Day 3 (5/11) - Road Race

The road race went off Saturday afternoon and with 75 humid, rolling miles in store, the nerves were high. All season Duncan has been dominant, so we all converged to ride in support of him. The race started fast but after only three miles it exploded. Two guys overlapped wheels doing 30mph and took out half the field. The sound was excruciating, I stayed upright and turned around to assess damages. Frank and Rupert were alright, but Duncan went down hard. His bars and frame were turned around, and the tears in his kit already filled with blood. But in the spirit of bike racing, Duncan got a neutral bike and jumped back in. He pushed through the next three laps with Frank and Rupert. They worked hard to position themselves at the base of the finishing climb and were in a good spot. The breakaway had been caught just in time by CU Boulder- this will all come down to the last 1km pitch to the finish. The pace was brutal, and the drain from racing torn up left Duncan without his usual finishing punch. He still rode hard for a 13th place finish, and Frank was able to ride to a top 20 in his first ever collegiate nationals road race. Two phenomenal results we were very proud of! Redemption from yesterday. We made our way to the closest Waffle House to celebrate.

Day 4 (5/12) - Criterium

The rain began Saturday night and we donned our rain jackets and rode to the criterium Sunday morning. The technical downtown course was wet and littered with potholes and manhole covers. Eyes darted nervously on the start line of the slip 'n slide course. We all knew what was at stake, and the anxious grumbling told the story. Glory, pain, road rash, disappointment. Everyone is promised one- but some find more. Two laps in and Duncan slides out just five wheels ahead of me. Some guys go down too but he jumps back to his feet and quickly rushes back in the pack. His luck was terrible this weekend, but Duncan’s drive is admirable. He rode hard, but the toll was obvious. He, and the rest of us, were caught as the break containing three pros started to lap us. Sadly, this was the end of Nationals for us, but we all had a ton of fun running around Augusta hunting for internal glory somewhere in the background. Many lessons were learned, laughs were had, and three of us had Cracker Barrel for the first time. We look forward to next year, but for now, are very grateful for all of your support!

This journey would not have been possible without your help. We're already looking forward to returning to Georgia in 2020 and bettering our results. Thank you!

Day 1 (5/09) - Travel

Travelling as a team is always better than alone. Ethan’s perpetual optimism woke us early and Duncan brought homemade cinnamon rolls to quell the early morning hunger. I (Evan) was stopped by the TSA twice, but other than that, our travel was highlighted by a complete lack of hiccups. We drove the TTT course in Fort Gordon. It rolls endlessly and was longer than anything we’d seen before. Fried food for dinner and an early start the following day- it’s time for bed. Pain awaits.

Day 2 (5/10) - Team Time Trial

Team time trials are inherently hard. Predisposed- we as racers are supposed to dig ourselves as deep as possible to win. Sometimes that pit reaches glory. Sometimes it doesn’t. This year we’d raced well in TTT’s. We won the conference men's A title two weeks back and were optimistic to repeat our third place at last years nationals. But the four-person squad we brought this year had never raced together. We were ready, and we were strong, but what we weren’t yesterday was smooth- and inherently- smooth is fast. The holes we all dug were deep. Frank pulled off around the 20km mark breathing so heavily the sound of his lungs was stronger than the wind. And as we rolled into the finish it was obvious he was going to be the weakest link up the climb. “DIE DIE DIE” I yelled from the back. Frank peeled off after a massive pull and Duncan, Rupert, and I suffered as a trio to the finish. We had some hiccups but still rolled fast. Finding ourselves as seventh on the leaderboard hurt. We weren’t happy and looked for redemption the next day.

Massive thank you to our sponsors for helping us get here. We're looking forward to the next two days of racing!

Hi all,

We are less than 24hrs from completing our campaign. Thank you to all that have donated; because of you, we've raised over $5,000 and are well on our way to achieving our goals!

We could still use your help in spreading the word and sharing our campaign! spark.ucla.edu/cycling.

Find results and other crucial and exciting team updates on our Facebook group.

We can't wait to keep you updated on our expedition to Georgia.

Sincerely,

Rupert & Ethan

Hi all,

Thank you all for donating to our campaign! 

Our team has been training (and studying) hard the past couple of weeks. We recently travelled to Reno, NV and had our team take wins in the team time trial, road race, and criterium! With that said, the season's not over yet. We have conference championships in Santa Barbara this weekend. Show your support for your Bruin cyclists by spreading the word about this campaign where we'll be sharing results from the weekend.

Make sure you never miss another update by opting into our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gi0R7X 

And be sure to follow us on social media

Like our Facebook Page! <https://www.facebook.com/UCLAcycling/?fref=ts>

https://www.instagram.com/uclacycling/

Be on the lookout for more exciting news from us soon!

Thanks,

Rupert & Ethan

Dear Donors,

Firstly, we want to thank you for your generosity and support of our cause! Your donation will truly help this team achieve its long and short-term goals. We have raised just over $2,600 for our campaign, which puts us at 37% to our $7,000 goal. There are just over two weeks left to donate!

With two weeks left in our regular season schedule as well, we wanted to update you on our results and experiences from this season. You can find race reports at our WEBSITE and results on our SCHEDULE.

The Western Collegiate Cycling Conference race season began with  our home race, UCLA Road Race, on February 23rd, where we had 300 racers from up and down California. Our racers landed several podiums, including: 2nd in Men’s A, 1st and 3rd in Men’s C, 1st and 2nd in Men’s D. 

As we moved onto the USC Race Weekend, we were met with more success and took the conference team omnium lead (the team omnium is a season-long scoring system that ranks the top-performing teams in our WCCC conference, and the top team earns a trophy and bragging rights until next year).

Next up was UC Davis as we headed into spring break: a sprinter’s delight of a weekend since there was not a singular foot of climbing, with Alan Kwok winning the Men’s C criterium, Bruce Tsai winning the Men’s D circuit, and our women winning the Women’s B Team time Trial! Our men and women remained on the conference podium in second place, while securing yet again several top three spots. We maintained our consistency and second place overall at hilly UC Santa Cruz on April 6th and 7th and Rose Rao won her Women’s C race! 

This past weekend, 16 (yes, you read that right) of our riders trekked out to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, where Cal Poly hosted the collegiate categories. It was an epic showing and we raced around the Laguna Seca Race Course to secure multiple third places, and a handful of second place results.  

Clearly, consistency has been the name of the game for us this year, and we hope to keep it up and make you all proud!

Please follow our Instagram and Facebook pages to stay up-to-date on our latest adventures and races. Next up, we have Reno and Conference Championships at UC Santa Barbara!

Thank you for your ongoing support.

- UCLA Cycling and SPARK Campaign Project Leaders