2008 Woodie Awards
Union mountain bike team claims third in eight hour endurance race
Steve Hopengarten
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Sports
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The Union College mountain bike team ventured to Ashford, CT this past weekend for an 8 hour endurance race hosted by the University of Connecticut.
The Union team had a rough start with heavy rains making the many rocks and roots slippery on the already technical 4.7 mile course. With the relay starting with Club President Steven Hopengarten '09, the Union team did well through six laps.
On his second lap Forrest Clifton '10 suffered a broken chain. Brendan Truscott '10 also was slowed down with an injury to his right wrist on his second lap.
Later in the day the weather began to clear and made the course more manageable; however Union began to lose time to the University of Vermont who was leading the 3-person relay category.
Union kept up solid lap times continuing into the sixth hour, when Brendan Truscott could no longer race and Steven Hopengarten did two laps to make up for Truscott. Forrest Clifton continued to have bike troubles, but kept his lap times around 32 minutes.
Eventually after 7 hours and 52 minutes of racing the Union Team completed 14 laps, 2 laps behind the University of Vermont and just 11 minutes behind the University of Massachusetts. Union beat the University of Connecticut, and Kutztown University by a lap.
This was the second week of racing for the Union Mountain biking team this season. Last weekend Steven Hopengarten claimed a 16th in Men's B cross country and two 3rd place finishes in Men's C downhill races, at Lehigh University bringing Union to 6th overall in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference.
Next week Union Cycling heads to the University of Massachusetts for 4 races. For more info on Union College Cycling visit http://www.vu.union.edu/~cycling/.
The Union team had a rough start with heavy rains making the many rocks and roots slippery on the already technical 4.7 mile course. With the relay starting with Club President Steven Hopengarten '09, the Union team did well through six laps.
On his second lap Forrest Clifton '10 suffered a broken chain. Brendan Truscott '10 also was slowed down with an injury to his right wrist on his second lap.
Later in the day the weather began to clear and made the course more manageable; however Union began to lose time to the University of Vermont who was leading the 3-person relay category.
Union kept up solid lap times continuing into the sixth hour, when Brendan Truscott could no longer race and Steven Hopengarten did two laps to make up for Truscott. Forrest Clifton continued to have bike troubles, but kept his lap times around 32 minutes.
Eventually after 7 hours and 52 minutes of racing the Union Team completed 14 laps, 2 laps behind the University of Vermont and just 11 minutes behind the University of Massachusetts. Union beat the University of Connecticut, and Kutztown University by a lap.
This was the second week of racing for the Union Mountain biking team this season. Last weekend Steven Hopengarten claimed a 16th in Men's B cross country and two 3rd place finishes in Men's C downhill races, at Lehigh University bringing Union to 6th overall in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference.
Next week Union Cycling heads to the University of Massachusetts for 4 races. For more info on Union College Cycling visit http://www.vu.union.edu/~cycling/.
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