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RUTGERS RACE REPORT
By Zach Byers
There are funny things that a seven hour drive, four hours of sleep and Dunkin’ Donuts as a pre-race meal can do to a cyclist. Throw in over an hour of waiting in frigid cold and stinging winds for registration and a panicked rush to the start line for the prologue time trial in our favorite ambiguous white for-fitting-purposes-only jerseys and it proved to be the start of a very interesting inaugural race weekend for the Panther Cycling Team in Piscataway, the crown jewel of New Jersey.
The effects were indeed very interesting on Noah Gorelick, who upon taking a wrong turn over a bridge in the four-mile time trial, decided to extend it to six miles and take a tour of South Jersey. Maybe he was looking for a Bon Jovi concert. We would like to think things had gotten better, but in the circuit race, Kamikaze Gorelick took a spill, contorting his body every way he could to protect his sweet carbon fiber. Gorelick’s parents proved to be his saving grace, cooking dinner for the team on the way to and from the race.
Doan on EPO? The men’s D class circuit race silver lining was Dan Doan. After teammates left Doan alone one-by-one, suffering three crashes, mechanical failures and being dropped, he flew to the finish for a solo victory, scoring the first points for the Panther Cycling Team. Sweet revenge after disappointingly crashing in the crit, unable to recover and regain the promising position he had been riding in. Doan also rode to a high position in the time-trial, passing a teammate who left thirty seconds ahead.
Also brightening the circuit race was C class rider, Dan Bauer, riding a very comfortable race and crossing the line at the front of the pack and taking sixteenth place, garnering more points for the team.
Apparently Gorelick found a way to pass his stellar luck to other cyclists on the team. B class rider Jerry Chessman was hampered by mechanical failures, cutting seconds off his time trial and forcing him out of the crit. His circuit race didn’t get much better, worn down after weekend of freezing temperatures and too many days around germ-ridden elementary school kids, Chessman was forced to abandon. Maybe it was Chessman’s repeat trips to Dunkin’ Donuts (four to be exact) that did him in.
The problems continued with recently christened cat-3 cyclist, Dan Malik, riding in his first collegiate A class weekend. Malik found it difficult to match the acceleration offered by cat-1 and 2 riders in the crit and circuit race and abandoned both.
The Panther Cycling Team’s spirits are riding high on Doan and Bauer’s points, excited for a hard week of training in preparation for next weekend’s race in Philadelphia. It might take Noah a little extra time to recover, because what would be the fun of the weekend without one more nugget of entertainment from him? Dinner at his house on the way back to Pittsburgh wasn’t complete until Mama Gorelick graciously whipped out the most humiliating form of punishment: The photo album. Featuring vivid memories of Noah in nothing other than a lavender snowsuit, I’m sure we won’t forget it before the rest of the season. And Noah. Ballet……seriously?
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