Gopher Cycling Blog

The U of M scored another podium finish last night with Ben R riding into 4th place again, at 1:10.1min. Although this time, like the pursuit time earlier in the day, would have secured a solid second place finish last year, it was not fast enough this year to break Penn State's domination, which filled out the top three spots, with Bobby Lea in gold, Mike Friedman in silver, and Andy Lakatosh in bronze. This being their hometown event, the boys obviously want to show everyone whose house they are in.

The rest of the U of M team put in strong performances as well, each rider setting personal best times on a track that is actually slower than our home track. Michael S rode into 36th place with a time of 1:16.0min, and Andrew T and Eric S came in back to back in 45th and 46th place with times of 1:16.8min and 1:17.9min, respectively, in a field of 57 riders.

This morning we are sitting around the track and waiting for the rain to subside and the track to dry up so Michael and Satoshi can compete in the flying 200m to qualify for the match sprint, which will be held right after the qualification. If and when that happens, the match sprint will be run all the way to the finals to avoid a rainout tonight. Let's hope the points race and team pursuit will not need to be cancelled, but with the remnants of hurricane Ivan heading this way there is some doubt about that.

Stay posted. . .