Tri-State Velo

Midwest Conference Regional Championships were heldthis weekend and boy did Marian College clean up. Itall started with the Team Time Trial in which we won.It was pretty wild, we showed up to the line about aminute and a half before our start, not really knowingwhat was going on and not having talked to each otherbefore the thing started. Nevertheless when the TimeTrial started we all got relatively organized and laideverything we had down on the road. It was a goodeffort and it showed from the results.Following the Team Time Trial was the Regional Critlater that day. The weather was less than perfect, inthe low 40's and occasional sleet during the race.The race got off well, Marian kept the pressure on allday sending riders off the front left and right. Assoon as one of us would get caught another wouldattack. I was able to pick up a first place prime inone of these silly attacks and finally one attack gotoff and stuck. It was ideal, we had 2 guys JakeRytewski and Jon Swain represented in the group of 4.After that we shut down the peliton and the breakawayjust about lapped the field. In the end we took 2nd,4th and I finished up 11th. The Next day was the road race, a rolling circuit with2 steep short climbs each lap. The race got off to abad start with a Ohio State rider and an IU rider offthe front and nobody represented. We tried to pullthem back but with two strong teams in the break wewern't getting any help. Finally Jake attacked alongwith a couple of other riders and they came within 30seconds of the break before the race was over. I wonthe field sprint up the hill finishing 7th on the day.In the end it was a good season, I beleive I ended up5th place overall in the conference and the teamfinished 3rd behind two teams that easily hadquadruple the number of riders that we had. Anyway,Collegiate Nationals are coming up and the team andmyself are looking foward to going to Kansas May 10.Anyway... Keep the rubber side down. Hope everyone onthe East Coast is doing just Dandy.PeaceJon Royal