Pollen, Warm Air, and Panda Express. Navy/UMD Race Weekend 2025!

 This past weekend, the team went down to Maryland for the first race weekend of the spring. A group of 8 guys, including 4 rookies (Luke, Jiho, Nihad, and Hunter) and 3 veterans (Erikson, Jeffery, and Jack), and 1 injured (Sam). Since the Men's D race was somehow not at 8:00 AM but instead at 1:05 PM we drove down early Saturday morning. Of course, while loading the hauling van at Bucknell on Saturday morning it was downpouring, thunder and lightning... We had a great drive , however, laughing at all of the special stores on route 15 south towards Harrisburg. We arrived at the race to see the 3/4 field finish with more aero socks in a 3/4 field than I have ever seen in my life... what's going on these days, someone get a ruler. 
After pulling out the grill, the new tent, and the whole tailgating setup, we grilled some burgers before getting ready to race. 

Coach Andrew 20' met us at the race to help out. Andrew and I frantically helped pin numbers on the Men's D guys (Erikson, Jeffery, Luke, Jiho, Nihad, and Hunter) as our 2 hours to get ready had flown by. Jack led them on a warm-up and everyone made it to the start line in time until we realized Jiho forgot his number! We quickly pinned it on at the start line. 

After a very slow neutral start where Erikson gapped the peloton at 12 mph the "flag" dropped and the racing began. With the excitement of his first-ever race, Luke went to the front and started drilling the pace. After a few minutes on the front the pack swarmed around him and he found himself off the back and in the red; a mistake but a good learning experience. The field was stronger than expected and before the end of the first lap, only Jeffery and Hunter remained in the main peloton with the rest chasing from behind. 

To make matters worse, Erikson, Luke, and Nihad made a wrong turn and lost a few seconds going on to their second lap. 

At the end of lap 3 Hunter was still in the peloton with Jeffery just off the back. Jeffery got back on for a few miles after some sneaky drafting of the pace car but was dropped on the final climb. Hunter held on until the final sprint and finished at the back of the group (he was on flat pedals too smh). Jeffery rolled in shortly after. The rest of the guys rolled in and finished a nice day out on the bike. 

After some more grilling and grubbing, it was time for the Men's B race at 4:00 PM with Jack. Jack also forgot his number, and Andrew came to the rescue once again!

Jack was not feeling the best, but he stayed in the group for the first few laps. After bonking and getting dropped, he decided to save his legs for the crit. 

Erikson and I had some fun taking silly pics, too. Also working on improving our mid photography skills lol.

For the UMD crit on Sunday, some rain came, and with that, some crashes. Thankfully everyone on our team stayed rubber side down!

Our Men's D boys (put with the men's C for the crit...) had a rude awakening to crits being held up by a crash in the very first corner and having to fight to get back on the peloton. The USAC officials were pulling people fast and most of the D guys got pulled. Hunter lasted most of the race.

The crashes in the Women's A/P123 race were super bad with the return of wet roads, and Jack decided not to start the Men's A/B crit. 

Overall, it was a weekend with no crazy results on paper but a great weekend of bike racing,  team bonding, learning experiences, first races, and more. Oh yeah, we went to Panda Express twice and the calories per dollar are crazy! Definitely my highlight of the weekend.

We will be back next weekend for the Brinkerhoff RR and the Army Crit in NY!

That's all for now,

Sam Lasher 25'