May 13 , 2006 – The University of California-Davis and Lees-McRae College took control of the overall standings at the 2006 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships as the three-day event continued with road race action Saturday.

UC-Davis managed a fourth-place finish in the men’s 84-mile road race courtesy of Stephen Dey and a sixth-place finish in the women’s 56-mile affair thanks to Amy Mckey to solidify their lead in the Division I standings with a 71-point advantage over the University of Colorado.

In Division I action, Sarah Uhl of Penn State University and Mark Hardman of the University of Virginia were the individual winners on the day and each ended the afternoon atop the individual standings heading into Sunday’s criterium.

Uhl outkicked Rebecca Larson (University of Florida) and Jennifer Purcell (Midwestern State University) in a field sprint finish to win the Division I women’s road race. After two laps of a 28-mile circuit, only 28 of the original 85 starters remained in contention for the win after two separate crashes on the final lap had decimated the field.

After missing a top-ten finish in 2005, Uhl used the knowledge from a disappointing final-stretch effort from a year ago to secure her win on Saturday.

“I knew it was important to be in a good position at the end of the bridge,” recounted Uhl. “Last year I just really messed that up. I came around the tail at the top, maybe first wheel, and then ten people went by me.”

The men’s Division I event proved more dramatic after several breakaways dictated the outcome of the race.

Hardman attacked his two final breakaway companions, Jonathan Swain (Marian College) and David Hatch (University of Wisconsin) up the final ascent in the closing mile of the race to secure a victory in solo fashion.

On the same wind-swept 28-mile course, an early break of five riders including Patrick McGlynn (Colorado State), Johann Liljengren (University of Pennsylvania), J. Gabriel Lloyd (Columbia University), John Hayes (Fort Lewis College) and Mike Busa (The Ohio State University) snuck away from the field and amounted nearly a three-minute gap on the peloton.

Shortly after the start of the third and final lap, McGlynn casually rolled off the front of the break to form one of his own. But after a 12-mile solo effort that flirted with success, McGlynn’s efforts were spoiled by a new chase group that had organized behind as Mark Smelser (Kansas State University) joined Hardman, Swain, Hatch and Dey in pursuit of McGlynn.

Once McGlynn was caught by the five chasers, he ultimately fell of the pace in the closing miles along with Smelser and Dey.

Left to contest the finishing stretch that included a 300-meter climb, Hardman was able to open up a gap on Swain and Hatch to post the win.

“I did a little bit of acting,” explained Hardman of his tactics in the six-man breakaway. “I acted for maybe the last 15 or 20 miles – skipping pulls and fading off the back like I couldn’t make it. Then I had the juice to stomp on it up the hill. I knew I couldn’t win a sprint.” In Division II racing, Brent Bookwalter (Lees-McRae College) won a two-up sprint from Todd Yezefski (University of Chicago) to capture the win in the men’s race and place Lees-McRae College in the lead of the team standings.

Mara Abbott (Whitman College) successfully defended her women’s Division II road race crown from 2005 with a win from a three-woman breakaway ahead of Anna Milkowski (Yale) and Carol Hutton (DePauw).

“This year, just sitting there I knew everyone was watching me, so that’s was scary,” said Abbott as a marked woman after her 2005 win. I just had to believe I could win this.”

Lees-McRae now holds a slim eight-point advantage over Whitman College in the overall Division II standings, 339-331.