Bucknell Cycling

Lights out- Columbia/Stevens Race Weekend 4/

For the second race weekend of the season, Bucknell Cycling headed up to Grant’s Tomb in NYC on Saturday March 13th. Despite the flood warnings and white caps on the Hudson river, Bucknell Cyclists took to the road for the criterium. Paul Straton (‘87), braved the conditions to come cheer us on as we tackled the brutal winds! Even with such terrible weather, team morale was high and everyone raced rather well.

Immediately after the Crit, we all piled into cars and raced to teammate Gil Ehrlich’s home to get warm and dry. While some team members hopped in to take their showers, others were in the garage unloading and cleaning bikes. Suddenly a massive tree uprooted down the street and crashed into an electrical pole causing the transformer to explode. Dan Wood (a team alumni who was racing in USCF categories with us that weekend) watched his Electrical Engineer dreams come true as he watched the sparks fly. Everyone else shuddered as the lights went out. Showers were reduced to 2 min to save hot water, and clothes were taken to dry at a laundromat. The laundromat went out of power and the clothes were returned home sopping wet. Thankfully, the pizza place we had ordered from didn’t go out of power until after our pizzas had been fully cooked. Mrs. Ehrlich raced around the house to find as many blankets and candles as possible. We spent the remainder of the evening bundled up, cuddling in the Ehrlich living room, sharing stories and listening to teammate Scott Henry sing and play guitar in the flickering candlelight.

In the morning, we awoke to find another electrical pole and transformer had fallen in the night… within inches of our cars. We were quite impressed with our luck and figured someone up there must like us. Scott Henry, quoting his favorite movie Blues Brothers, immediately exclaimed: “Bucknell Cycling: We’re on a mission from God.” The Stevens Crit in FDR park proved to be quite a bit drier than Saturday, but not without a drizzle here and there. Both days results are posted here:

Columbia: http://www.velocityresults.net/results/247/eccc-week-2-columbia-university-new-york-ny

Stevens: http://www.velocityresults.net/results/248/eccc-week-2-stevens-institute-yorktown-heights-ny 

 

A special thanks to the Ehrlich Family for being such awesome hosts on such a crazy weekend!

~Sinead

Photos by Rebekah Morris and Jeff Salvitti

CANADA ( a true intiation test this year)

So about a month or so ago we held our annual BU cycling initiation for all new members. This tradition was created 4 or 5 years ago I believe by the team. So the basic jist of the Canada is new members embark on a 45 mile ride from campus all the way to “Canada” or Canada road, the home of Papa K ( Gary Kahlar), the team’s undisputed #1 supporter. Along the way the new members must fulfill a number of tasks including changing flats, being taunted by Aaron Cravez in a bikini, safely carrying a dozen eggs to the finish, climbing Jacks Mnt. and much more. This year had quite a twist though as they had to do this during a freak snow covered weekend ( if your in the Northeast then you know about that weird weekend in October we had when it snowed a good bit). The ride took them about 4hrs in 40 degress and rain. But in the end they got a good meal and celebration at Papa Ks so it was  complete success. Here are some pictures of the weekend

This was what they had to ride in

Papa K, as usual, provided the chili and corn bread

Welcome to Bucknell Cycling

So in grand cycling fashion, this is the Bucknell University cycling blog. Please check in often to see what the team is up as we progress through the school year and even more importantly toward the racing season this March.

So far this has been an exceptional year for Bison cycling. We have recruited over 10 new members for the 2010 season, which is quick approaching. So far we have has some great team events such as new member intitiaion ( Canada) and of course our Halloween Friday ride  

I also would like to mention some of our returning and new sponsors

-The Grimes Group: www.grimes-group.com

-Sun Orthopedic: Sunortho.com

-Yorktown Cycles: yorktowncycles.com

- and a few more to be announced soon

Keep posted for well… more posts. Thanks