SWCCC & WCCC Dual Conference Weekend - by A. Alderman

The women fight to take the omnium title at the the San Diego Omnium dual conference event, (Jorts Sports Photography).

This past weekend, the SWCCC and WCCC came together at the San Diego Omnium for a duel-conference event.  Joey Iuliano became the conference director of the SWCCC in 2013, and had since dreamed of being able to show his small conference what a “big collegiate weekend looks like.” 

The first day of racing brought a flat, four-corner criterium, and served as a learning experience for the riders, who took note of the differing tactical styles between conferences.  The races also brought an element of surprise, as many riders were unfamiliar with the strengths of their opponents.

In the women’s A race, for instance, the California girls controlled a steady pace, saving themselves for an all-out sprint on each of the five prime laps.  A couple of Arizona girls would attack following various points-sprints, but found that the WCCC girls were quite able to counter before easing the pace.  In the last lap, University of California at San
Diego’s (UCSD) Gretchen Stumhofer successfully broke away from the field, and sprinted to victory.  Arizona State University (ASU) rider Sarah Muench beat out University of Arizona’s (UA) Allison Alterman for second.

The Men’s A race, on the other hand, was chalk-full of breakaways, team tactics, and tests of endurance.  SWCCC riders were highly active throughout the race, and were responsible for each break made.  Iuliano held the longest break, lasting solo for twenty minutes off the front.  In the end, the attacks were in vein, and WCCC riders swept the podium.  O’Reilly of UC?? took the top step, Geier brought home the silver for UC?? and Burkitt of University of Southern California (USC) took bronze.

Sunday brought a full day of racing, and a full day of rain.  The team time trial took place on Fiesta Island, where A Teams completed three laps, and B Teams rode two laps of the flat, wet, four-mile course.  On the Men’s side, the SWCCC showed the west coast the strength they could bring, with UA placing first, and ASU second.  UCSB placed third.  In the Women’s
race, UCSD took the win, with UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) in second and UA in third. 

The men's race at the start line of the San Diego Omnium (Jorts Sports Photography)

The weekend’s second crit took place on the UCSD campus.  The rain only added to the difficulty of the technical and hilly course.  In the women’s A race, Stumhofer attacked after a 90 degree turn at the base of the course’s major climb.  Alterman attempted to counter the attack, but could not catch hold of the UCSD rider’s wheel.  Nor did she look back after hearing the sound of carbon on concrete.  Most of the field was involved in or caught behind the crash, but many girls were able to get back into the race and contend.  Taylor Burdge of Stanford joined efforts with Alterman after taking a lap post-race, and the two attempted but failed to catch Stumhofer.  Alterman took the sprint for second.

An exciting Men’s race followed.  A break of five, three from the SWCCC and two from the WCCC were able to get away.  With two laps to go, the five were ten seconds from lapping the field.  Iuliano, hoping to pass the field and get away solo, attacked.  The plan backfired on the line, however, when Iuliano got caught up in the field sprint, allowing teammate David Carlson to come through with the victory.  Niklas Podhraski of the University of New Mexico took second, and Iuliano rounded the SWCCC-swept podium. 

Iuliano considers the weekend to have been a great success, and plans to make the duel-conference omnium a yearly event.  “The Southwest came, we saw, we conquered,” he said.
 
Thanks to Jorts Sports Photography for the use of their photos, www.jortssports.com