Gainesville,
Florida
February, 2006
The
bobcat cycling team left Banner Elk early Friday morning for Gainesville
Florida with great anticipation for the first road race of the season.
After a very successful fall season in mountain bike and cyclo cross the
team was excited about racing on the road and beginning the trip back to
Road nationals in May and defending their Team Time Trial National
championship. With the prospect of cold weather in Banner Elk the warmth
of sunny Florida was sounding really good to the team. After a long 10
hour drive on Friday the first event was the Individual time trial
Saturday morning. With 22 riders traveling down to Florida, the team had
their largest group to race against the div I strong house gators at
their home event. Traveling down were Seniors Luke Winger, Wes Shirey,
Danny Marquardt; Juniors Monique Hein, Olivia Maurey, Rebecca Johnson,
Jesse Hayes, Chris Saxton; sophomores Chris Perham, Gonzalo Escobar,
David Flynn, Andy Evans, Kevin Holldber, Preston Anderson, Chris
Consorto, Rebecca Conklin, Katie Getchell, Andrew Lowd; freshman Went
Knipe, Will Hoffarth, Scott Jackson, Sebron Jesup. The A men started out
first with an impressive ride by Scott to take sixth place. Chris S.,
Danny, Wes, Kevin, Luke and Gonzalo all put in strong efforts in the
Time Trial. Second off were the B men with Preston riding extremely well
for second place finish. Will came in tenth with Jesse, Chris P. and
Andy all putting in strong rides. In the C men field rookie Sebron
surprised everyone with a seventh place finish. Chris C rode very well
and brought home another top ten finish with ninth place. On the women’s
side Monique once again showed her all round skills by finishing in
third place behind two very strong Florida riders. Rebecca and Olivia
both rode very well in their first ever Tine trial.
Saturday afternoon brought the Team time trial. With all new riders
working together for the first time the bobcats took both third place
and sixth place in the men’s race and fourth place in the women’s race.
By Saturday night the team was feeling very good about the opening day
of their season. It was also a lot of fun to have Will’s Dad and
Olivia’s Mom to be a part of the weekend. Sunday morning brought early
rain, but by the time the criterium’s got started the roads were dry.
Starting out the day was the C men riders. Once again Sebron was a
surprise as he lead out many laps and helped Chris C win a couple of
prime laps. In the sprint at the end Chris C finished a very respectful
fourth place in his first collegiate crit. Sebron came in a strong
eighth place. In the B race much of the pace was set by the strong
bobcat squad. Went, Will each put in pulls at the front and helped to
set up Preston for a finishing sprint. Preston sprinted hard for a
strong fourth place finish.
Up next was the women’s race. Florida put up a large squad of riders who
really tried to wear out Monique. Mo rode really smart and while
covering the constant attacks kept back enough to be there for the final
sprint. As they set up to sprint, Monique’s cleat came loose and she
lost her momentum but still managed a fourth place finish. Rebecca and
Olivia surprised everyone with very strong finishes in twelfth and
thirteenth place. The final race of the weekend was the A men. Once
again Florida put up a large squad of riders. All the breakaway’s and
chase groups consisted of two Florida riders to every one from
Lees-McRae. Luke and Chris S. stayed up near the front the entire race
with Danny chasing up to them. With Luke finishing sixth, Danny eighth
and Chris 10 the bobcats had three in the top 10.
The weekend of races went very well for the team with a complete
domination of the Div. II teams with only conference powerhouse Div. I
Florida finishing ahead of them. The team came away from the weekend
feeling good about the upcoming season. With non collegiate races next
weekend in Greenville and then Georgia Tech race weekend in two weeks
the bobcats are looking forward to a great season.
