Sports

Garnet cyclists brave elements for top performances

In print | April 7, 2005

Forget Lance, we’ve got Lang.

As in Lang Reynolds ‘05, one of the members of Swarthmore’s wildly successful cycling club.

You didn’t know that the Garnet had a cycling club, did you?

You should, especially considering the way the team ripped its way through opposing riders and adverse weather conditions last weekend like the hulk in a pair of skin-tight biking shorts. The club competes in Division II in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference with a season from early March until May. With a couple veteran cyclists and a few more promising rookies, the Tide has made an impressive showing in competition this season. Events involve three types of races: road races, which consist of several laps along a long, often hilly loop; criteriums, which are shorter, faster races with many laps along a short circuit; and time trials, in which racers ride either as a team or individually over a long distance against the clock.

Every race has its own tactics. “The aerodynamic and metabolic concerns of high-speed locomotion make drafting behind other riders critical, leading to a high degree of tactical difficulty and danger,” Reynolds said of the punishing sport.

The squad competed for the first time at the Princeton Orange Criterium on Mar. 20 in New Jersey, but the team saw a real breakthrough in the second race of the season at the Lehigh University Mountaintop Criterium on Mar. 27. Jon Shoop ’08 pushed R1 for turbo mode, finishing in sixth place — unreal for a new rider.

“The race at Lehigh was a lot of fun,” Duncan Gromko ‘07 said. "I think that Shoop, Mickey [Katz ’08] and I have a lot to learn about race strategy, but we’re also learning fast." Just as important as physical endurance, race strategy is essential to any win; cyclists in packs are only inches away from each other going 30 miles per hour around corners through the rain. “It’s sort of like a combination of long-distance running and NASCAR driving,” Reynolds said. As in auto racing, drafting behind other racers is another essential strategy in the effort to maximize speed.

While most other squads rested indoors during last weekend’s torrential rain, four Swarthmore cyclists braved the weather and competed in the Tour de Centre County, hosted by Penn State. Shoop and Katz raced in the D category, while Jim Kreft ‘06 and Reynolds contended in the B category, the Conference’s second-highest skill level.

The duos combined on Saturday to compete in a four-man team time trial. The men covered the 3.8-mile course in 10 minutes, 18 seconds, quick enough for sixth place despite a Shoop crash with one mile to go. The Tide’s result was even more impressive considering the team — with two rookies — beat Cornell and other Division I schools to the finish line. Later, in the afternoon’s 30-mile circuit race, Kreft turned the heat on the frigid countryside and scorched his way to 11th place.

Sunday’s races provided even worse conditions, but even “Day After Tomorrow”-esque weather patterns couldn’t stop the Garnet cycling machine. Reynolds dominated the competition with a first place finish in the 2.8-mile individual time trial. “I just tried to go out really hard because I knew the start would be crucial in such a short race,” Reynolds said. “I was dying by the end but I held on.”

The squad finished the weekend 20th in the team standings. “Considering the fact that we had only four riders, compared to most other teams who have 20-30 riders, this [result] is really quite good,” Reynolds said. The team’s rapid development bodes well for upcoming races, like the Army Spring Classic, held at West Point on Apr. 16. In fact, Kreft and Reynolds are planning to move to the top-tier A division soon.

Lance Armstrong may have popularized the sport in America, but the Tide’s cyclists are showing that he’s not the only one who can perform in a skin-tight outfit.