Gopher Cycling Blog

The Sun Devil Criterium marked the first criterium race of the season in the South West Collegiate Cycling Conference. The field was small with only thirteen starters, which encompassed the Men's A and B field, as well as the Women's field. One woman, actually.

The epic battle that was to be this 35-minute criterium was started off with a blast by Mike Dietrich, who went hard off the gun, immediately splitting the field into two groups. A lead group of four crystallized, including Mike and David of the University of Arizona, an Arizona State University rider, and the U of M's Ben R. A Gopher was a highly unusual sight in the field that was dominated by Arizona school, that in fact would have consisted of only Arizona schools, had it not been for the Gopher. The lead group rode at a brisk pace for some time and through the first prime, which was taken by Mike, after a lead out from Ben. Soon after, the attack came from David, who was, predictably, caught. This was followed by an immediate, stronger attack from Mike, that could only be answered by Ben. The duo quickly settled into a rhythm that left a considerable advantage on the main field, which had been lapped right at the point of David's attack.

One last prime was preceded by an attempted attack by Mike, which was countered by Ben, who also took the prime. On the final lap, Mike and Ben decided to drag race for the finish, which is always an extremely fair way of deciding a race between two racers. No tactics, just side-by-side riding, may the stronger win. Ben turned out to have the stronger sprint, spinning in a relatively low gear at high cadence, which prompted the post-race comment from fellow track racer Joshua Ryan: "Ben, road bikes have gears, you know?"

Fair enough. But if spinning gets the job done, why shift? One is much less likely to mis-spin than to mis-shift. Anyway, the win went to Ben, who won three Clif Bars and an extraordinary trophy in his first race of the season:

The beginning of a streak for the Golden Gophers?

Stay posted. . .