While most students on Tufts' campus were fast asleep Sunday morning, cycling programs from across the continent assembled in front of Health Services on Professor's Row to participate in the Beanpot Criterium, the third and final race of the seventh-annual Boston Beanpot.
In a weekend that included the criterium, a road race and a team time trial, Tufts took 16th overall out of approximately 60 schools that participated in the Beanpot, which was organized by a committee representing six schools from the Boston area: Tufts, BU, BC, Harvard, MIT and Northeastern.
Held Saturday with its start and finish at the Tufts Veternairy School in Grafton, the road race had 512 participants, making this the largest single conference collegiate race in the nation. The Beanpot has broken records each year since 2004 as being the largest collegiate race in cycling history, but the Philly Phlyer race held in Philadelphia March 10 and 11 took that title away from this year's Beanpot.
"In previous years, [the Beanpot has] been the biggest collegiate race in the country," said Tufts sophomore Kipp Callahan, who served as director for the criterium. "This year, we were upstaged a little bit by the Philadelphia race because they invited another conference, and so it was a dual-conference race, which was pretty amazing. But even though we didn't have a dual conference race, they only beat us by ten riders, so we still had our act together, but we can no longer claim the title as largest collegiate race."
The Tufts Criterium itself also saw a jump in competitors, with cyclists from all across the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference in attendance.
"We grew a lot," Callahan said. "We had 470 riders [for the road race] last year, and 512 this year and we had a really large showing for the criterium. Last year, we had a 100-person difference between the road race and the criterium, and there was a difference of 50 people this year."
Checking in with the only Tufts win of the weekend, Tufts Dental Resident Milos Janicek placed first in the Men's C2 field during the 39-mile road race Saturday, taking an early lead and never looking back.
For the rest of Jumbo cycling team, the weekend was highlighted by cyclists rising to the occasion in new waters. Junior Judy Wexler, who is on the Daily Editorial Board, recently jumped from competing in Women's B to Women's A, and raced to a ninth-place finish in the criterium and a 15th-place finish at the road race.
Senior Jeremy Jo also impressed many with his fourth-place finish in his first ever Men's B criterium race. Racing in the relatively new category of Men's Intro, designed for riders with minimal racing experience, Tufts took second at the team time trial, as sophomore Ben Mitchell took third in the same category at the criterium.
"I think we did well," sophomore co-captain Vincent Chavanon said. "I certainly want to applaud everyone who was out there, and we had one win and a strong showing in the Intro field. "The most outstanding performances from the criterium were Judy, Jeremy and Ben, who just started racing," he continued. "Judy just moved up to A two races ago at UPenn, and this was Jeremy's first B race, and to show that he could keep up with the B field was pretty outstanding."
"Our men's Intro time trial came in second, and that was amazing because they're in the Intro group," Callahan said. "Jeremy Jo came in fourth in Men's B criterium, and that was incredible because there's a big difference between Cs and Bs, and to go from racing Cs to Bs in one weekend is quite an accomplishment."
The Intro category was first introduced to the conference at the Beanpot last year, as a way to accommodate novice cyclists and deal with an increase in participating riders. Intro races are partially coached, while the remainder of the race proceeds as normal. This season, Intro categories became mandatory at all ECCC races.
"It's fully coached, but the first third or half is more clinic, while the rest is a coached race," said senior Caitlin Thompson, who served as the overall director for the entire weekend. "[The competitors] are not allowed to go full out until the second half; then they can go full out, but there are still coaches there to help them out."
"Older and more experienced riders ride with the Intro category, giving people pointers as they go about what gearing they should be in, climbs, and making sure things are safe," Callahan said. "[Intro riders] get a lot of this experience that they wouldn't have otherwise and a lot of help working on the fundamentals."
Because of its size, the Beanpot provides the opportunity for different area schools to come together and coordinate its planning and execution each year.
"There were six schools on the coalition this year, and almost every week the last two months we've been having meetings, and I run those meetings to make sure we cover all the topics we need to," Thompson said. "I think approximately 200 people are involved in the event, and some way or another I'm coordinating that effort."
"It's really expensive to put on a race," Callahan said. "Just to give an idea, just police for the day cost something like $4,000, and that's just for our race at Tufts. The road race is huge, so their costs are a lot more, so it's really important to keep in mind that all the other schools are part of it."
Overall, the weekend was seen as a major success for the Beanpot itself, the organizing local schools, and the participating programs.
"I think every year it continues to improve," Thompson said. "This year ran definitely smoother than last year, so this one was the best."
