FXDD Company News & Notices Archive > FXDD Company News - Apr. 18, 2008

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2008 Road Racing Season Mid-Season Update

NEW YORK, April 18, 2008 - With another 3 weeks of racing ahead, MIT is currently in 3rd place overall in the Division II standings. As the races move closer to Boston and racers are coming into the peak of their fitness, MIT is looking to defend its title as ECCC Division II Champion.

The Season Opener in Rutgers saw a strong showing from MIT, with over 20 racers traveling to New Jersey to compete in the weekend’s 3 races. Many of the weekend’s racers were racing for MIT for their first time; some racing a bicycle for the first time. The team’s first victory came during the season’s first race; veteran rider Issao Fujiwara powered through the season prologue, a short 3 mile individual time trial, to place 1st in the men’s C category. Tony Sagneri, a first time racer in the men’s D field, placed 5th in the individual time trial and sprinted into 3rd in the criterium after leading the field for nearly the entire race. Yuri Matsumoto opened the season strongly for MIT’s women’s teams, claiming vic¬tory in the sprints in both the criterium and circuit race in the women’s B field.

So far in the 2008 road season, the MIT Cycling team has accumulated 13 victories, team members have made the podium (top 3) on 23 occasions, and in total, the team has racked up 89 spots in the top 10.

More than 10 team members started racing this year, and 3 of them won a race in their first weekend ever racing a bicycle.

The season’s second race weekend took MIT Cycling to Philadelphia to compete not only against other ECCC teams, but also against schools in the Atlantic Colle¬giate Cycling Conference (ACCC). Despite the cold and rainy weather, Guo-Liang Chew stayed in the pack during Saturday’s men’s C criterium and sprinted into an impressive 6th place finish. In the women’s A race, Martha Buckley and Matsumoto, who had just upgraded from women’s B category, chased an early break away to finish in 5th and 6th place, well ahead of the main field. Along with the individual events, the Philly race weekend marked the return of MIT’s strongest event, the team time trial. The women’s A team placed 2nd overall, and the men’s teams all finished strong, taking 1st in the C category, 3rd in both A and D categories and 7th in the B category.

The Columbia criterium and Princeton circuit race brought the team to New York and New Jersey for the third week of racing. Good weather and the races’ central location brought lots of racers from all over the Northeast, making this a fast paced weekend. Sagneri and Tim Humpton took 4th and 6th in the men’s C category criterium, while Matsumoto took 4th in the women’s A circuit race and Jason Sears took 6th in the men’s A circuit race. Hannah Brice, a new member of the team, entered her first race, racing both days in the women’s introductory category. She took an early lead and stayed away from the pack for a solo victory in the Columbia criterium and broke away with one lap to go for another solo victory at the Princeton circuit race.

Another cold weekend was in store for the team as it brought a full complement of racers to Penn State. Tight corners led Humpton to practice his off-road bike han¬dling skills shortly before the finish of his men’s C road race. Despite his small detour off the course, he kept control of his bike and chased back to finish 6th overall. MIT’s women riders decided to leave the pack behind. Matsumoto got into an early three person break in the women’s A field and stayed with it for a 3rd place over¬all finish, and Trnovcova broke away with three other women in the B field and sprinted for a 3rd place finish. The following day featured a criterium and the season’s second individual time trial. MIT took five top 10 fin¬ishes in the criterium, and Seth Behrends claimed 4th in the men’s B time trial.

Army weekend, the only weekend featuring 4 races, showed that the team is truly starting to come into form. MIT claimed 1st in both the women’s A and men’s A team time trials. The TTT was followed up by a hilly road race which saw new MIT rider Lindsey Holland take 2nd place in the women’s introductory category. The second day of racing started with Army’s traditional 4.5-mile uphill individual time trial on the Westpoint campus. MIT’s women swept the time trial. Trnovcova, a natural climber, devastated the women’s B field, taking 1st place by nearly a full minute. Buckley and Matsu¬moto rounded out the women’s teams’ domination of the event claiming 1st and 2nd at the top of the hill by more than 30 seconds. Matsumoto and Buckley took 4th and 6th in the women’s A criterium, and Trnovcova claimed 5th in women’s B, while Holland claimed her first victory in the women’s introductory category.

The next race in the ECCC circuit is MIT’s home race, the Boston Beanpot Cycling Classic. The team is brin¬ing over 30 racers to the event as it gathers momentum for UVM and the ECCC Championship at Dartmouth.

The MIT Cycling Team is presented by FXDD, a leading online retail foreign exchange firm. FXDD is a subsidiary of Compagnie Financiere Tradition, the third largest interdealer broker worldwide, servicing 7,000 in¬stitutional clients since 1959.

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