January 9, 2010, LAVRA Winter Cup 45+
Carson CA   Omnium
(Images can be clicked on for a larger version)

This was my second trip to the beautiful indoor velodrome in Los Angeles, the first time being last year's Winter Cup. It's about a 7 hour drive, thus requiring a stay at a motel the night before and a late night drive back. This year I had the pleasure to travel with my new training partner Rick Giordano who had not yet been to the LA track and this would also be his first time competing in track mass start events, although he has been racing criteriums for several years. Since the oldest Master's category available at this race was 45+, we would be racing in the same races. The LA track is 250 meters, so this would also be his first experience on a track that small and with a 45 degree banking, so lot's of new experiences for him. Like last year, there was a volleyball tournament using the infield. And although the majority of the field were Masters 45+, we also had some Category 4 racers and they threw in the Juniors with us as well, including one hot National Team Member.

This event is very early in the year and Rick and I had mostly been working on technique and spin. We had wanted to start on some strength training, but a knee injury by Rick several weeks earlier forced us to take it easy so that his knee could heal. Thus we were not in prime shape yet, our main goals coming in May and in the Fall.

Turn 1 (finish line surrounded by white)	Turn 2 (visible 200 m to go line)	Turns 3 & 4	Staging area at turns 3 & 4

This year was staged differently from last year in that we had timed events in the morning, a certification class at 2 p.m., and then the mass start races at 3 p.m. Rick and I chose to fluff out the butterflies in a flying 200 meter and a standing 500 meter and then do the mass starts in the afternoon. Since Rick was not yet certified, he was not allowed to practice on the track until he was certified, which meant that his first experience on the track would be while going full speed in the flying 200. Not surprisingly, he had his slowest time ever, as it was a new experience to drop off the steep bank for the initial acceleration and then the first experience at feeling the g-forces as he hits the turns. I didn't fair much better.

It's a good thing that this event was a preliminary event for the season, as I had more than my share of calamities for the weekend. During the week I had some extra workload and had only been able get about 3 hours of sleep for the previous 3 days, so I was dead tired and this also meant I didn't have adequate time to prepare my equipment. We got to L.A. in plenty of time and got to bed very early, about 9:30 p.m. However, I slept so soundly, that I probably did not shift at all and at 2:30 a.m. I awoke with a stabbing pain in my back on my left shoulder. Apparently I had pinched a nerve and I figured I needed to try to work it out before the races if I wanted to be able to use my left arm. At 3:30 a.m., Rich awoke and offered to drive me to find some Ibuprofen, which helped a little, but I was still handicapped. By the first race at about 9:30 a.m. I was able to use my arm, but lifting my head up in our crouched positions was painful.

My first event was the flying 200, but I had another surprise in store. I had decided to use my steel track bike instead of my usual aluminum one, as I will probably be using this frame in the championship events coming up in the fall and I wanted to work out any wrinkles with using that equipment. The other bike had a nicer fork, so I had put that on the steel frame, but had not had time to test it first. It's main difference is that the rake is only 35 mm instead of the 43 mm I had been used to, so it is twitchier than what I had practiced with. I had done a few speed runs on the track during warm up, and hadn't noticed any problems, but my shoulder was still hurting too. So as I do the flying 200, I hit the first turn at full speed and the bike wants to wobble and twitch and I find myself actually slowing down just before hitting the 200 meter to go mark. So I had my slowest personal time as well, but at least I kept it under control. By the end of the mass start races, I had become accustomed to it and it shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Immediately after the flying 200, they start lining us up for the 500 m. I had brought my aero bars that I prefer to use for this event and I had just enough time to slap them on before we got back onto the track. However, I neglected to remember that the headset on this bike and the stem on the aerobars did not match well together. I either needed a spacer above the headset or to use the top cap of the headset from the other bike, to avoid the stem from contacting the top cap and create binding. It's a gentle binding that you don't notice standing still, but it is aggravated if weight on the handlebars is applied. I had an excellent start off the line and flew into the first turn. With the g-forces coming into play, the headset started binding up and the bike was difficult to steer in the desired direction and I found myself floundering a bit and almost sitting down before hitting the straightaway. I reacted thinking "this is way too early to be sitting down" and raised back up and accelerated again. Just then there was a pop, which turned out that I had pulled the wheel in the dropout and now the tire was rubbing against the inside of the frame, acting like a brake. Just before the next turn, I properly got into the saddle and put my arms in the narrow aero position and when I hit the turn, the bike would not steer. I was zigzagging about a 2 yard wide swath going up well past the red line and back down to the measurement line as the headset was binding dramatically with the g-forces pushing the stem into the headset. I made it into the straightaway and was considering just quitting at that point, but kept going anyway and had one more lap to go. On top of this, the low position meant I had to crank my head up in relation to my back if I wanted to see in front of me and the painful shoulder kicked in hurting my neck as well, letting me know that it would not cooperate. The next set of turns I entered a bit more gingerly and was not so wild and was able to finish. I was surprised that I was able to get a time under 40 seconds and even more surprised that I faired better than Rick who had been stronger than me in training.

So then we had a long wait, as we had decided to conserve our energy and skip the other timed events, such as the 1000, 2000, and 4000. But we were able to witness some strong performances, where the most enjoyable was watching 19 year old World Champion Taylor Phinney do a 4:29.17 4000. His 1000 meter split of 1:10 was 3 seconds faster than anyone that had done the 1000 and his 2000 was 2:15 (my personal best 2000 is a 2:30.9 for comparison). He made it look so effortless.

Taylor in our setup area.	4000 m World Champion Taylor Phinney.

Immediately after Rick's certification class, we line up for our first mass start race. This was a 20 lap tempo race, where the leader of every lap gets one point and then the final sprint awards 3, 2, 1 points for the top three, so a very furious race; what an indoctrination for poor Rick. Being the the first race, it seemed wise to be a bit conservative and see how the competition stacked up. I did not find any opportunities to grab a lap during the race, but on the final lap I was in third position and when nobody had started a sprint at 200 m to go, I jumped and took the final lap. Rick had been on a wheel that he knew he could trust (mine) and finished second on the final lap, which gave him 5th and myself 4th for the event.

We had just enough time to recuperate as the other races were run before we had to start our 40 lap points race, with sprints every 10 laps. I was keeping between the middle and close to the front to watch the others and was in good position coming into the first sprint, but fifth position with one lap to go was not good enough as the other riders were too fast to pass and fifth gets me no points. As the race continued, so did the intensity as riders would break off the front and the pack would chase. I was feeling the pace and at times was just hanging on. Almost half of the riders pulled out of the race before it finished. One rider was so strong, that he broke away solo and lapped the pack for a 20 point bonus and almost a guarantee for the win. At one point Rick was following me so closely that he was slightly overlapping my wheel when he got bumped by another rider, forcing our wheels to touch, but he held himself up and didn't panic. Against such stiff competition, Rick and I were not in the running, but we hung in until the end and finished in the top 10 on the last lap out of about 28 starters. This left us in 5th and 6th overall in the Omnium going into the final event.

Our last event was a 20 lap scratch race (a simple race to the finish line). As Rick grabbed his bike for the start, he discovered he had a flat front tire, most likely from his encounter with my back wheel in the previous race. Fortunately he had brought his training wheels and slapped on the spare in time for the start. The race went very predictably with little action for the first half at which point the pace began to pick up. Rick and I stayed close to the front to hopefully go with any attacks, but everyone seemed willing to wait for a bunch finish. With 3 laps to go, Rick found himself leading the pack, with myself in third position. As he pulled up at the first turn, no one was willing to put themselves into the lead to pull everyone else to a win. Rick looked perplexed, lacking the experience to fully understand the predicament and for a moment considered going for it at that point. In hindsight, that would have been his best move, as with me in third, I would have helped block the field and he may have gained enough lead to hold it to the end. So sure enough, half a lap later the gates let open as the pace went wild and we did our best, but both of us felt under powered to place well and finished mid pack. Overall I finished 6th and Rick in 8th out of the 19 entries in the Omnium category. A 17 year old junior, Colin Berry, won our event. Second place went to a 25 year old Cat 2 road rider that probably has not upgraded out of Cat 4 on the track yet. Third place was a 48 year old rider, so really the first 45+ rider in our race if they had not thrown in the other smaller categories in with us.

Rick said it was the best day of bike racing he's ever had.

We then got to watch the Pro/1/2/3 race where Taylor Phinney displayed great cunning and skill. He started 2 points down on the Canadian, Zach Bell, that was leading the Omnium and needed to beat him in this final event to win the overall omnium. With about 15 laps to go there was the sound of a crash as we saw Taylor slipping down the track from high between corners 3 and 4. Apparently someone had moved up and he hit the outside wall, taking himself down. The announcer was informing the crowd, and thus indirectly to Taylor, that if he could get back into the race quickly, there would be no penalty and he'd be back in the running. He started to mount his bike, stopped to align his handlebars, then continued on again and got back into the pack. With 2.5 laps to go, Taylor took the lead with his Canadian adversary right on his wheel. Taylor picked up the pace and the two began to gap the rest of the riders and it seemed that maybe Taylor had confused the lap counter as he was going full steam when they hit the line and still had one lap to go. He kept the pressure on and it seemed for sure that the Canadian super sprinter would simply slide around him, but Taylor's speed nullified his jump and Taylor won the final event and the overall Omnium to loud cheers from the crowd.

Taylor and Lionel.	Taylor and Rick.

We then stuck around to watch the final event, the Madison, since Rick had not seen one before. It was 120 laps, so it delayed our departure, but a good experience for Rick. Rick dropped me off in Casa Grande at 2:30 a.m. and still had to get himself home with a half hour drive. But it was all well worth it.

My back was still killing me on Sunday and Monday and I slept most of those two days as well. After avoiding accidents for over 3 years, it's strange that I get hurt while sleeping. And some people think bike racing is dangerous.

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