ECCC RPI - Tour de Troy

The inaugural RPI Tour de Troy was a resounding success for McGill Cycling. In what is likely to be the biggest race weekend of the season, McGill sent almost 20 riders to show the Americans how it’s done in Canada. The team fought its way to a fifth place ranking at the end of the weekend, beating top cycling teams like the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont. Along the way, the team earned praise for its determination, grit, and it’s spectacular tie-died knee-warmers. A highlight of the weekend was hearing McGill heralded as “the great red powerhouse of the north” over the PA during Sunday’s criterium.
The weekend started off to a chilly start with an 8 km out-and-back time trial, held on beautiful country roads near Troy, New York. The course offered little distraction from the unique suffering of an individual time trial: it was flat as a pancake, and a gentle headwind on the way out seemed to disappear as soon as you turn around. Though the temperature was solidly below zero, McGill Cycling warmed things up quickly with an impressive 4th place finish by Brandon Tulloch in the Men’s A field. McGill also had four other top-ten time trial finishes: Dennis Cottreau in Men’s B; Ruth McLean, moving up to Women’s B; and Eric Burge and Josef Freundorfer in Men’s C. To top it off, first time racer Valina Sintay took home the gold in the Women’s Intro category.

Immediately following the Time Trial was the fabulous road race, run around a 12 km loop. The loop had a little something for everyone, from flat winding roads, to rough descents, to a windy straight along the river; but the main feature on the course was a steep short climb immediately preceding the slightly uphill finishing straight. It was a course seemingly made for breakaways: in both the highly competitive Men’s A and Men’s B fields, it would be a small select group fighting it out in the end for top-ten finishes. Demonstrating that the team possesses race smarts in addition to pure power, McGill managed to get a man in both of the winning breaks. Brandon Tulloch dug deep and pulled through with 9th place in Men’s A; while Dennis Cottreau overcame a slipping seatpost to finish 7th in the Men’s B field.
Equally impressive was the determination shown by Ruth Mclean and Veronica Wheeler in the combined Women’s A/B road race. Despite an aggressive pace and a heavily fractured pack, both ladies stuck it out to the very end, earning McGill a 5th place finish in Women’s A for Veronica, and a 7th place finish in women’s B for Ruth. Valina Sintay clearly showed that she was ready to move up a category by dropping the Women’s Intro pack right off the line, and staying away until the very end.

After a good night’s sleep, the team packed up their bags and drove to downtown Troy for Sunday’s criterium. Though unforeseen complications meant that the planned nine corners had to be reduced to seven, the course was easily still one of the nicest seen in the entire ECCC. Clearly the organizers had the full support of the city hall, as the race was located in a beautiful historic downtown area. The pavement was smooth and well swept, and the corners were somehow the perfect mix of confidence-inspiring and thrilling. The top results for McGill came from David Fleischer, who placed third in Men’s D; and Dennis Cottreau, who placed 7th yet again in the Men’s B field. Ruth Mclean took third in Women’s B, in addition to placing in each and every intermediate sprint. Despite packing the field, McGill Cycling’s C men showed an unfortunate lack of team work, with Eric Burge, Jocelyn Berteaud, and Adrien McCosker going across the line at almost exactly the same time (11th, 13th and 14th respectively).

Several other Canadian Schools were represented this weekend at the Tour de Troy. From the Montreal area, there were riders representing the Université de Montreal and UQAM; and from Ontario there were riders representing Queen’s university and the brand new University of Waterloo team. The increased Canadian presence at these races is undoubtedly the first step towards the formation of a proper Canadian Collegiate Cycling league; and McGill Cycling looks forward to competing against an even greater number of fellow Canadians in the future.

McGill Cycling owes special thanks to all of our sponsers, in particular Cycle Technique for the bike rack and their continued support throughout the year. In addition, the team would like to thank Jonathon Villemaire-Krajden for taking amazing photographs of the weekend (which can be viewed here) and Brandon Tulloch for his faultless organizational abilities.
Full results can be found at http://www.velocityresults.net/results/