UC Berkeley Race Weekend by Jeff Dahlen

In the third weekend of WCCC racing UCLA and UCSD ran the show. On Saturday the UCLA Bruins had a great day at the grueling Boulevard Road Race, while on Sunday the UCSD Tritons came up big on their home turf at the lightning fast Rock’em Shock’em Triton Grand Prix.

For the Boulevard Road Race, a small field combined led the Women’s A to be combined with the women P/1/2/3. This led to the race being determined by whoever could hold onto the P/1/2/3 field the longest, with Channel Islands’ Amy Benner coming in first, followed by UCSD’s Kat Ellis and UC Davis’ Danielle Haulman in second and third.

The Men’s A garnered a larger field than the Women. Following the long descent, the climbers quickly took control on the first lap and thinned the field. UCLA’s Eric Bryan claimed the victory with his teammate Robert Pearce claiming third. Alex Bumpers of UCSD took second.

The combined group of Women’s B and C kept together through the descent and first half of the race. With ten miles to go, UCLA’s Maddy Ward and UCSD’s Alexandra Reich (both B’s) broke from the group. Ward put time into Reich up the finishing climb to secure the B's for another UCLA win. In the chase group, Katherine Nadler broke away from the rest of the C’s to claim first for UCSD.

With a small group, the Men’s B stayed together until the final climb where Sam Quinby sprinted to a first place finish for UC Davis.

Lastly, the Men’s C/D combined group saw a pack finish leaving UCLA’s Alex DeRoche taking first for the C’s, and UCSD’s Jeff Dahlen taking first for the D’s.

The next day, undoubtedly the most exciting race was the Men’s A. Immediately after starting the race the attacks began from UCLA and UC Davis. After 20 minutes of racing one of the repeated attacks was able to stick for the rest of the race, lapping the remainder of the field. In the final sprint it was UCSD’s Eric Geier that rode away with the victory, followed by UC Davis’ Scott Cohen and UCLA’s Matt Ojeda in second and third.

Again in the Women’s A there were repeated attacks throughout the race, though none of them lasted much more than a lap due to the small size of the field. In the final lap of the race UCSD teammates Esther Walker and Kat Ellis were able to form a small break in the final turn to take first and second, followed shortly by Channel Islands’ Amy Benner.