“The team raced well in both in Saturday’s road race in Hollister and Sunday’s criterium in Morgan Hill at the conference championships hosted by Stanford University this weekend,” says Victoria Sama, faculty adviser to the club.
The criterium was a three-quarter mile loop around an industrial complex at the Specialized Bicycle Headquarters in Morgan Hill. Cyclists race at a blistering pace around and around for a designated amount of time until the final sprint where the first person over the finish line wins.
Ryan Spaulding won the well-deserved overall Div. II omnium men’s champion and Traci Kroll earned the Div. II women’s omnium. They each received a medal and a lucite championship star. Ben Barry finished second place in the omnium, which means all three will get the honor of being called to the front of the start line at the National Collegiate Cycling Championships in Madison, Wisc. in May. That will give them a good start place over the hundred or so cyclists in their field.
“There was awesome racing this weekend,” Sama says.
Traci Kroll finished 4th in the Women’s A 55-mile road race on Saturday in Hollister and 4th in Sunday’s crit in Morgan Hill. Ryan Spaulding finished 11th in the Men’s A 67-mile road race on Saturday and 23rd in Sunday’s criterium. Ben Barry finished 28th in the Men’s A road race and 33rd in the Men’s A hour-long crit.
In addition, Josh Schultz survived flipping over bushes and finished with the pack (32nd place out of 50 starters) in the extremely fast-paced Men’s B 45-minute crit on Sunday. Nate Abel finished 17th place out of 67 starters in the Men’s C 36-mile road race in Hollister and proved in the crit that rabbit ears can be aerodynamic when he finished 15th.
Michael Malocha and Gianpaul Ferioli put the hammer down in Sunday’s crit and took 4th and 5th places respectively. Tim Davidson finished 5th and was aggressive and in excellent position the entire fast race in the Men’s C crit. Jamie Lira won a crit prime and finished 15th in Women B crit. Stephen Allen finished 54th in the Men C 36-mile road race with stitches still in his knuckles from the previous week’s bike crash.
Senior Joseph Lamb experienced his first and last collegiate road race. Despite being his first race, Lamb finished 35th, not last. And Kristoffer Dean placed 28th in the Men’s D 36-mile road race. “He had way too much fun flying downhill,” Sama says, “And he is always a cheerleader for his teammates.”
HSU’s team and riders won in Div. II, but also finished impressively among the Division I schools. The full race results and overall points are available on the WCCC website: http://www.wccc-info.com/.
Additional information and pictures are on the Humboldt State Cycling Club Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Humboldt-State-Cycling/1691319…. Videos of all crit finishes will be posted soon.
“What a great way to end the regional collegiate cycling season!” Sama says. “Best of luck to Ryan, Ben and Traci as they represent HSU at national championships in two weeks.”