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