CU cyclists Taylor Jung, Jamie Scotto, Jimmy Walter and Clay Albracht compete in the team time trial. Bottom: Metro cyclist Ian Stanford fights for position, sprinting toward the finish.

Left: Metro Cycling club president Ben Stein climbs toward the road race finish April 29 in Laramie, Wyo.

   The Metro cycling team finished its inaugural season April 29-30 in Laramie, Wyo., amid freezing temperatures exacerbated by brisk winds and falling snow.

   The University of Wyoming hosted the event that included the conference championships.

   The event included a road race, team time trial and criterium—a closed course circuit race—through downtown Laramie.

   The road race started at 8 a.m. on Saturday in the Tie City Parking Grounds off Happy Jack Road.

   The Men’s A Class race started, when they headed west for the 36-kilometer leg of their race. They raced a total of 101 km and climbed 3,660 feet, while the other classes, Women’s A and B and Men’s B and C, raced 65 km with less elevation. All the races were an out-and-back, finishing where they started, The rolling terrain was made more difficult,
even as temperatures rose into the mid-30s, by winds blowing at 22 mph, gusting to 35 mph.

   “The wind is the worst thing you can face on a bike,” Metro rider Cory Davis said. “I can handle hills; I am not afraid to ride up a hill, but the wind, it’s just horrible.”

   The wind blew across the road, packing the groups of riders close together causing several crashes.

   After over two hours of racing, the Men’s A race finished with a quarter mile sprint, won by a breakaway pack, led by University of Colorado at Boulder rider Christopher Stockburger. Colorado State University rider Patrick McGlynn finished second, followed by Colorado College’s Josh Gerwitz.

   Metro rider Ian Stanford finished seventh and later said he barely missed the chance to get into the breakaway.

   In the Men’s B, Metro rider and club President Ben Stein stayed with the pack throughout the day and finished 17th.

   Stein’s game plan was to ride in the back of the pack, conserving energy, drafting off the fellow riders, while watching the breaks take off. A crash during the first climb disrupted
his plan, as the peloton—the French name for the field of riders—broke apart around the melee.

   The front of the group took the opportunity of the crash to create a break. Stein had to play catch-up all day long.

   “I was able to catch a lot of guys going from 30th to 17th,” Stein said. “I pulled the group a lot trying to chase the pack. I did a lot of pulling and I know I was making guys hurt. It made me feel good to do that to some guys.”

   “I think that when they dropped me on the first climb, it was over from there.” Stein said. “I needed to hang with them. If I could have hung with them, I would have been there in the top 10.”

   Riding in the Men’s C for Metro was Cory Davis, whose fight with the wind and the course took its toll. He dropped out with about five miles to go after he had lost touch with the pack he was riding in.

   “The pack started to get strung out through the first climb and I stuck with it,” Davis said. “Once we got to the second climb … that was where I started to burn out. (During the climb) it starts to string out a little bit and the wind hits you and it’s kinda like putting on the brakes or a parachute.”

   Davis fell off the pack and caught another group of riders, but couldn’t maintain consistent contact and after being dropped, he saw the team car and called it a day.
   “Bridging the gap was the most painful thing you can imagine,” Davis said.

   Later in the afternoon, CU and CSU dominated the team time trails. In the Men’s A, CU managed to ride 12 miles in 30:48, followed by CSU, which was 25 seconds off the pace. Because it was a team event, Metro was unable to participate due to a lack of riders.
Sunday began with another cold morning, but the weather became warmer as the racing action got hotter.

   The course, a little over two miles, was a series of two straightaways, with a short straightaway to the north, and four turns to the south with no straightaway. The riders did laps until the time limit for each event was reached.

   Metro fielded Davis in the Men’s C, Stein in Men’s B and Stanford in Men’s A Davis was a non-factor in his race as he sat back in the pack and didn’t mount any attacks.

   Stein’s race saw an attack led by CU’s Clay Albracht with help from teammate Taylor Jung, who tried to keep the pace of the chasing pack down as Albracht created distance. CSU let them go for a while before taking the lead in the pack to increase the tempo. Albracht was later caught by the pack and finished 13th.

   Stein rode with the chasing group for much of the event. Just as they came around the final series of corners, not all the riders held their line and the swerving caused CSU’s Chris Colley to crash, break his handlebar and take Stein down with him. It was Stein’s only crash of the year.

   As the skies cleared and the sun came out, the Men’s A race was set to begin. CU’s Adam Blaanchard and Brad Bingham sprinted from the start, creating a gap from the beginning. CSU’s Tim Doud didn’t hold back as he sprinted into the group. The breakaway was out in front for more than an hour of the 75-minute event. The pace set by the breakaway strung out the field and dropped many riders.

    Stanford took the lead of the chase group several times, trying to force the guys to catch the break.

   The chase group finally started making some headway, and at the 10-minute mark they were only eight seconds behind. The breakaway had been as much as 45-seconds ahead.

   In the backstretch, the chase group was about to make contact with the break when Stockburger attacked and slipped away from both group.

   Stockburger kept up the attack through the final corners and sprinted to the win on the straightaway. Stanford finished in fifth place.