Cycling races at William & Mary, heads to NYC Friday

The West Virginia University Cycling team traveled to Williamsburg, Va., this past weekend for the fourth weekend of racing in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road Season.

The races were hosted by William & Mary and consisted of an individual time trial Saturday and a road race Sunday.

The Mountaineers field nine racers for each event.

"The performance was really good, and just about everybody who was able to finish, finished in a very good position," said former WVU cycling president and now elected coach Ryan Post.

In the individual time trial, junior Brock Denis placed 10th in Men's A while Brad Dodson, who is in his first year with the team, placed fourth in Men's C.

Dodson then went on to race the Men's B heat, allowing him to total more than 100 miles of cycling on the day.

"Brad is very new to racing. It is his first season, and he is already showing a lot of potential," said team vice president Elliott Iannello.

Junior Brandon Crawford and senior Ryan McGovern, who is also new to the sport, placed seventh and 10th, respectively, in the Men's D.

For the road race, Denis placed 10th in Men's A while Janel Bedard ended fourth in Women's A.

Dodson also ended fourth in Men's C heat while Crawford and McGovern placed third and seventh, respectively, in Men's D.

The team had traveling issues early this season due to snow and bad weather conditions, which prevented them from traveling to two of its previously scheduled races.

Therefore, the team was eager to be able to compete this past weekend.

"For our first real weekend attending a race, we had excellent performances," Post said.

However, the team had to deal with some strong winds on the course, which made the riding more difficult.

"It was a fast course. There wasn't a lot of climbing on the road race, and the individual time trial was deceptively hard, because there were sections with crosswinds, which made the riding pretty tough," Iannello said.

The high speeds led to a rough weekend of crashes on the course, as well. Some of the team's racers crashed due to the speed of the course.

In the final sprint during the Men's C field, an oncoming car hit one of the motorcycle officials of the race. The official was not injured, but the vehicle was damaged.

The Mountaineers are bringing from four to five racers to the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference this weekend in New York City.

The ECCC is larger than WVU's conference, the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference. There will be nearly 600 racers competing in the championships as opposed to the normal amount the Mountaineers race against of 200.

It is still early in the racing season, however, and the team is looking to improve even more as they go along.

"Our first priority as a club sport is to enjoy racing and to promote the sport," Post said. "We would love each individual to improve their results, whether they are going for the win, or trying to improve from 15th place to 10th place."

The Mountaineers look to keep up their strong performances for when they host their first home race weekend, which will be held in Clarksburg on April 10 and April 11.