Cycling Club Hosts Weybridge Road Race

The Middlebury Cycling Club hosted its first Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) race in recent history, with over 200 cyclists from schools around the Northeast descending upon the Champlain Valley for a day of racing along Vermont’s picturesque country roads. This race was the second in a weekend of two races called L’Enfer du Nord; the Weybridge Road Race hosted by Middlebury followed the Dartmouth Frat Row Criterium and the Bridge to Ridge ITT. The Middlebury course consisted of a 14-mile loop with 1,000 feet of climbing per lap; cyclists raced through the towns of Middlebury, Cornwall, Weybridge and New Haven. Races ranged in distance from 73 miles (Men’s A) to 31 miles (Women’s C/D).

Middlebury placed eighth in the ECC’s overall rankings, behind the University of Vermont. The team was led by Will Greene ’19 placing 30th in the Men’s A race (completing the 73 miles in 3:26:03) and Katie Aman ’19 placing second in the Women’s A, with a time of 3:24:38 over the 59-mile course. Following the club’s two leaders, Virginie Caspard placed first in the Women’s B, Warren Galloway placed 27th in the Men’s C and Camryn Kluetmeier ’21.5 placed fourth in the Women’s C. Eight other Middlebury cyclists rounded out the pack.

Ben Glass ’20.5, one of the event’s organizers and a member of the Cycling Club, described the hard work put into the race — getting town permits, soliciting the assistance of the Addison County Sheriff and Middlebury Regional EMS, gathering volunteers and setting up the course. “Because we had never done anything like this before, we were basically building everything from the ground up,” he said.

Glass was impressed with the team’s results. “In general, we’ve had a lot of good results this season, which is why we’re floating at the top of the leaderboards. And that’s with cycling giants like Queen’s and MIT, who basically have a monopoly over the league standings, just by pure numbers and talent,” he said.

Aman, the club’s president, hopes to make a Middlebury-hosted road race a tradition. “Everyone stepped up to both pitch in with volunteering efforts and stepping up in their individual races,” she said. “Both during and after the event, we received many great compliments from other teams on how fantastic our course was for the race.”

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