Road Bike Racing - collegiate racers

just wondering how many people here are in college and part of the cycling team.

i am thinking about joining the team at JMU this year. i guess i am basically looking for advice, info, experiences, whatever...

I wish I had a team at my school.

lucky u

I did last year, but didnt this year because i wanted to focus on some other cycling goals. I might start up again this comming year

I am on a college cycling team and its a blast. Go for it

WM here, we'll be at the same races I guess. Do you do Mt. and road, or just road? I'm thinking of trying Mt. this fall...

do it, the people alone make it worth it, the racing depending on your level ranges from comic to straight up pro will certainly prepare you for anything that the USCF races will toss at you, and at the very least being on the team generally makes it more acceptable to peers that you spend more time biking than boozing, though my disc covers have "Fueled by PBR" stickered on...

im just gonna do road.

looking forward to it, should be fun.

awesome. I have a friend at JMU, but here at UK (univ. of KY) we have a 10-12 person team that we're trying to revive and this spring will be my first EVER bike race and i'm excited about the regionals in late April (hopefully i'll peak then :D). From what i've heard from the other guys, it's a blast and some of the most fun racing they've ever experienced.

Raced in college for 4 years, best thing you could do.. There are multiple categories so you can find a spot that fits your level of racing ability.. You get to meet great people, travel and when will get another chance to sleep 8 people in 1 hotel room..

Wake Forest is just starting a team... I'll do that when I get back from going abroad. We'll see how it goes in the Spring. I'm sure I'll see you guys at the races.

CD

Hey I was about to post something similar. I'm new to cycling too and I want to join my school's club/team. Any experience necessary to race?

i am not sure that JMU has a collegiate team, but that's not to say one can't be started- you're in the right area for good riding, though. virginia tech's team is pretty amazing, and has guys that recently went pro, and UVA's team is the same way. either way, you're near the mountains and have the environment to train well.
guys that race collegiate always have a leg up on the regular fields when they graduate- first off, they know how to handle their bikes, and plus, they have what, maybe 4 years of racing in them and are 21-22 years old when they graduate. thats a major advantage. i highly encourage it.

I started a team at ISU and am going to start one here in Toledo as well.

It's a lot of fun and around here it starts pretty early (March), which puts you in good form for the local races in the summer. You get to take a road trip pretty much every weekend, and if you get some kind of BS title like vice president or secretary you can even put it on your resume. You can't beat that.

i am not sure that JMU has a collegiate team, but that's not to say one can't be started-

we have a club team, and compete in the ACCC against UVA, VA Tech, etc....
http://www.accc-info.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

not very competitive yet, but i think our team started just a few years ago.

If you’re thinking about it then do it. It sounds like a lot of fun and a great experience. I wish I had thought of it when I was in college in the 90's. I do some training rides with my local college team, VA Tech and they really keep you on your toes. During the season they race at least once every weekend usually more. The only downside I can see to it is that there season is very early. Last year they had some races closed because of ice and snow storms. So if your goal is to peak in some July stage race then the collegiate season may burn you out. Otherwise it sounds like a blast.

Collegiate racing is awsome! Roadtrips with friends every weekend, cant beat that. I ride for UW-Madison and I love it. I guess Ill be racing with koreansteve this spring. 8 people per hotel room? I guess were spoiled, we usually only cram in 6.

Collegiate racing is awsome! Roadtrips with friends every weekend, cant beat that. I ride for UW-Madison and I love it. I guess Ill be racing with koreansteve this spring. 8 people per hotel room? I guess were spoiled, we usually only cram in 6.

what class/level will you be racing this spring, spacefuzz? I am also in the MWCCC and will be racing B's to start off, according to the club prez

I'm racing B's for the MWCCC as well.

Small world....

i guess i'll probably start out in category C.
what should I expect in terms of talent/level of competition in this group??

There's not a lot of results online for the ACCC, but here's a link for one race...
http://www.student.virginia.edu/~cycling/raceinfo/04/results_uva_04.htm

Looks like winning speed for Men's C 2 man TT was around 22mph, since the race was in C-ville I gotta assume that it musta been hilly, bad weather, or both, for it to be that slow.

i guess i'll probably start out in category C.
what should I expect in terms of talent/level of competition in this group??
Range of abilities. Not sure how exactly is works there, but here at the beginning of the season there is a mix bag of strong and not so strong riders. As season progresses more team tactics emerge and you see teams brining their stronger riders.

speaking of range of talents, do most folks see a rough parallel between USCF and collegiate cats? A's round here seem to be strong 3s at least (though all the winners were basically pro-am riders), B's seem to see 4s and 3s, Cs get 4s and 5s, and Ds get riders who can crash solo...on a straight...into a telephone pole (there's no wincing smiley)...that means 5s only I guess ;)

i didn't even know they had a D class...? wow that must be a sorry lot

"i am thinking about joining the team at JMU this year."

I say go for it! I did 6-years of collegiate racing on the UCSB team. We actually won the NCCA championships in '88, but that was before my time. Many of those riders were still around when I joined though and they were quite an inspiration.

"speaking of range of talents, do most folks see a rough parallel between USCF and collegiate cats? A's round here seem to be strong 3s at least (though all the winners were basically pro-am riders), B's seem to see 4s and 3s, Cs get 4s and 5s, and Ds get riders who can crash solo...on a straight...into a telephone pole (there's no wincing smiley)...that means 5s only I guess "

Here's roughly the breakdown I saw on our teams:

cat 5 = collegiate D
cat 4 = collegiate D-C
cat 3 = collegiate C-B-A
cat 2-1 = collegiate A only

Comparing USCF vs. collegiate racing is night and day. Collegiate racing is a tonne of fun, you get to do A LOT of partying, road-trips and camaraderie. I ended up moving into a house with 8 other cyclists from the UCSB after my first season. We went racing USCF that next summer and we kicked *ss! I jumped straight into cat-4 and upgraded to cat-3 after winning my first 2 races; one of them by outsprinting the pack by over 50ft. It was so much fun, most of these guys were in their 5th to 10th race at the start of the USCF season and we already had 46 races under our belts in the previous 4 months.... heh, heh.. Another guy made it from cat-4 to cat-2 by the end of the summer (I didn't make it to cat-2 until the next summer, 18 months after I started).

Compared to the local bike-clubs/teams, the college team had professional coaching and training facilities. We had full access to the gym for weight workouts in the winter, had body-fat and VO2 max testing at the sports-physiology center. Collegiate riders also got first dibs to openings at the OTC in Boulder, CO.

The collegiate experience really teaches you teamwork and working together (no such thing as sacrifice). You also get very good at avoiding crashes as you will immediately know "that guy" who has a 100% record of crashing. Your chances of being in a wreck goes down inversely proportional to your distance away from him! :)

Some links:
http://gainesvillecyclingclub.org/1999/collegiate.html
http://www.dailypeloton.com/danaalbert.asp
http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=6072
http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=6084
http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=6118

Danno,

What a small world.. I raced the 88 Collegiate Nationals for CP Pomona.. I remember the UCSB coach, Wayne Stelly and some of the riders like Trevor Thorpe, Cathy Rice and Mike Collee..

As far as categories go, the range of quality of riders varies across the country.. On the west coast they have so many categories because there are a lot more people racing and it is not uncommon for Cat. 1 and 2 riders to be in the A category.

The C and D categories are mostly new riders equal to USCF cat. 4 and 5..

Go for it! You'll have a great time! A lot of shops do discounts for college teams as well.

I'll be racing for nc state this spring, maybe I'll see you at the races. as I recall there was a guy from jmu at the vtech race this past spring. college racing is fun, I highly recommend it.

awesome, im starting to really look forward to it.


on a side note, JMU's "club" cycling team was started in '03. So, we're just getting started. Hopefully in a few years there will be more interest/members and we can make some noise in the ACCC.

I will probobly be racing B's. Theres no D class in the midwest, I guess were missing out on some fun :)

I didn't know there was a D class either.

so there are lots of schools around mine that have teams... anyone know how hard it would be to start one at my school ? (Boise state university)

here is a website for the collegiate cycling info.. you will need to contact your regional conference director

http://www.usacycling.org/ncca/

SPACEFUZZ, i sent you an PM with a few questions about the MWCCC conference, would you mind answering them for me?

Hey SoCal, you probably recognize this crit course, eh? :)

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit1s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit2s.jpg

CSU Panoma?

More like Pomona.. Great story about Cathy Rice, I'm sure she had a real hard time in a bikini convicing you about riding.. Trevor ended up marrying a friend of mine who went to UCLA.. Gabby... I don't remember Dana, but I do remember Eric Cech, that guy could ride people off his wheel.. He was one tough rider..

Danno,

What a small world.. I raced the 88 Collegiate Nationals for CP Pomona.. I remember the UCSB coach, Wayne Stelly and some of the riders like Trevor Thorpe, Cathy Rice and Mike Collee..

As far as categories go, the range of quality of riders varies across the country.. On the west coast they have so many categories because there are a lot more people racing and it is not uncommon for Cat. 1 and 2 riders to be in the A category.

The C and D categories are mostly new riders equal to USCF cat. 4 and 5..

Howdy,
I raced for UC Berkely from '87-'89 and had an absolute blast. You bring back some familiar names!
I found the best thing about collegiate racing was the teamwork. You only went as far as your team -- people worked together to ensure maximum points for the TEAM. I found USCF races to be somewhat of a free-for-all; everyone wanted the cash/schwag for himself, so there was no incentive to work together. And the training rides were great - the whole team either going out for our sprint workouts or seeing who made it up Diablo first!
And '89 Nationals were very memorable. Too bad for our team that this newbie to cycling named Julie Furtado made her debut in cycling! She won the women's road race on a solo break and sealed the overall for CU Boulder.
Cal has been strong these last few years! GO BEARS!
-Kurt

Hey, its memory lane time. I raced for SDSU from 89 to 93.

Berkely was always respectable, but didn't make very many SoCal races in force. I remmber the UCLA guys showing up in the cool, blue, logo'd school vans in air conditioned comfort while we were showing up in our beater cars.

UCSB was always a force.

Raced all those schools you mentioned. Actually won the Pomona crit one year. Really liked the UCSB crit right on the water. Beautiful! You all remember the Lyons Valley race that SDSU hosted? Some of the toughest climbing in a collegiate road coarse.

Danno, are those pics from Pamona? It looks to be late '80s / early '90s by the helmets. I swear the dude in the red / center is one of our boys. I still have that jersey. What category was that pic from?

College racing, as mentioned, is great. We trained hard, partied hard and studied occassionally. My best season on the road, was my worst in school. Good tradeoff.

Since cycling is a Spring sport, you will be in great shape for UCSF racing. UCSC rating seem to change by region of the country. In, SoCal by virtue of the concentration of good riders, a mediocre III could be a VERY strong III somewhere else. I know, this happened to me when I moved to Oregon.

When I was college it was pretty much:
D=4, B/C=3, A/B = 2 and A=1 or 2. Most of our "A" riders were "1"s UCSF.

Tragically in recent history, UCSD seems to have taken our place as San Diego's premier cycling team.

-Z

I remember the Cal Berkeley guys, Roger Marquis in particular. Cal used to be real tough in the crits because the A riders had such good teamwork.. Our goal would always to get someone in the break with a Cal rider because we knew the team would work hard to shut down the field..

As far as SDSU, I remember the President of the team - Bob Bingham and one of the riders Stig Nybo, I think that is how it is spelled.. That was a great time for college racing..

I remember the Cal Berkeley guys, Roger Marquis in particular. Cal used to be real tough in the crits because the A riders had such good teamwork.. Our goal would always to get someone in the break with a Cal rider because we knew the team would work hard to shut down the field..

As far as SDSU, I remember the President of the team - Bob Bingham and one of the riders Stig Nybo, I think that is how it is spelled.. That was a great time for college racing..

I was just leaving the hospital with our newborn son (yahoo!)two weeks ago when Roger rode by. I shouted hello, but he had no idea who was yelling at him from a minivan. Anyway, Roger is as fit as he always was and looks the same, too!
Yeah, we missed out on a lot of so-cal races, but there was always something up here to do!
UCSB's course for '89 Dist. Champs was fantastic - nice and technical. And the A race ended up being almost a carbon copy of the Stanford race earlier that year - with three of the same riders in a four man break: two Cal riders and a guy from Saddleback. My guy led me out for the Stanford win, so I led him out for the WCCC crit win and overall title. Brings back shivers!
Quick aside.... Cal Cycling and Stanfurd, sorry, Stanford got together last Fall for an Alumni Ride during Big Game weekend. It was fantastic getting everyone together. We met old friends and did a little bit of fundraising for the current team. For those of you out there who haven't seen your old team mates in a while, I highly recommend putting together something like this. Alumni came from as far as the East Coast and Hawaii. It was great riding and catching up with people I hadn't seen in over ten years.

I think I remember that course in '89 at UCSB.. It had the 2 long straight away stretches with a 180 degree turn looking towards the beach.. I remember there being lots of turns..

I remember Roger, he was such a great overall rider..

Hey Kurt, my brother Chinh raced with Berkeley from '91-94, you probably know him. You're right, the teamwork and camaraderie with collegiate racing is much more fun than the free-for-all atmosphere of USCF racing. You get quite cozy cramming 8 guys into a motel room:

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/8toAroomS.jpg

Here's one of Bounce Cech going into a corner at the Irvine crit:

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/Irvine-CechS.jpg

Some more CP-Pomona crit pictures:

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit3s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit4s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit5s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/CP-PomonaCrit6s.jpg

Figured if I keep on posting the pictures, you guys might actually recognize yourself in some of them! :)

Some of me and Steve at Irvine crit:

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineCrit1b.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineCrit2b.jpg

and Stanford:
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/StanfordCrit3s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/StanfordCrit1s.jpg

I still keep in touch with a lot of the folks I raced with. Most of the 7 guys I lived with on the team are in the S.F. Bay Area now. We still get together for parties: http://www.curtandnate.com

I only went to SDSU one time, my very first season as a D rider. We won this race 1-4 spread across the road in front of Fraternity Row:
http://www.gururacing.net/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/SDSUcrit1s.jpg

Some pics of the Irvine circuit race:
http://www.gururacing.net/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineCircuit-DaveUphillS.jpg
http://www.gururacing.net/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineCircuit-DaveCrest.jpg

...fraternizing with one of the Irvine women racers. I think her name was Laura and she's hiding a broken wrist behind Todd's back:
http://www.gururacing.net/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineLauraS.jpg

I think one of the tougher courses is the USD circuit race. Here's Bounce Cech working people:
http://www.gururacing.net/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/USD-Circuit1s.jpg

awesome pictures danno

Eric Cech was a great rider.. I remember a Criterium at Cal Poly SLO where he broke away and there were 3 riders who chased up to him.. In his normal hammerhead fashion he just kept riding faster and faster, not letting anyone help and he shredded us off his wheel one by one..

The SDSU crit on Fraternity row was always a lot of fun, very flat and fast..

Keep the pics coming.. I'm sure I'm in there somewhere..

That's Pat in the #2 position at USD.

Can you put up some more pics of that SDSU race. I know I was there somewhere.

-Z

"awesome pictures danno"

Why thank you :). Ok, gonna get around to the other SDSU photos in a little bit. Here's some more from the USD circuit-race. Hillary and Donna working the women's field (I swear, Hillary must be one of those East German "women"...;)):
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/USD-Circuit2s.jpg
Nice downhill chicance...
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/USD-Circuit4s.jpg
... and climb back up again...
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/USD-Circuit3s.jpg
... I swear, there's more elevation gain on this course than downhills...
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/USD-Circuit5s.jpg

Some photos from the '92 UCLA Regional Championships:
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/UCLAchampionships1s.jpg

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/UCLAchampionships2s.jpg

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/UCLAchampionships4s.jpg

http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/UCLAchampionships3s.jpg

Irvine Laura in her cast:
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingteam/IrvineLaura2s.jpg

This must've been a fashion statement of some sort as about 10% of all the women cyclists that season seems to be sporting a broken-wrist... :eek:

The women's road-race at UCSB:
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingTeam/UCSB-WomenRR2s.jpg
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/UCSBcyclingTeam/UCSB-WomenRR3s.jpg

That summer, my roommate Nate and I did a pilgrimage out to Colorado and trained on all the Coors Classic courses, the Tour of Moon, the Morgul Bismark, etc. :) We're taking a break on a double-century though Crested Butte:
http://www.gururacing.com/artwork/ColoradoNateS.jpg

Seeing the Fisherman's Wharf crit of the Coors Classic kinda piqued my interest in competitive cycling:
http://www.gururacing.com/cycling/SFcoorsClassic1s.jpg