Collegiate nats: Miller, Lea take D1 road race; Abbott, Clayville win in D2

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By Fred Dreier

Day two of the 2005 NCCA Collegiate Road Cycling National Championships saw riders tackle the 23.2-mile loop around Perry Lake, roughly 20 miles outside of downtown Lawrence, Kansas.

The relatively flat course featured a handful of rolling hills, and the varied terrain matched with gusty winds made for a variety of results at the finish line.

The women’s Division I road race managed to stay clumped together throughout the entire two-lap, 56.4-mile ordeal. Early in the race they were packed tightly enough to send several riders to the tarmac, including last year’s road-race winner, Stephane Graeter (UC Berkeley), who slammed into the pavement after being bumped from behind. Graeter left the race for a nearby hospital with a dislocated collarbone and cuts to her face.

As the peloton headed for the finish, UC Santa Cruz’s Brooke Miller led out the sprint and held on for the victory a wheel length ahead of Jessica Lindemann (Indiana University). In her third year as a cyclist and fifth year at UCSC, where she is studying evolutionary biology, Miller, 29, had previously never finished better than 35th in the national championships road race.

“Halfway through my sprint I looked over my shoulder expecting to see [Stanford’s] Amber Rais coming around me,” she said. “This was completely unexpected.”

Also unexpected was the impressive victory by Mara Abbott, a Whitman College freshman, in the women’s Division II race. Abbott, who has only raced for four months and rides a visibly outdated bike, attacked with almost eight miles remaining and soloed to victory.

“I knew that when the gap was up to two minutes I was pretty safe,” said Abbott, a member of Whitman’s NCAA Division III swim team and native of Boulder, Colorado.

Whitman’s Northwest Conference rival, Western Washington University, made the most noise in the men’s Division II race, as juniors Nicholas Clayville and Brian Nelson finished 1-2. With two of three laps finished and the peloton together, Clayville and Nelson attacked and drew out a group of four riders. The two eventually shelled the others, with Clayville taking the win after his teammate began to cramp on the final straightaway.

“It’s the same thing we did at the conference championships,” said Clayville, whose WWU team is only in its second year of existence.

The men’s Division I road race appeared to be destined for a breakaway to succeed, as numerous groups attempted to separate from the peloton during the three laps. However, confusion reigned in the breaks, and nothing stayed away, even a strong late escape by 10 riders.

At the onset of the final lap, Galen Erickson (University of Washington) and Christoph Herby (University of Virginia) took off, building a 10-second advantage that ballooned to nearly a minute after a stiff tailwind catapulted them along the course’s backside. Erickson eventually sat up, and but Herby persevered until the final 750 meters, when the group swallowed him up and Bobby Lea of Penn State took the sprint ahead of Marian College’s Jake Rytlewski.

After the race, Herby, who limped home in 72nd place, could barely walk.

“I tried, and I guess it’s rewarding to know that I didn’t just sit around and I gave it my all,” Herby said. “But it’s pretty tough right now. I was so close.”

2005 National Collegiate Championship
Rudy Project Road Race
Division I
Women
1. Brooke Miller, UC Santa Cruz, 2:42:03
2. Jessica Lindemann, Indiana University, same time
3. Andrea Dvorak, University of Virginia, s.t.
4. Amber Rais, Stanford, s.t.
5. Rebecca Larson, University of Florida, s.t.
6. Jennifer Purcell, Midwestern State University, s.t.
7. Molly Hummel, University of Colorado, s.t.
8. Michelle Gibson, UC Berkeley, s.t.
9. Kelly Murphy, University of Colorado, s.t.
10. Margot Herman, Cornell University, s.t.

Men
1. Bobby Lea, Penn State University, 3:24:33
2. Jake Rytlewski, Marian College, s.t.
3. Brian Jensen, Kansas University, s.t.
4. Josh Bezecny, University of Colorado, s.t.
5. Dan Bowman, Fort Lewis, s.t.
6. Steve Broglio, University of Georgia, s.t.
7. Michael House, Miami University, s.t.
8. John DeLong, Virginia Tech, s.t.
9. Tony Scott, Georgia State University, s.t.
10. David Pierce, Stanford, s.t.

Division II
Women
1. Mara Abbott, Whitman College, 3:00:11
2. Stephanie Hannos, Cumberland, at 2:26
3. Amy Wallace, Dartmouth, s.t.
4. Alie Kenzer, Mount Holyoke, s.t.
5. Jessica Tomazic, U.S. Maritime Academy, s.t.
6. Anna Drakulich, Skidmore College, s.t.
7. Carol Hutton, DePauw University, s.t.
8. Laura Stark, Princeton University, at 2:34
9. Laura Valaas, Whitman College, s.t.
10. Catherine Humblet, MIT, at 3:11

Men
1. Nicholas Clayville, Western Washington University, 3:35:26
2. Brian Nelson, Western Washington University, at 0:34
3. Bennet Ban Der Genugten, Cumberland, at 2:16
4. Brent Bookwalter, Lees-McRae; at 2:19
5. Ari DeWilde, Bates College; at 2:27
6. Sam Johnson, Whitman College, at 2:41
7. Bill Danyluk, United States Air Force Academy, at 2:54
8. Mac Keliher, George Washington University, s.t.
9. Taylor Tollson, Lees-McRae, s.t.
10. Benjamin Scherrer, Western Washington University, s.t.

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FILED UNDER: Road