Update from Ben - UW Cycling

This is an update from Ben who is riding for UW Madison again this fall where he races A's (top collegiate level). What he doesn't tell you in his report is that 6 of them packed in a minivan with 6 bikes, and 6 of them stayed in 1 hotel room with 1 bed=)

Ben: Just raced at mizzou this weekend. It was pretty fun. the course was really rocky and technical but there were no sustained climbs really, just short steep ones. Anyways, the xc started pretty fast and I settled in at the tail of fast guys from Lindsey Wilson College in kentucky(they have a varsity level cycling program) and one fast non-collegiate dude from st.louis (this particular race was open to the public). The first lap of five was pretty fast but I was very comfortable, and I felt the pace was just a little too slow so as we entered the start finish area at the beginning of the second lap I attacked. soon I found myself in the lead. I began going really hard and I soon dropped everyone. For the next three laps I kept a steady fast tempo and was able to avoid cramping, flatting and crashing. No one was ever able to catch me and I won by about 2 min. It felt good to win.
After the race we were all pretty tired and hungry so we hit up Great Wall SuperBuffet before lounging around for the remainder of the night. Sunday brought the short track race it was basically a really steep climb followed by a really technical descent followed by a short flat section before starting the loop over. Lots of climbing meant I could potentially put the hurt on some flat-lander roadies. The start for the race was fast and again I latched on to the lindsey wilson train as my legs were tired. some of the riders from our 5 man group began to drop due to the tempo until it was me and this dude mike from lindsey wilson. He was hammering and I was having trouble keeping his wheel on the climb, but I just kept a good steady pace and started to feel stronger on the climb as the race went on. Then finally less than half way into the 30 min race I was able to bridge the gap. We road together for one more lap, then I dropped him on the climb. In the following lap I began to lap people until eventually I had lapped everyone in the field at least once, even the dude that was dropping me at the the beginning. In the end I won the race be a entire lap and a half over second place. That one felt good too. With two victories in a weekend, i'd say thats a good result for UW cycling and Velo Rochester!
Yes, that is Ben in half UW and half Velo Rochester taking the win!