SDSU Cycling : UC Santa Barbara Wins Criterium

Every time she needed to peddle her bicycle a bit faster, Cathy Rice did just that in winning the women’s 20-mile race in the San Diego State/Pepsi Cycling Classic Sunday.

The day’s five races, known as the Fraternity Row Criterium, concluded the weekend event, which had kicked off the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference season.

The three times she heard the bell that is rung for “primes,” or laps in which the winner gets four points, Rice, a UC Santa Barbara senior, seemed to own an extra gear.

“The other prime, I didn’t hear the bell,” Rice said, explaining her lone failure.

And when she needed to sprint to win the race--out of turn 4 on the flat, .6-mile oval course--she reached 31 mph and breezed by two racers on the homestretch for the victory.

Later in the day, Rice’s teammate Trevor Thorpe sped by three racers the final 200 yards to win the 35-mile A race.

The victories boosted UCSB by 16 other squads to the team title.

“The reason why I’m a sprinter?” Rice repeated with a laugh. She then unrolled her pants to reveal bulging leg muscles. “These thighs. I’ve always hated these things. Now I’ve got a reason to like them. Actually, I think being a sprinter in high school helped.”

After Rice suffered a stress fracture in her shinbone two years ago, she switched from track to bicycling. She won three WCCC events last season, her first.

“I see competitiveness in her I don’t see in a lot of other women,” said Wayne Stelly, UCSB’s coach. “She does have natural ability; most sprinters do.”

The ability to sprint late also lifted Thorpe, a sophomore, in the A race. He said he was right where he wanted to be in trailing three others coming out of turn 4.

As for UC San Diego’s Mark Wineman, who was in third and finished that way, he was just happy to be there.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t think I had a chance (to win),” Wineman said. “My legs were like Gumby. They were so cramped; I didn’t think I’d finish.”

Wineman’s third was one of few bright spots for San Diego County bicyclists, who have long been behind those at central coast colleges. San Diego State’s Stig Nybo finished second in the B race, and teammate Lorin West won Saturday’s women’s race.