DREXEL/ UPENN 2006 RACE REPORT

By Zach Byers

Most of the Panther Cycling Team converged on Philadelphia for their second race of season in Dan Doan’s car. However, Nick Loubecki thought the perfect race warm-up was to ride to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh in four days with not much more than his beard to keep him warm while the rest of the team enjoyed batches of cookies courtesy of Dan’s girlfriend and yet another fantastic dinner at the Gorelick’s. This time we got to see the slippers.
The ECCC managed to hook the team up with a beautiful host house for the weekend, disproving everything we’ve learned about west Philly from “Fresh Prince”; Thankfully there were no fights on basketball courts and no citations for graffiti. The weather had improved dramatically since the Rutgers’ weekend and most of the team ended up with the beginnings of nasty cycling tans after a sunless Pittsburgh winter except for Doan; he’s Asian.
Conditions for the weekend were perfect enough to warrant the arrival of over 300 riders for Saturday’s Team Time Trial and circuit race at Fairmount Park. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to help the disastrous Panther Men’s D class TTT. Off to a great start, the four-man team was cut to three half way through the 8.4-mile course when Nick Parton dropped. Since the finishing time of the TTT is taken on the wheel of the third rider that crosses the line, the remaining three carried on but lost Noah Gorelick when the biggest pot hole in the world ate his front tire for lunch about 100 meters later. Down the road, Paul Schauerman and Zachary Byers waited for Nick to reconnect and finish the last two miles together. Despite the series of misfortunes, they still managed to finish 8th, a finish that leaves the group hopeful and hungry for another TTT to take the high finish they are capable of barring mechanical failures.
The men’s B class TTT also took eighth place, scoring points for the Panthers. The team was composed of B class rider, Dan Malik and a C rider, Dan Bauer and D rider Dan Doan, who were both playing class leap-frog to form the team.
Starting just two hours after the TTT, the circuit race kicked off with Men’s D class. With only thirty minutes to recover, Dan Doan, the winner of last weeks circuit race, decided to sacrifice himself and race for Paul Schauerman. The group showed exemplary team work trying to get their man Paul into a high position, chasing down breakaways and pulling up hills, dropping as many people off the back as possible. Unfortunately, Doan’s legs decided it would be fun to cramp simultaneously, forcing him off the bike and to the bottom of the race results. Top of the field one week, bottom the next. Noah Gorelick and Nick Parton were the top finishers for the Panthers, rounding out the top 20.
Riding solo in Men’s C class, Dan Bauer did well for himself and finished (put shit here)
Rounding out the circuit results was Dan Malik, who suffered a flat tire on the first lap in B class. To add insult to injury, Malik lost his computer and was run into by two other cyclists on the side of the road. Immediately after, a homeless man kicked him in the balls (not really).
After a navigation back to the host house that could only be described as uncertain and terrifying due to the Philly traffic where lane lines and road markers apparently no longer carry meaning (surely good for causing more crashes than a rainy D class crit), the appeal of brotherly love was beginning to wear.
And speaking of rainy races, welcome to Sunday’s Lemon Hill Crit where the only thing that influenced the D class riders to risk body and bike on the slippery course was a trans-park thumbs up from Dan Doan, standing next to a row of portable toilets. Nick Parton and Zachary Byers were the only two to start the crit after Doan realized he had left his jersey and race numbers at the host house. Sure, now you want the ambiguous white jersey. Byers finished 11th at the end of the lead pack and Parton crossed the line further towards the back.
The rain came down even harder, forming a genuine pond at the second turn, but the computerless Dan Malik managed to score more points for the team by finishing sixth in the Men’s B class crit.
Riding high on the sunburns of the shiny Philly sky, the Panther Cycling Team utters a groan of panic and discontent as spring break comes to a close, realizing that little or no work has been done over the stretch of the first two races of the season. Next week brings them to the big apple for a crit at Columbia Saturday followed by another crit at Princeton on Sunday.