufts' only Men's A race participant, placed 33rd out of 56 cyclists, 13 spots away from the final scoring place. Chavanon, whose breakout rookie year has been a key ingredient to Tufts cycling's season-long success, has yet to garner any points since making the move up from Men's B races.
Chavanon cited a lack of sleep for his lackluster performance.
"I was just really tired," he said. "We had to get up at 4:00 each morning to prepare."
In other races, sophomore Kipp Callahan placed third of 58 racers in the Men's D Div. II race, the highest finish of any Tufts cyclist at the criterium, earning 10 points. Men's D riders race against cyclists from their respective school's division, mainly to keep race sizes down.
"It has a lot to do with the amount of racers and their skill level," Chavanon said about the small race sizes. "For some riders, this is their first race. Having too many people on the course at one time can be really dangerous."
The criterium was the third and final portion of the weekend's event, which also included 7.69-mile team trial course in Grafton and a 13-mile road race event through Grafton and Westborough, both held on Saturday.
With the consent of town officials, portions of Curtis St., Whitfield Rd., Packard Ave., Talbot Ave., Latin Way and Professors Row were closed off for the event. Advertisements for local and national sponsors such as jetBlue, Zipcar, Redbones and Anna's Taqueria dotted the sidewalks around the course. Event organizers hosted a raffle with prizes ranging from round-trip airline tickets to acupuncture sessions.
Student attendance provided some much-welcomed visibility for the Tufts Cycling Club, one of the University's most successful club teams.
"It's great that it was at the center of campus," senior co-captain Chris Eager said. "Kids were waking up and walking to Dewick, and were curious to see what was going on. The event got a great turnout."
On Saturday, Tufts traveled to Grafton Common to compete in the road race and team time trial events of the race, hosted by Harvard and Boston University. The road race challenged cyclists' endurance as they carved through the 14-mile course's variant streets. Sophomore Judith Wexler earned 28 points for the Jumbos, placing fifth out of 39 racers in the Women's B road race [Wexler is a news editor at the Daily]. Freshman Glenn Ferreira outmatched 78 other cyclists to win the Men's D Div. II road race and contribute 20 points towards the Tufts total.
The cycling team will travel to Vermont next weekend to compete in the Chris Castro Memorial Race, co-hosted by UVM and Middlebury College.
