For ECCC or team news, you can head to my personal blog, VeloQuips, or Becca Gripp’s blog.

There are 4 disciplines that collegiate cycling covers: Road, Mountain, Cyclocross, and Track. The Collegiate road season is in March and April, Mountain and Track cycling run concurrently in September and October, and Cyclocross runs October-January. Currently, we only have one (nationally-ranked) mountain bike racer and everyone else falls under the “Road” discipline.

During the season, club cycling acts as a team in that there are people racing every weekend. However during the Fall semester, club cycling is more of a club in that most people are going out to ride to have fun and maintain fitness. This is a great time for new students and new cyclists to come and join group rides, meet members of the team, develop bike handling skills and start building fitness. If you have any questions please stop by our table at the Fall Activities Night on Tuesday 5-8pm or send me an email at steven.w.francisco@gmail.com.

We use an email list to update the team internally as well as a facebook group for ride, social, and gear sales notifications. Shoot me an email to join the email list and add me on facebook to join the facebook group.

We ordered a few extra jerseys, but many people have contacted me about getting jerseys so it’s possible that we may not have enough extras to accomodate everyone who contacts me before we make our next order.

Our next order will be for BOTH jerseys and shorts/bibs and will take place in late October (with delivery in early 2013). I will post more on this in a month, but if you’d like to add your name to my email list, just shoot me an email at steven.w.francisco@gmail.com.

Frank Lao, UD Alumnus, upgrades to Cat 3

Frank raced with us this past collegiate season and with his results from the past year he accumulated enough points to join myself, Eran and André in Cat 3. Go Frank!

Eran Preble takes Win #2 of the Season

At the Grandview Gran Prix, Eran and I animated the Cat 3 race with a number of attacks. With just one turn to go, two riders jumped and Eran was able to catch the wheel and ended up launching a sprint from pretty far out, barely holding on such that it was a photo-finish.

Turkey Hill Country Classic

This race turned out to be pretty disappointing for current members of the team – but great for alumni. André flatted, Andy was caught behind some nonsense and I botched my sprint pretty poorly and ended up pretty far down on the finishing sheet in the 3/4 race. UD alumni Clint Dager took 10th in the 3/4 race and Rob Furr took 6th in the 4/5 race, thoroughly trouncing us in the results department. Congrats to them!

Smoketown Airport Criterium

Becca, Will, André and I made the trip up to an airport to race around on the smooth tarmac. Will finished 30th in a huge field in the 4/5 race and joined me and André in the 3/4 race. There, André spent most of the race off the front, then nearly got pushed over in the sprint, resulting in a crash that forced me to engage in some cyclocross action. Becca got a rude introduction to the USAC scene when race organizers lumped the women’s 3/4 and 1/2/3 fields together.

André and I then made our debut into the 1/2/3 field. We both missed the big break and while André was a big aggressor in the main field, I was just barely avoiding getting dropped. We both settled for mid-pack finishes after an incredibly grueling 75 minutes.

Wilmington Grand Prix

The premier cycling event in the area proved to be a tough test for University of Delaware riders, with André getting caught behind a crash and having to settle for 39th of 72. Andrew Baker was dropped from a very competitive Cat 4 field, but managed to finish in a placing position, 16th, just ahead of Delaware alumnus Rob Furr.

Race Avenue Criterium

André and I drove up to downtown Lancaster to enjoy the awesome race course at Race Avenue. The 3/4 was our first race of the day where André found himself in his customary position: off the front. He ended up finishing 3rd out of 9-man breakaway. After many bridge attempts, I eventually got in a small chase group with a handful of laps to go only to be caught 200m from the finish, coming in 19th.

The 1/2/3 was a much more exciting affair with a relatively small field. André spent a lot of time attacking and managed to get away a few times, but the field brought most everything back together. With less than a dozen laps to go, the field fragmented into three groups and André and I were unfortunately in the third group. I finally made a mark on the race by helping bring everything back together. By the finish, everyone was pretty gassed and I “sprinted” for 11th while André finished at the back of the finishers for 16th. Surprisingly, there were around double than number of starters, if that is any indication of the difficulty.

Tuesday Night Race Series

Frank Lao has been tearing up the 3/4 mid-week criteriums, representing his home club, Mineola Bike Club. He’s finished 3rd, 7th, and 12th so far in the series.

Stay tuned for more updates as the summer racing season progresses!

For those that have already placed orders, thank you for your patience, and the orders should be shipped in 2-3 weeks.

It will likely be another couple months before we place another order. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at steven.w.francisco@gmail.com.

Formerly known as “SanFran”, then as “That Awesome Kid on a Bicycle,” then as “Club Irritant,” Steven Francisco (me!!) has taken on the mantle of Secretary. Rounding out the field is William Hoff as Treasurer, coming up clutch after just one season of bike racing.

We would like to thank the officers of this past year (Alex Szela, Jacob Rubin, Eran Preble, and Andy Walker) for their dedication to the team and for setting up the team for success!