In our second race of the season, Bowdoin Cycling competed at the Easterns Championship this past weekend, April 22-23. Hosted by Brown University and RISD, the races took place in Scituate and Charlestown, RI. The weekend started off cold and wet on Saturday with a road race around the Scituate reservoir. The course included a few sections of dirt road and a covered bridge. Conditions deteriorated quickly when it started raining, leaving both our riders and our bikes dirty and wet. Alexander Truitt ’19 finished strong in 5^th in Men’s D, and Margaret Conley ’18 battled through to place 8^th in Women’s C. Boyang Zhang placed 44^th in Men’s D after a difficult first lap.

Sunday was a major improvement in weather, with sunny skies and relatively warm temperatures. We raced on a course designed for bicycles in Ninigret Park, RI, a flat loop with lots of corners and a good tail wind on one side plus a challenging head wind on the finish stretch. Alexander placed 12^th in the Men’s D criterium in a large group sprint to the finish. Boyang started strong but suffered a flat in the middle of the race, unfortunately putting him out of the running. Margaret placed 4^th in Women’s C, also earning points in a prime lap. This was a great weekend for the Cycling Team, and Alexander placed 4^th in the overall standings for Men’s D. Though our season this spring was shortened by bad weather, we had a great time and we were proud to represent Bowdoin in the ECCC (Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference).