By Paige Trendell

The roads in downtown College Park were still wet as cyclists lined up for the last and most competitive men’s event at the Route 1 Rampage on Sunday. 

The race course was in downtown College Park with crosswalks at every corner. 

A radio call came in that said cyclist number 905 had fallen. It was Andrew Frommer, a mechanical engineering doctoral student and winner of the Men’s Collegiate 1/2/3 event, the most competitive collegiate race. Route 1 Rampage had multiple events based on skill level and gender.

Eight minutes into the hour-long race, Frommer reported a “Did Not Finish”, known as a “DNF”, to the official’s tent. He had fallen while biking through a crosswalk, after ignoring his own warning, and did not complete the Open Men’s 1/2/3 event.

Frommer told the other cyclists he had noticed the white, reflective material in the crosswalks was slippery during his previous race. 

“I … went really fast through one of the corners with this paint and just slid out, and that was my race done,” Frommer said. 

Cyclists completed several laps around the 1.1-kilometer route varying from 35 to 60 minutes, depending on the race category. This type of race is called a criterium, and commonly referred to as a “crit.”

Maryland Cycling Club, the club cycling team at the University of Maryland, hosted the race. According to club president and sophomore mechanical engineering major Alex Reichmann, the club coordinates with the University of Maryland Police Department every year to block off the roads for the race. 

Reichmann worked as a mechanic during the Route 1 Rampage and assisted those who had crashed or needed repairs. Even though he did not compete on Sunday, Reichmann has plenty of cycling experience.

“I used to race at a pretty high level at the national level,” he said. “I was pretty fast, but I don’t do it that much anymore.”

He said the Maryland Cycling Club does not have traditional practices due to the team’s relatively small size. 

“We will be like, ‘Hey, who wants to go ride?’ in the group chat and go ride,” Reichmann said.  

Frommer enjoys the flexibility of the team.

“Some of us make it pretty serious and some of us just like to ride with friends, so that’s great,” he said. 

Other collegiate cycling teams competed at the race, including the University of Virginia and the U.S. Naval Academy. 

The men’s racing categories were divided between collegiate and non-collegiate, and further divided by skill level. There was only one women’s race due to low registration numbers, according to Reichmann. 

This did not surprise freshman architecture major Emerson Eatough, one of the women in Maryland Cycling Club and the only team member who competed in the women’s race Sunday.  Eatough said she occasionally bikes with Maryland Triathlon because there are more women on that team. 

“I’m hoping to get more women to join the team in the future,” she said.  

Eatough said she was nervous before competing, since it was her first criterium.

“It’s kind of wet. I might crash, but it’s okay,” she said. 

During the men’s category 4 and 5 race, cyclists did crash, including 39-year-old Daniel Creed. 

“A guy went down in front of me, and I had nowhere to go, so I also went down,” he said. 

Creed was able to finish the race after his fall. He did not have any major injuries, and his bike was still intact.  

“I’m glad I got up and finished,” he said. “[It] could have gone differently, and I would have been happy, but it was a good experience.” 

For Frommer, falling during his second race did not dim the excitement from winning his first. Frommer said he thinks winning a cycling race is more significant than winning a team sport.

“If you’re in a soccer game, either you win or the opponent wins … but in a cycling race, it’s either you win or one of 50 other people win,” he said.

During most of his first race, Frommer was not alone in the lead.

“I got into a breakaway early in the race with one other guy, and then we worked together until the last lap, and then I beat him in the sprint,” he said, adding, “I think there’s something very special about winning cycling races.”

Featured Image: Andrew Frommer of the Maryland Cycling Club inches closer to the first-place University of Virginia cyclist at the Route 1 Rampage in College Park, MD, on April 19, 2026. Photo by Paige Trendell.