Racing To Register

Check out our new charity partner Racing to Register, founded by F&M alum Tom Kramer '89. Tom and his wife Pam are racing to get people registered for the Bone Marrow registry. There are over 10,000 people currently waiting for a match and every person added to the registry is a chance to save a life. This is a great charity and F&M cycling is looking forward to working with them over the coming years.

http://www.racingtoregister.com/

What the ECCC News Network had to say about Rob's Breakaway at the Tour du Troy:

Breakaway Success in the Men’s A RR

By Ross Marklein

Nearly 50 Men’s A riders lined up to brave freezing temperatures at RPI’s inaugural circuit race, which provided plenty of excitement in the other categories and definitely did not disappoint in the final race of the day. The race began with a pretty tame pace for the first couple rolling miles and many riders began jockeying for position on the bumpy descent before arriving on the windy backstretch along the river. Here, riders from many schools began attacking and forming somewhat cohesive groups, but nothing substantial formed before arriving at the climb for the first time.

At the bottom, Ross Marklein (UPenn) attacked and was quickly followed by Robert Burnett (F & M) and they quickly distanced themselves from the field and began working together and building a gap for the following 2 laps. Their gap peaked at over a minute, but on the 3rd time up the climb the field came back into sight with a group of 6 chasers closing down on the duo with the rest of the field strung out from the 3rd time up the punishing climb.

The 6 chasers included Max Korus (Penn), Jeff Salvitti (Bucknell), Wyatt Stoup (PSU), Samson McHugh (Pitt), and two unknown Canadians (apologies…) and the break du jour was formed and began gaining significant time on the field. Within a few laps, both friends from the north could not match the rotating pace of the remaining 6, and they faded back to the chasing pack.

While there were several attempts to chase down the break, having 5 of the top 10 ITT finishers helped put significant time into the field and with most of the large teams represented, there was little chance for a concerted effort to bring them back. The break rotated well until the final windy stretch on the river where the rotation was disrupted and several riders looked at each other waiting for a move.

The group arrived at the base of the climb together where Salvitti launched his attacked and was marked by Korus and McHugh. Korus countered further up the climb with McHugh on his wheel, but unfortunately could not hold off the crafty Pitt rider, who swung around and claimed his second victory of the season. Burnett, Stoup, and Marklein rolled in well behind the top three and then everyone would await the field, which would not arrive until 5 minutes later. Brendan Siekman (USMA) and Stuart McManus (Harvard) shot away from the field to claim 7th and 8th, respectively, while the rest of the field arrived 2 minutes later after deciding to just wait for the final climb to decide who earned the remaining points. Overall, a dominant day for Pitt as their riders claimed victories in both the ITT (Nik Reinart) and the RR (Samson McHugh).

Many teams were talking about how much they enjoyed the road race (even in less than desirable conditions) and I for one hope this circuit becomes a staple in future ECCC weekends!

F&M Cycling makes the front page of the Washington Post! (kind of)

If you click on the link below you will be take to the front page of todays (3/25) Washington Post. In the middle of the bottom of the page you will see a picture of Stephen Thomasch '10, riding in his F&M kit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper?dt=2011-03-25&bk=A&pg=1

F&M Cycling is going big time!

What the ECCC New Network had to say about our TTT:

Team Time Trial

The Men’s A team time trial at the Philly Phlyer was essentially a drag race, in both senses of the word. The course was dead flat for the majority of the 6.2 mile distance, and there was a fierce headwind on the first leg of the out-and-back loop. Teams with full aero setups got at least a little of their money’s worth in this race, although the technical upper circuit may have evened the score a bit.

Franklin and Marshall College came in with a blistering time of 13:34 to win the day by just two seconds. Following them was UPenn in 13:36 and perennial ttt favorite Penn State with a time of 13:48. Franklin and Marshall is an emerging team in the ECCC and winning a TTT is a strong statement that they not only have strong individual riders but that they have dedicated team spirit, coordination and strength in numbers. The Penn State men were clearly riding strong in defense of their current lead in the ECCC season overall.

The only variable in the race of truth besides the riders themselves was a flock of geese that decided to hang out in the middle of the road. There were no incidents reported, but many tense moments were experienced as teams collectively crossed their fingers and hoped the geese would stay put. As it turns out, men in skinsuits going over 30mph are just as scary to geese as hitting a bird is to a cyclist.

Spring Break Race reports

The team continues to exceed all expectations, placing well in both the NYC and Philly races over spring break.

Columbia's Grants Tomb Criterium: This was the only race of the weekend (Sunday's race was canceled due to course flooding) so we had to make it count. The entire team came out strong with highlights including Drew Mitstifer's 3rd place in the Men's B race and Charlie Salzer's 10th in the Men's A. F&M maintained it's 7th overall ranking in the team standings.

Philly Phlyer Weekend:

Team Time Trial: F&M came out firing on all cylinders and WON THE MEN'S A RACE!!!!!!!! This in the fist A victory for F&M and a huge result for the team. The team consisted of Rob Burnett, Charlie Salzer, Dan Rossi and Eliot Scymanski. We edged out UPenn by 2 seconds to take the win. The rest of the team backed that up with 5th in the Men's B, 4th in the Women's B (in our first women's TTT ever!) and 4th in the Men's D.

Circuit Race: The team kept up its consitent string of top finishes with Charlie Salzer and Drew Mitstifer taking 5th place in the Men's A and Men's B respectively. Our Women came out strong with Courtney Gregor taking 11th in the Women's B and Katherine DeCrostia taking 8th in her first race ever!

Crit: F&M's luck ran out a bit here, with illness, crashes and mechanicals putting a slight damper on the day for some of our riders. Despite that we still managed some solid results with Charlie Salzer and Courtney Gregor taking 13th place in the Men's A and Women's B respectively.

The team placed 5th for the weekend and moved up to 5th overall in the conference!!!

F&M's efforts don't go unnoticed!

Some writers for the ECCC news network have noticed that F&M is stepping up its game!

Things that Especially Impressed me:

1. Franklin and Marshall: The Diplomats came out huge, winning the Men’s ITT as a team. While there other racing efforts didn’t bear such sweet fruit, they were a presence in almost every race they were in. The last couple of years it seems like this team has really ratcheted up their efforts.

http://ecccnews.wordpress.com/race-reports/2011-2/week-1-scarlet-scurry/the-nitany-lion-roars-season-overall/

F&M Cycling ranked 7th in the Northeast!

The Franklin & Marshall Cycling Team came out firing on all cylinders last weekend at the season opener in Rutgers NJ. The team consisted of 12 riders, of which four were representing F&M for the first time.

The weekend started off Saturday morning with a 2 mile time trial to get everyones legs burning. The team posted its best results in history. Highlights were Eliot Scymanski and James Wolf taking 1st and 2nd respectively in the Men's B category. In addition the A men places three in the top 20, with Charlie Salzer leading the way in 5th! This was enough for the Mens team to score more points than any other team in the conference!

Saturday afternoon saw a criterium on the Rutgers Campus. F&M raced well, featuring in many breakaways and constantly visible on the front. Highlights include Drew Mitstifer's 3rd place in the Men's B race and Charlie Salzer's 9th in the Men's A race.

Sunday was the ECCC's first ever points race. While the format was confusing F&M managed to brave the wet weather to score more consistent results. Again the Men's A and B teams did well, with Charlie Salzer taking 4th in the Men's A race and Eliot Scymanski and Jamie Wolf taking 10th and 11th respectively.

All of these results added up to F&M ranking 7th overall in the conference out of over 50 teams! We are currently ranked as the 4th division 2 school and we are sitting 3rd in the National's Qualifiers rankings (top four teams qualify to send an entire team to the National Championships). This was by far F&M cycling's biggest weekend to date and we only plan on getting faster! This weekend we take our talents to NYC to bring home some more results for F&M!

Full results can be found here:

http://velocityresults.net/