Cycling team wins conference
Team gears up to compete at national meet in N.C.
Kristine Fong
The MIT cycling team clinched the Division II Omnium in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) road season that concluded with the conference championships held on April 25–26. Jen Wilson G (3rd in Women’s A), Emma Edwards G (2nd in Women’s B), Julie van der Hoop G (3rd in Women’s B), and Philip Kreycik G (3rd in Men’s C) earned individual honors. The cycling team will compete in the National Championships to be held in Asheville, North Carolina, on the coming weekend.
Though the cycling road season officially gets underway in March, the team began preparing in November. “We start with low intensity-high volume and then pick up the intensity of training as the season approaches,” Wilson explained. To get away from the harsh winter, the team attended a training camp in Solvang, California, over IAP to gear up for the season.
The road season consists of three different kinds of races: road race, criterium, and time trial. The time trial event involves a lot of strategy where a team of four are racing simultaneously against the clock. Traditionally MIT teams have performed their best in the time trial, demonstrating dexterity in switching out the leader of the pack to conserve energy as well as donning carefully designed gear to combat the wind.