Rutgers Season Opener

March 1-2, 2008

The Bucknell Cycling Team had a successful first weekend of racing for the 2008 season. The Rutgers races held in New Brunswick, New Jersey, featured an individual prologue time trial, a criterium, and a circuit race. Racing with 12 riders, the Bucknell team was well represented throughout the men's and women's categories.

Even with ominous and icy weather on Friday night, the team was excited for the weekend. Saturday morning, the sky cleared for a cold, but favorably weathered day. Wind was a factor both days, as it slowed the field on the backstretch of Saturday's criterium, but also hindered the main sprint for Sunday's Circuit Race. As usual, racing started early on Saturday with a short and painful individual time trial, in which sophomore Aaron “Alaska” Cravez finished 11 th in men's B.

Highlights of the results also include many freshman performances. Jeff Salvitti finished in the points in both the men's A criterium and circuit race. Rebekah Morris, also a freshman, fought for a 6 th place finish in the women's C category circuit race. In addition, the men's C criterium saw freshman Kevin Curran and junior Dan Wood sprint for 6 th and 7 th place respectively in the criterium, with Kevin also pulling a 9 th place finish in Sunday's circuit race. Molly Pritz, a sophomore who is new to the team, impressed us all by making her 7 th and 10 th place finishes in women's B look easy!

With the over 350 riders at the first weekend, we have a difficult task to make our mark in the ECCC this season, but as our new riders progress and as the veterans adjust to racing yet again, we foresee improvement for the races to come. Next weekend's race in Philadelphia will have the biggest fields yet, and will be our first chance at a team time trial. We thank everyone for their support, and hope to report good news again next week.