SMU Cycling finishes 19th in Nation in D2 Road

[SMU Cyclist]

Two SMU students competed this past weekend at USA Cycling's Collegiate Road Championships in Madison Wisconsin. Nicky Boulle and Frank Cusimano were able to secure enough points to get in that top 20 ranking despite qualifying just these two elite riders.

The Road race on Saturday saw Frank get an inopportune flat near the end which scuttled his chances (as it happened on the big hill.) Nicky rode to a strong 9th place finish, finishing with and beating some of the top collegiate cyclists, including last year's winner and former German pro cyclist, Richard Geng. Many of the elite collegiate cyclists also race for top amateur or even pro teams, such as the winner of this race (Richard Baker of Mesa State) who rides for the Bissell Pro team.

The criterium on Sunday was a 75 minute tactical and nervous event that saw Nicky finish 7th and Frank 28th. The omnium (which is cumulative points from the weekend events) had Nicky score a well deserved podium finish, a first for the SMU Cycling club at Nationals.Congrats to both of these student athletes.

Other schools in the South Central Collegiate Cycling Conference that qualified racers for collegiate Nationals were Texas A&M and Midwestern State in D1 and Tulane joined SMU in D2. (the division of D1 and D2 at Nationals is student body size and the cutoff is 15,000.) A&M also finished the season ranked 19th overall in road cycling in D1.