The F&M Cycling Team had another incredibly successful weekend, this time in Philadelphia. The team racked up three more wins along with several podium places!!!
Saturday morning started out with Team Time Trials. In the Men's D2 race the F&M team of Jamie Wolf, Nick Ferra, and Matt Mosca took the win over RIT.
The Men's C team was on a mission after a poor performance one year ago on the same course. The took off strong and passed three teams on their way to a win in the Division 2 category! Only two Division 1 teams could beat them, Penn State and U Penn, two schools much larger than F&M.
Saturday afternoon was a circuit race.
In the Men's D race mechanical issues hampered Matt and Nick, but Jamie was able to stick with the leaders and sprinted to a great 4th place, his best so far this year! Cory and Adric both did will in their first D races, helping out their teammates and setting a hard pace on the front.
The Men's C's did a great team effort, with Dan Rossi setting the pace up the final hill, setting up the rest of team for great finishes. Charlie Salzer sprinted for 2nd with Drew Mitstifer following closely in 6th and Stephen Thomasch in 9th, putting three F&M riders in the points!
In the Women's C race Courtney Gregor avoided some serious crashes to finish 11th.
In the Men's A race Rob Burnett missed a big split and sprinted home in the second group for 22nd place.
Having had a great Saturday the team was determined to have fun and throw down in Sundays Crit. The course was narrow, short and had six 90 degree turns so we knew staying at the front would be important.
In the Men's D race Jamie and Matt made the front group. Jamie was aggressive on the front, winning a prime and eventually sprinting for second place, only being beated by an MIT rider who broke away late in the race. Matt came in right behind in a solid 8th.
The Men's C Crit was totally dominated by F&M. We knew we were the strongest team in the race and we wanted to show everyone how good we were. For the first four laps F&M controlled the front, setting a high pace and staying out of trouble. The first to attach was Dan Rossi, taking a Bucknell rider with him. He stayed away for two laps. Once he was caught Stephen Thomasch took off solo. He quickly got a gap. This sent a panic into the field with riders scrambling to try to chase him down. Charlie and Drew did a great job of blocking and disrupting the chase. Finally after six laps off the front Stephen was caught. Immediately Charlie attacked, taking a Millersville rider with him. After two laps the gap had grown to 15 seconds, thanks in part to some amazing blocking by Stephen and Drew. Soon the Millersville rider could not hang on to Charlie's high pace and was dropped. With Three laps to go Charlie had a 20 second gap and had the race locked up. He rode hard the last three laps to win the race solo by over 20 seconds. Back in the pack, halfway into the final lap Stephen attacked and got a gap. He was able to hold it until the finish for 2nd place. Out of the group Drew was able to out-sprint everyone else, taking third place. F&M SWEPT THE PODIUM!!! It was an amazing display of power and team tactics. All four riders will be upgrading to the B category for next weekends race at Princeton.
In the Women's C race Courtney Gregor rode a solid race to finish 6th.
In the Men's A race Rob Burnett rode another solid race to finish 16th, good enough for points and another step towards qualifying for nationals.
Overalls:
F&M placed 10th out of over 45 schools for the weekend (this includes big D1 schools like UVM and U Penn).
After three weekends of racing F&M is ranked 15th out of over 50 schools (6th amongst division 2 schools)
In the win count (unofficial) F&M is tied for second. UVM has won the most races across all categories so far this year with 8 wins. F&M is tied for second with MIT with 7 wins each!
F&M is on an amazing roll right now and we intend to keep it up, thank all of you for your support.
