Midwestern State University’s 2010 USA Cycling Collegiate National Championship Report – by Julie Carter Midwestern State University was well-represented at this year’s Collegiate National Championships.  The kickoff event was the Men’s D1 Road Race.  The challenging venue, in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, was a slightly altered version of the proposed Olympic Road Race course if Chicago were selected to host the Olympics. The weather conditions for Friday’s road race were rainy with temperatures in the low 40s.  After half of the MSU men’s team was out from flatting (Todd and Alexi were both in the selective lead group when they flatted), Jason Short was the only MSU rider left to finish in the road race.  Jason was able to climb with the best of the field and finish 21st place. The MSU women had much more luck than the men in their road race.  With a power-packed field of over 80 riders, Jen Purcell was almost able to hang with the leaders, but she found herself in no-man’s land between the leaders and the field for over two-thirds of the race.  She finished ninth, only behind ladies from, or attending school in, mountainous regions of the country.  MSU’s Marilyn Cullinane, Loren Eggenschwiler, and Tiffany Stewart rounded out the top 50 placings in 45th, 46th, and 49th. The Collegiate Nationals action continued in Madison, Wisconsin with a criterium around the state capitol building.  Originally from the Midwest, both Danny Robertson and Josh Carter had raced on the course in the past, and I had directed teams at the venue as well.  I was quite confident that we had good plans for both the men and the women and that our riders could carry it to fruition effectively in the end. We were prepared for either a breakaway or field sprint at the finish in the women’s D1 race.  Claire Routledge (MSU) was instructed to sit in the field and sprint for a good position at the finish; she did a great job in her duties, but she was caught directly behind a crash on the last lap from about the 10th wheel.  She was one of the lucky ones to escape from crashing, but she had to completely stop with three corners to go.  She finished 29th despite her bad luck.  Jen also did a great job of performing her duties!  She policed the front of the field during the entire race.  No groups got away without her in them or without being within a distance that she could easily jump across the gap if needed.  Ultimately, the finish came down to a bunch sprint.  Jen did exactly as she was told and visualized; she jumped early and took the final turn in first.  She was strong enough to hold off the second place finisher, Carla Swart, in the long sprint for the win!  Jen’s ninth and first place was enough to snag fourth in the individual omnium. The MSU men felt the pressure to perform as well as the women.  Jason Short made several breakaway attempts throughout the course of the day and was active in the race; we wanted to make sure we did not miss any of the major moves.  Several breakaways tried to get up the road over the course of the day, but only one breakaway became dangerous to the MSU squad.  With about 15 laps to go, a 2-man group gained just over 20 seconds on the field.  Something that was discussed in our pre-race meeting was that many times a gap will stick close to the end of the race simply because there are not any teams committed to bringing the gap back so close to the end of the race.  Racers are often willing to race for the best of the rest because they don’t want to burn their matches to reel in a breakaway.  With one of the top sprinters in the race, we did not feel that we needed to worry about burning our matches late in the race.  The guys worked together so well at the finish of the race: Jason brought the gap to under 10 seconds with about eight laps to go.  Alexi and Josh communicated well, and Alexi waited just a little longer to finish off the gap with only a few laps to go.  Josh did not disappoint the guys that worked so hard to bring the field back together for the sprint.  He had a 30 meter gap before the last corner and won the second gold medal for MSU on the day!  Alexi finished 21st, even though he was busy celebrating the team win! The women’s TTT squad of Jen, Tiffany, Loren, and Claire finished 6th, and the men’s TTT squad of Jason, Todd, Alexi, and Josh finished 8th.  The overall points gained in the team omnium gave MSU a fifth place podium position.

2010 Race Schedule 2/13 - Centenary College's Centenary Time Trial  Shreveport, LA 2/27 - 2/28 - Texas Tech Lubbock, TX 3/6 - 3/7 - Texas A&M's Tunis Roubaix College Station, TX 3/13 - 3/14 - D/FW HS & Collegiate Weekend Dallas, TX 4/10 - 4/11 - Baylor Waco, TX 4/17 - 4/18 - MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY WICHITA FALLS, TX 4/24 - 4/25 - Conference Championships Austin, TX 5/7 - 5/9 - Collegiate Road National Championships Madison, WI 9/23 - 9/25 - Collegiate Track National Championships Indianapolis, IN