Donna and I spent four days in LA at the elite national track championships. The racing was fast and furious with plenty of excitement. We knew it was going to be a great trip when I was hanging out at the Seattle airport waiting to board and saw Sean and Sherolyn walking down the concourse. They were headed back east for a vacation. We all had enough time to sit down and have a great conversation over breakfast. I hate flying, so seeing Sean and Sherolyn was a sign that all was going to be good. When you have irrational fears you have to deal with them any way you can. Now on to the racing!
For those of you unfamiliar with track racing check out the ATRA site for a description of the races. For me one of the big highlights was watching Taylor Phinney win the Pursuit Championships. Taylor's parents are Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney, both former olympic medalists in the 1984 LA olympics. The individual pursuit is not one of Donna's favorite events, she likes the full contact events like match sprinting and the keiren. But for me watching the pursuit was incredible, Taylor is definitely a work of art on the bike. Outside of his legs I don't think any other part if his body moved for the entire 4,000 meters of his run. He caught both of his pursuit challengers very quickly.
The above photo is his championship run. It was hard to get a good photo he was moving really fast.
Gamin-Chipotle with Colby Pearce and Danial Holloway dominated the endurance races getting first in the points race, scratch, and the Madison. Kirk O'bee in my opinion would have won the scratch race but crashed after lapping the field. Colby Pearce also lapped the field (maybe twice) for the win. The points race and the Madison are both endurance races with sprints every ten laps or so. So, just imagine being at or a bit above your lactic threshold for most of the race and then having to sprint every ten laps, and constantly throughout the race while people are attacking. Unlike Rock Racing, Pearce and Holloway road very while as a team. Often it was to the detriment of Kenny Williams out of Seattle. Kenny finished second in the scratch race, after lapping the field, and fourth in the points race. Once Pearce locked up 1st in the points race he helped Holloway get away and knock Kenny off the podium. Kenny is definitely a marked rider in the mass events, and he didn't have any team mates to help him out.
The fast man of the event was Jimmy Watkins who won the men's sprint and keiren. Apparently he's only been racing about a year and no one was even close to his sprint. In the match sprint final Watkins started sprinting around Stephen Hill who was lower on the track. Hill hooked up the track to try to push Watkins up but Watkins didn't budge and had all the momentum. When they bumped Hill went down hard.
The Metro Volkswagen women's team dominated the women's races winning a number of races, but my favorite was Shelley Olds who won the scratch race, and was very aggressive in all the races. To look at her you would never imagine the fury she unleashes on the track.
You can read more about the event and check out the photos on cyclingnews.com
The above photo is take from the top of the track in turn 1 straight down the track. It shows you just how steep the banking is in the turns. Thanks to Camille, Amelia, Nate, and Matt (Donna's Portland friends) for letting me crash in the house for the races, and wishing a speedy recovery to Jen Featheringill after her crash so she can get ready for next year. Another highlight, I was also able to meet world champions Jennie Reed and Sarah Hammer. Recovering after the olympics they were not their to race but showed up to sign some autographs and proomote OUCH cycling.
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