Racers Conquer Rasputitsa By: Timothy LaRoche
Collin Daulong barrels down the hill on White School Road only to maneuver across a bridge, crossing Route 114 in East Burke. He pedals faster, but thick mud from winter’s deep freeze and spring’s melt makes the crossing harrowing.
Kingdom Trails bike shop in East Burke, VT.
At the annual Rasputitsa race, mud is the both an enemy and a friend. It slows the racers on the soupy 47 mile course to a crawl, but in the end, mud is the main draw for the crowd, and the obstacle in this race is not just the other competitors.
Daulong was one of more than 280 competitors who lined up on April 11 to NewsINK - Spring 2015 Edition, Volume 2
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take part in this year’s race. The race began with a bang, releasing the riders like a flash flood overtaking the Belden Hill Road start area.
“It’s a mass start but there’s different groups, so you know, I guess depending on where you think you are competitively you’ll like start at the front end or the back end. So generally, I think if you’re going to be going really racing it to race and going fast and you think you have a chance of doing well, I think you’ll start more towards the front.”
The name of the race comes from the Russian word used to describe the beginning of spring when the rural roads thaw. The thick mud creates an almost impassable barrier, isolating small villages from one another. And in a similar way, Vermont’s own mud season creates conditions that isolate racers, preventing drafting and most other common race tactics. But the isolation of a Vermont winter is being slightly eased as a dedicated community of cyclists looks towards snow covered trails for solace.
The introduction and proliferation of fat bikes has allowed outdoors enthusiasts to pedal over the snow during winter months, giving training for early spring races a new mode.
“The winter biking has certainly helped with getting through the winter time,” Daulong said. “It’s a super fun activity. I think it’s going to help people a lot with their riding ability for the summertime because it’s the same thing but it’s a little bit different at the same time.”
Fat bikes differ from their usual counterparts in that their wheels and tires are thick and wide. By pedaling at a slow and steady cadence, riders can travel through the top layers of snow. Fat bikes allow the rider to distribute their weight across a larger surface area in much the same way that snowshoes work.
“But now having that race here, people are going to see how awesome the dirt road riding is up here.”
At the Village Sport Shop, sales and rentals of fat bikes have taken off in recent years as more riders are flocking towards the winter vehicle as a source of recreation. Along with other outdoor equipment, sales have been doing well enough that the Village Sport Shop opened a second store on Darling Hill in Lyndon.
Daulong’s job at the Village Bike Shop on Darling Hill places him directly adjacent to the entrance to the Kingdom Trails, and so he spends much of his free time riding on them. But even with a desirable location to train for a mountain bike race, Daulong said that his training wasn’t very serious due to the harsh winter.
“I’m going into it pretty mellow,” he said, “but we’ll see what actually happens when you start.”
When it comes to endurance sports like the Rasputitsa, preparation takes an almost larger role than competitions. Racers attempt to train in a way that simulates the conditions of the race. Due to the endurance aspect required to compete in the race, competitors must maintain a large volume of training. But training must also balance the muscular strength required on more complicated sections and hills.
-COLLIN DAULONG
One of the struggles in training for a long race is that a high volume of training can cause strength to atrophy if it is not constantly maintained through workouts. But strength and speed workouts can take a considerable amount of energy, and if the competitor does too much work at high intensity, their body will lower their aerobic capacity. So competitors have to carefully balance their training according to the demands of the sport.
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In a race where conditions can vary widely from year to year, reaching a balance is difficult. According to the race’s website, in years past, the conditions have been as warm as 60 degrees for the race and as cold as -10 degrees. Warmer races will include more mud, and so strength must be emphasized, whereas colder races will have a firmer surface where the ability to sustain a high intensity becomes important. But racers have no way of predicting what the exact conditions will be on race day, so training must contain enough general conditioning for all of the body’s systems to effectively navigate the course.
Burke’s Rasputitsa is hosted by the Dirty 40 race series, in conjunction with the Burke Chamber of Commerce and the Kingdom Trails. The Dirty 40 also hosts other mud and mountain bike races across the northeast that use natural conditions to create challenges and obstacles for its competitors. On the Rasputitsa, the most infamous natural barrier is a section affectionately known as Cyberia -- the mile long section that crosses streams and thick mud and rocks. To navigate Cyberia, competitors often dismount and carry their bikes over their shoulders, adding another complicating element to the race.
As sales of all styles of bikes have been steadily increasing in Lyndon over the past few years, Daulong thinks the boom in the industry and the popularity of the Rasputitsa are signs of a closeknit mountain biking community forming in Vermont.
“It’s really becoming multifaceted,” Daulong said. “The dirt roads scene in the country is growing a lot, I mean it’s a whole segment that’s been exploding over the last couple of years. But now having that race here, people are going to see how awesome the dirt road riding is up here. So you have people coming up here to go 300 miles in a week on dirt roads, camp, or something like that, or they can also come up here for riding mountain bikes at the Kingdom Trails.”
As the days become warmer, and a long winter finally breaks, Daulong expects to spend most of his time riding on the Kingdom Trails, which have become a second home for him. But he doesn’t understate the fitness and purpose that fat biking and winter riding have brought him.
“It gets you through the winter,” he said, “but I ultimately live up here for the summer riding.”
St. Johnsbury Team Victorious By: Michael Raimondi
Saint Johnsbury Academy students are enjoying a new taste of victory this spring. Last month, members of the Robotics Team placed first in their final competition of the season.
The “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” (FIRST) hosts competitions across the country for high school students. The name of this year’s competition was “Recycle Rush,” as recycling was a theme for the event. Participants used robots to stack “totes,” or plastic bins on top of one another, with a cylindrical recycling bin on top to contain “litter,” or a foam swimming noodle.
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both students has a camera for a view from the robot, to help give guidance to the driver.
The game is played on a platform that is 27 feet by 54 feet, and is divided into a red and blue side. Each alliance stays on their half of the floor during the match, and tally points by stacking the items in the scoring zone of the floor.
“We now know what to expect, and we are ready for it”
An antonymous period starts each game, as for fifteen seconds the robot tries to stack totes by previously programmed instructions. Once that period is up, players can then regain control of their robot.
-ABEL BUSHEY
Scoring in the game is simple. Every grey tote stacked is worth two points, while adding a recycling bin on top adds four points. If a team can place the litter in the recycling bin, six points will be rewarded. Teams can try to alter opponent’s scores, as teams can throw litter onto their opponent’s side of the floor. The opposing team will be given four points for every piece of litter on their side. In order to win the game, the team must stack the most totes in the quickest time.
During the weekend of March 20 the five members of the team traveled to Smithfield, Rhode Island for the team’s final competition of the year. Just two weeks after a poor performance in Massachusetts, the team improved enough to finish in the first alliance. The team was paired with two other teams, who all worked together to finish as the best group or “alliance,” out of the thirty-nine teams.
There are only two competitions students compete in during the school year. The first was in Springfield, Massachusetts, where they finished 29th out of 33 teams. The team had two weeks before the final tournament in Rhode Island to improve the robot, which they were successful. Although they finished at the top of the final competition, the poor performance in Massachusetts left them out of the next round.
Although the competitions are over for the year, the team is not resting. They are showcasing the robot to try and recruit incoming freshmen to join the club.
“We want more people that we can train, and get to join the team,” Junior McKenna Cisler said.
An inside look at the motor of the robot. Photos by Michael Raimondi
Engineering and physics teacher James Baker became the coach this season. Baker has coached robotics at other schools across the country, including Florida and Utah. He believes that getting more students involved will only help grow the potential for the team and the robot, and also wants to get the “next generation” of members ready to go.
After succeeding in Rhode Island, the team has high hopes for the future.
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“Next year we want to try and be in the top 15 in Regionals,” said Junior Abel Bushey. “We now know what to expect, and we are ready for it.”
The Saint J Robotics team is only one of three robotics teams in Vermont. The team hopes to next year be the one of the best in New England.
Classics Thrive in Vermont By: Timothy LaRoche
Roy Starling teaches Latin at the Riverside School in Lyndon. He said that it is an important subject for students to learn because it reveals the creation of Western culture and government. Although Latin is a required class, Starling pitches to his students that it is important for them to learn Latin so they understand the roots of their own language. In tracing the etymology of any Romance language, which are spoken around the Western world, most words can be traced to Latin cognates. Although English is a mix of Romance and Germanic roots, many of the more elaborate words in the language trace to Latin roots, and so most college entry exams can be dissected with some knowledge of Latin.
When Angela Kubicke, who had just begun eighth-grade at the time, came into Starling’s class, he made the same pitch he makes to his students every year. However, due to her probing nature, Kubicke quickly took an interest in learning the language.
Current high school first-year student Angela Kubicke proposed Vermont’s Latin state motto. Photo courtesy of News7
“Angela was really keen on this kind of thing,” Starling said. “She’s a political junky, she’s a girl scout. She’s one of those people that if you give her a seed of extracurricular leadership, she just blossoms.”
The Riverside School is the only middle school that attends and competes at the Latin Day conference at the University of Vermont.
One of the competitions during the conference is a Latin trivia competition, in which students are assigned different areas of expertise that they research and test during the competition against other schools. Kubicke took an interest in researching one of the more popular categories, state mottos.
When the opportunity for extracurricular leadership presented itself, Kubicke jumped on it, and on April 10, more than a year later, her efforts have come to fruition after Governor Peter Shumlin signed Vermont’s new Latin state motto into being.
From the time of its inception until the Revolutionary War, the entity that would become the United States used British currency rather than minting its own. But then, after the nation declared its NewsINK - Spring 2015 Edition, Volume 2
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independence from Britain, the British coinage was devalued and states were faced with finding an alternative.
In 1797, Vermont became a republic, which lasted for 14 years. During that time, Vermont became the first entity in the New World to have its own currency, a coin called the Harmon cent. The coin includes a small Latin phrase at the bottom that reads, “stella quarta decima,” which means, “the fourteenth star.”
The “star” is a reference to statehood, which is most prominently represented on the United States’ flag as a collection of stars. So, the coin reflected the popular idea in the republic that Vermont should integrate into the union.
“During those years that Vermont was a republic, it wanted to be the fourteenth state,” Starling said. “It wanted it so bad that on the one thing from Vermont that’s circulating all over, that’s what it says, fourteenth star. So it’s sort of an aspiration of our founders, Vermont’s founders.”
During Kubicke’s initial research into state mottos, one of the first things to stand out to her though was that Vermont doesn’t have a Latin state motto. So, after reaching out to her teacher, the pair worked together to draft a motto for Vermont.
After some searching, the pair came across a Harmon cent and were inspired by the historical value of the bottom script.
“The idea of a Latin motto isn’t some type of subversion to a foreign government.”
However, Kubicke and Starling were not content with simply rehashing an old slogan. They modified the old coinage by adding “fulgeat,” which is a third-person singular present active subjunctive that means “shines bright.” So, in the motto’s completed form, it reads “stella quarta decima fulgeat,” or, “the fourteenth star shines brightly.”
When Kubicke and Starling were content with their proposal, they took their idea for the motto to Caledonia County Senator Joe Benning. Benning took to the idea to propose the new motto to the state legislature and sponsor the bill throughout its journey.
As the mentee of former Senator Graham Newell, who was highly involved in efforts involving state history, Benning is a selfproclaimed history buff himself and was immediately drawn to the idea of integrating Vermont’s past into its future. And so, after Kubicke and Starling met with the Benning, he took the proposal for the motto and introduced it to the legislature as a bill.
-ROY STARLING
But the bill seemed to draw complications as it meandered throughout the statehouse. Initially, the bill was introduced at the tail end of a legislative session, so the bill stalled for a few months before it could gain traction.
But even after it finally started rolling, the bill attracted controversy, and the story in popular media took a turn. After Benning posted the news to his Facebook page that he would sponsor Kubicke’s motto, a flood of angry comments came pouring in.
Many commenters posted xenophobic statements to the announcement, which Benning found the next day. Both Benning and Kubicke began receiving comments as colorful as “how do you say idiotic senator in Spanish? I’d settle for deport illegals in Spanish as a motto,” or, as another commenter wrote, “No, this is America, and our language has been english from the beginning. We don’t need to change now for a few.”
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As news stories from stations inside the state and from national sources harped on the commenters attacking the bill, both Starling and Kubicke began to retreat from the public eye, and they grew tired of the media focusing on an aspect of their story that they saw as trivial.
And Starling doubts that many of these commenters are even from Vermont in the first place. The more likely story is that many of them set up alerts for every time the word “Latin” or something similar to it appears on the internet. However, the Latin cultures of Central America and the ancient Latin culture, which infused and integrated into the Roman Empire are starkly different in both time and geographic location.
“Maybe these people have never looked at their dollars and seen ‘E Pluribus Unum’ or heard a marine say ‘semper fi,’” Starling said. “The idea of a Latin motto isn’t some type of subversion to a foreign government.”
In fact, the United States’ history is filled with references and inspirations drawn from the Roman Empire and the Greek city-states that pre-dated it. As Starling points out, even the United States’ establishing document, the United States Constitution, draws from the ideas of antiquity. And the Founding Fathers of the country appropriated many of their ideas from the ancient Athenian citystate, where the idea of democracy was first founded.
Starling emphasizes the historical context of Latin in his class, and even though he remains enthusiastic about teaching the language, not every student pursues it beyond their compulsory years. But he said Kubicke’s efforts will send a message to fellow students and will inspire them to continue learning the language.
Furthermore, the Latin state motto will make Vermont more visible during Latin competitions during which students have to memorize mottos. But Kubicke’s involvement in the Latin language may not end here.
Next year, Kubicke will begin her sophomore year at the Lyndon Institute. Starling, whose children will have graduated from the Riverside School by the next year, plans to accept a position teaching Latin at LI, and he hopes Kubicke will stay involved in the language. But this time around, she will have the experience of watching her efforts move through the state legislature and making a mark, albeit small, on the history of her country.
Sixth Time’s the Charm By: Michael Raimondi
After the longest spelling bee in Vermont history, a young girl was crowned a champion after six attempts at the title. For young Lucy Storz, her dream of winning the event had become a reality.
Students have to first win their school’s spelling bee in order to attend the state-wide event. Storz started by winning the spelling bee at Thaddeus Stevens Middle School, which she attends.
She had not won her first five visits, but her sixth time had the best result. The sixth grader went on to win the Vermont state spelling bee in March, beating out 37 other competitors.
The bee lasted for 43 rounds, and for 21 of those rounds, Storz went head-to-head with the second place finisher. Storz’s family and best friend Elissa Davis were in the audience cheering her on as she spelled out “I-P-E-C-A-C” in the final round. “Ipecac” was the final word she spelt to seal her victory.
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“It was a bit boring in the beginning, but when it got down to like the last twelve people, it started getting very suspenseful,” Davis said.
During the final round when Storz correctly spelt ipecac, friends and family were ecstatic.
“I wanted to scream and jump up and down but that would have been disruptive,” Davis said.
As for Storz, she is thrilled with the results.
”I was ecstatic because I’ve been working to win for six years and it felt great to finally reach my goal,” she said. “It is nice to have a thing that is not very common to be really good at.”
The next step for Storz will be in a few weeks when she heads to Washington D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 24 through May 29.
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