Cycling club earns respect at Rocky Mountain Regional Championships in Wyoming
The Utah State Cycling Club is still in its first year of being officially recognized at Utah State University. In May, though, when most students were off for the summer, the cycling club was still racing strong.
Team members competed in both the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference Finals held May 12 and 13, as well as the NCAA National Championships held May 19 and 20.
The conference finals were held in Laramie, Wyo., and a good performance would qualify the team to compete in the National Championships.
USU sent four riders to the conference finals including team captain Tommy Murphy, Richard Hatch, Roger Snow and Steve Hadley. Murphy, Snow and Hadley raced in the B division while Hatch raced in the A division.
The first race at conference finals was a 50-mile out-and-back course. In the out-and-back race, the cyclists would race 25 miles out and then return over the same 25 miles to complete the course. According to Hadley, the first 25 miles were downhill and the last 25 were uphill.
Hadley and Murphy were able to stay near the lead the whole way on the return leg of the race. Near the finish line, Murphy and Hadley broke hard for the finish line with Murphy taking first and Hadley finishing third.
Later the same day, USU competed in the team time trials. In this 20-km time trial, four riders from each team race and the team is given the time for their third place rider. USU finished fourth in this time trial.
The second day consisted of a 70-mile out-and-back road race. The course was mainly flat, but at about the 30-mile mark there was a hill climb.
Hadley said there was tough competition for position and the race was close the whole way, but after the turn around, he and Murphy were able to get in front and use teamwork to their advantage.
Hadley said his strength is climbing while Murphy is good on the flats and sprinting. On the short hills during the return climb, Hadley would take the lead to allow Murphy to draft off of him. Using this strategy, Murphy was able to stay in a good position to make a run for the finish line and won the sprint.
Murphy finished first in the race, placing him first overall in the B division, while Hadley finished fifth, giving him third overall in the B division.
Following this performance, the team qualified for the NCAA National Championships. Hadley said the performance at conference finals earned the Aggies a lot of respect in the Rocky Mountain Conference and hopefully should help the team receive some funding this year.
Following the conference finals, the NCAA National Championships were held in Colorado on May 19 and 20, but Hadley was the only rider who was able to make it to nationals to compete.
The first day of nationals consisted of a criterion around a 0.9-mile course. In a criterium, cyclists ride laps around the course for a given time and then at the end, there is a multi-lap sprint to finish the race.
Hadley said the course was generally flat, but it had eight 90-degree turns and was wet. He said he did not get a good start position for the criterium, but despite this he was able to slowly make gains for the time he was in the race.
The second day went better, Hadley said. The race for the second day was seven laps around a 9-mile loop that included 950 feet of climbing per lap.
Hadley said he also had a better starting position, but a crash near the end of the first lap split the pack of riders and left him struggling to catch up for the rest of the race.
Hadley said he was able to catch up to several riders during the course of the race, but was left too far behind to challenge the leaders.
Despite some bad luck, Hadley said it was a great experience and he takes a lot of pride in competing and finishing the races.
Hadley took 56th in the road race out of a field of approximately 100 of the best collegiate riders in the country.