August 9, 2006, Masters Track Nationals, Flying 200 meter TT 50-54
Colorado Springs, CO
This was the first day of the 2006 Masters National Track Championships.
At State and National Masters Championships, the age groups are in 5 year increments, starting at 30 years and up to 70+.
Your age between January 1 and December 31, determines your racing age for the entire year.
Thus, I am currently racing as a 52 year old and will have two more seasons after this in the 50-54 group.
A week and a half prior to the Nationals, we had our Arizona State Championships in San Diego.
My overall times had improved since last year, but not to the extent that I had hoped for.
I attributed this to the accident I had four weeks prior to this, which although I was fortunate to not suffer serious injury,
it nevertheless derailed my schedule of progression.
I hoped that I might be able to keep improving my fitness and maybe with some mental determination, perform much better at the Nationals.
Andy Gilmour was quick to build me a replacement bike and I picked the frame up on Friday afternoon, the day before we hit the road to leave for Colorado.
This bike is black instead of white, so it should show the grease less if I don't have time to wipe down the bike between rides.
The first event of the day for everyone, was the flying 200 meter.
This is the qualifying ride for the match sprints to occur later in the week.
For most categories, the top 8 would proceed to the quarter finals.
Although I had been practicing primarily for the 500 meter for the last seven months, most of my training involved doing 250 meter flying sprints,
so I thought I should be able to do pretty well and have some fun in the actual sprints later on.
This had paid off in several criteriums where I easily out sprinted my competitors at the end of the race.
Not being close to a track, my recent experience on the track was extremely limited.
I've done about half a dozen flying 200's on an actual track in my lifetime, so I've not had much practice.
This turned out to be a big handicap as I bumbled just about every aspect of this event.
I didn't start high enough, I wasn't at a good speed while high, and I came down the banking way too soon.
Then to top it off, I wobbled through the turns as I wasn't used to taking the banks at high speed and all my concentration when into steering the bike rather than going at full speed.
Although my time of 12.213 seconds was my best ever, it was the 10th fastest time, putting me out of contention to continue into the sprints.
Another 0.1 seconds faster would have brought me into the top 8.
My top speed was only 37.6 mph in my 51 x 14 gear and the previous day I had hit 37.0 in my small 48 x 19 inch gear while playing with Vic Copeland.
 |
 |
| One lap to go in 200 (too low). |
200 Finish. |
I felt like I didn't demonstrate my best performance and it was disappointing that I wouldn't be able to have fun in the match sprints on Saturday.
Richard Voss who won the sprints in the 45-49 age group the previous year, had the fastest time.
|
Place |
Name |
Time |
Team |
| 1 |
Richard Voss |
11.176 |
Hammer Racing Team - |
| 2 |
Scott Butler |
11.573 |
Bike Line/LWA |
| 3 |
Jeffrey Fillerup |
11.646 |
Webcor/Alto Velo |
| 4 |
Mike Felling |
11.701 |
Z's Bikes |
| 5 |
Timothy Montagne |
11.799 |
Easton/Specialized |
| 6 |
Aron Seiken |
11.924 |
Moritz Chevrolet Cyc |
| 7 |
Darell Provencher |
12.087 |
Team Rose City |
| 8 |
Mark Chrysler |
12.163 |
DARE |
| 9 |
Steve Brown |
12.203 |
Multnomah Athletic C |
| 10 |
Lionel Space |
12.213 |
Unattached |
| 11 |
Richard Pearson |
12.492 |
Team Louisville |
| 12 |
Dairo Moody |
12.643 |
South Bay Wheelmen |
| 13 |
Patrick McNamara |
12.647 |
Northbrook/Garner |
| 14 |
Bruce Neal |
12.93 |
Hammer Racing Team - |
| DNS |
Roy Simonson |
|
Hammer Racing Team - |
Summary
Start
Time |
Distance
(Miles) |
Starters |
Duration |
Weather
(Deg F, mph) |
Climbing
(Feet) |
Speed avg
(MPH) |
Speed Max
(MPH) |
HR avg
(BPM) |
HR max
(BPM) |
HR waking
(BPM) |
Calories Burned
(Kcal) |
| 9:49 am |
1.0 |
14 |
3:00 |
82, light |
0 |
10.8 |
37.6 |
128 |
184 |
49 |
45 |
Link to USA Cycling story at http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=2464
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