Rider Spotlight - Week 2

This week, we start our spotlight with a 4-year veteran of the team. After a week off, Bekah will be returning to the ECCC as a newly upgraded Women's A rider. Good luck this weekend Bekah!


Name: Rebekah Morris AKA Lil Chicky

Age: 22

Class Year: 2011

Major: Environmental Geology

Hometown: Salisbury, MD

Type of Bike: Specialized Ruby Elite

Years Racing: 4

Division: Women's A

Favorite Race/Favorite Ride: Penn State Black Mo Mountain/ The Highlander


Our male rider this week has started his first full year of racing strong with several top 20 finishes in the past 3 weekends of racing. (But you guys know this because you've read our race-weekend summaries....oh wait.)


Name: Josh Kurtz AKA Tugboat

Age: 21

Class Year: 2012

Major: Mechanical Engineer

Hometown: Harrisburg, PA

Years Racing: 1

Division: Men's C2

Favorite Race/Favorite Ride: Williamsport


Stay tuned for more rider spotlights and race weekend updates!

Rider Spotlight

Since many of our readers aren't currently (or never were) on the cycling team, we thought a rider spotlight would be a great way for you all to get to know our members. We'll be doing two riders per week, starting with...

Name: Emily Daniels AKA "Daniels"

Age: 21

Class Year: 2011

Major: Civil Engineering

Hometown: North Wales, PA

Type of Bike: Kestrel

Year Racing: 3rd

Division: Women's B

Favorite Race/Ride: Philly Team Time Trial

AND....

Name: Craig Tuller AKA "Twilight"

Age: 20

Class Year: 2013

Major: Chemistry

Hometown: Montoursville, PA

Type of Bike: Specialized Allez

Year Racing: 1st

Division: Men's D

Favorite Race/Ride: Covered Bridges

Check back next week for two new riders.

Rutgers Opener

Bucknell Cycling headed to Beautiful New Jersey to tackle the first race weekend of the season at Rutgers. After a night of awesome food at Gil's house we departed nice and early Saturday morning to take on the short and intense 2.2 mile opening TT. The TT offered a good opportunity to get the prerace jitters out and get back in the mindset of racing. Kelly ended up setting a blistering pace taking 2nd in the TT

Later in the afternoon we had the traditional stadium criterium. Craig, one of the teams new members, was first to go in Men's D. Craig rode a great first ever race and is looking like he will have an amazing first season. Then came the highlight of the day in Men's C. Brian Tino and Scott Henry, took complete control of the race from start to finish with Gil riding support. In the finale Tino took the win and Scott took 3rd to round out Bucknell's podium of domination. In the womens A/B field our girls showed that the women's side of the team is strong as ever with Kelly taking 3rd and Sinead taking 10th. Jeff Salvitti rounded out the days racing in the men's A race getting into a late breakaway and securing 3rd for the team.

Sunday:
Sunday greeted us with warm weather with occasional pouring rain. The first highlight of the day in the points race came from the Women's A/B race with Kelly and Sinead riding together and finishing 2nd and 3rd. Little Chicky also put in a great ride placing 10th, rounding out the women's solid performance. In the Men's A race Jeff Salvitti was able to secure a few tough sprints against a fast field in order to place 2nd.

Overall:
ECCC: Bucknell 4th out of 37
Women's B overall: Kelly 2nd, and Sinead 5th
Mens C: Tino 12th and Scott 14th
Mens A: Salvitti 3rd

Race Season Preview

It's the first week of March, and to a collegiate cyclists in the East Coast Cycling Conference (ECCC), that only means one thing: IT'S GO TIME! Race season will begin this Saturday morning. Although many of us are wishing that we got in some more training time, as we convene at the vans this afternoon to head to New Jersey the excitement of a new and exciting year will overcome any lingering regrets.

The men's and women's teams seem to be facing very different outlooks on the competitive season this year.

Men's Team
While the men's team lost  three national A riders to last year's graduating class, they have a great group of sophomore and Junior guys that are guaranteed to show great improvement this year. Jeff Salvitti will be our lone rider in As (at least for the first part of the year), and we have quite the spread of riders in each of the other fields B,C,D. All looking to get some good racing under their belts, and hopefully a few upgrades.


Class of 2011: Jeff Salvitti, Jess Petrie, Kevin Curran, Michael Driscoll,Scott Henry
Class of 2012: Peter Davis, Billy Holm, Conrad Buck, Josh Kurtz, Bobby Thorborg, Brian Tino
Class of 2013: Harry Chen (Vice President), Gil Erlich (Treasurer), Tom Palley, Craig Tuller, Matt McAnear, Kyle Kissock (Secretary)
Class of 2014: Noah Talisa, Tommy Paradise

 Women's Team
The women's team however, is led by a strong group of returning upperclassmen all of whom will be riding Bs to start the season. We have a few new riders that will be riding Cs, but seemed to have a low year for the women in recruitment of underclassmen. The women's team hopes to send some girls to nationals this year, and it is our goal to gain recognition of the women's cycling at Bucknell through great results this year!

Class of 2011: Emily Daniels, Steph Tetlow, Rebekah Morris, Sinead O'Dwyer
Class of 2012: Kelly Desharnais (President), Caitlin Cavanaugh, Christine Kobza, Emily Novak
Class of 2013: Rebekah Hupp
Class of 2014: Brenna Powell, Katie Murphy


Our Race Calendar is as follows:

Mar 5--6	Rutgers Scarlet Scurry	Somerset and Jamesburg, NJ	ITT, Crit, Points Race	bikereg
Mar 12--13	Columbia Grant's Tomb	New York, NY	Criterium	bikereg
	Stevens Duck Country	Layton, NJ	Road Race	bikereg
Mar 19--20	Philly Phlyer	Philadelphia, PA	TTT, Circuit, Crit	eccc/usac, folding
Mar 26--27	RPI Tour de Troy	Troy, NY	ITT, Circuit, Crit
Apr 2--3	Boston Beanpot	Westminster, MA; Boston, MA	TTT, RR, Crit
Apr 9--10	Yale Lux et Velocitas	New Haven, CT	HC, Circuit, Crit
Apr 16--17	Dartmouth L'Enfer du Nord	Hanover, NH	ITT, Crit
	UNH Live Free or Ride Harder	Strafford, NH	TTT,RR
Apr 23--24	Easterns @ PSU	State College, PA	TTT, RR, Crit

Complete and up to date information can always be found at the ECCC website: http://www.collegiatecycling.org/eccc/wiki/index.php?n=Calendar.Current.

Saddle up for a great season!