Friday, March 25, 2011

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!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

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.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

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!!!

Friday, March 18, 2011

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/

Thursday, March 10, 2011

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:

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Happy New Year

Greetings Friends, family, sponsors and supporters of the F&M Cycling Team,

Happy New Years! On behalf of the team, I would like to wish all of you the best in the coming year. This year stands to be a big one for F&M Cycling. With almost the entire team returning (Congrats to Stephen Thomasch '10 for graduating and moving on to Georgetown Law) we are expecting big things from the team this spring. We intend to build on our first appearance at the National Championships last spring and turn our momentum into results at the highest levels of collegiate racing. We hope that all of you will follow our progress over the course of the year and continue to support us in our efforts to represent F&M with pride.

You can follow us on our blog, Facebook and twitter at these addresses.


Below I would like to introduce the team, our schedule, and our sponsors for the 2011 season.

F&M Cycling's 2011 roster:

Returning:
Drew Mitstifer '11
Adric Quackenbush '11
Nick Ferra '11
Robert Burnett '12
Dan Rossi '12
Charlie Salzer '12
Eliot Scymanski '12
Matt Mosca '12
Nick Chertavian '12
Jamie Wolf '13
Cory Van Galen '13
Courtney Gregor '13

New Riders:
Katherine DeCrosta '12
Steve Clipman '13
Zhongrong Wang '14
Ryan Mckenna '14
Megan O'Donnell '14
Katie Oxman '14


2011 F&M Cycling racing schedule:

Please feel free to come out and support us at any of these races!

DatesRaceLocationEvents

Mar 5--6Rutgers Scarlet ScurryPiscataway, NJITT, Circuit, Crit
Mar 12--13Columbia Grant's TombNew York, NYCriterium
Stevens Duck CountryMorristown, NJITT, Circuit
Mar 19--20Philly PhlyerPhiladelphia, PATTT, Circuit, Crit
Mar 26--27RPI Tour de TroyTroy, NYITT, Circuit, Crit
Apr 2--3Boston BeanpotWestminster, MA; Boston, MATTT, RR, Crit
Apr 9--10Yale Lux et VelocitasNew Haven, CTHC, Circuit, Crit
Apr 16--17Dartmouth L'Enfer du NordHanover, NHITT, Crit
UNH Live Free or Ride HarderStrafford, NHTTT,RR
Apr 23--24Easterns @ PSUState College, PATTT, RR, Crit


F&M Cycling's 2011 Sponsors:

We have compiled a fantastic group of sponsors for the coming season. If you have the option this year please visit our sponsors and use their products, they have been a huge help to our team and we couldn't do it without them.

Primal Wear: These guys make great clothing and have be designing great looking jerseys for us for the last three seasons. Visit them here:

primalwear.com

Shirk's Bike Shop: Staffed by the friendliest, most knowledgeable staff and best mechanics there is no better bike shop in PA for all of your cycling needs. Visit them here:


Shirk’s Bike Shop

1649 Ligalaw Road

East Earl, PA 17519

717-445-5731


Rudy Project: They make safe and high performance helmets as well as stylish glasses. Visit them here:


e-rudy.com


Green Pedals Ltd.: Located in downtown Lancaster Green Pedals helps you reduce your carbon footprint by selling the best selection of electric bicycles available anywhere. Visit them here:


http://www.greenpedalsltd.com/


And introducing new sponsors for 2011:


GearGrinder: They make stylish, comfortable and environmentally friendly cycling inspired casual clothing. Check them out here:


greargrinder.com


Mercury Wheels: Fast race wheels made in the USA. Check them out here:


http://www.mercurybikes.com/


We hope to make this coming season our most competitive yet. If you would like to learn more about the team, get involved, or make a donation please feel free to respond to this email. Thank you all again for your support and have a great 2011.