August 13, 2006, Masters Track Nationals, 4000 meter Team Pursuit 50+
Colorado Springs, CO 2.5 miles
This was the last day of the 2006 Masters National Track Championships.
There were three categories for the Men's 4000 meter Team Time Trial (TTT), 30+, 40+, and 50+.
The 50+ was new to this year and each member of the team had to have a racing age of 50 or more.
I was fortunate to unite myself with three other riders that Woody had put together.
Here's the composition of our team with their results in the individual 2000 meter TT earlier this week.
Our Team
| Name |
From |
Time |
Class |
Place |
| Woody Cox |
Seattle WA |
2:24.439 |
55-59 |
1st |
Jim Dickerson |
Fort Collins CO |
2:30.6 |
50-54 |
6th |
Lionel Space |
Tucson AZ |
2:30.910 |
50-54 |
7th |
Mark Rodamaker |
Los Altos CA |
2:39.340 |
55-59 |
8th |
Woody had won his 2000 m individual TT in the 55-59 category with a World Record time, he's won Masters World Championships, was by far the most experienced and strongest,
and the only one of our team that had ever won any kind of timed championship previously.
Mark was going to be our weakest rider, but the time is taken by the third rider across the line, so he could pull out when he no longer could contribute.
Our team just met up an hour before the event for the first time and we were able to do a few practice laps together.
Bike Line Team
| Name |
From |
Time |
Class |
Place |
Scott Butler |
Nazareth PA |
2:23.246 |
50-54 |
3rd |
Steven Worley |
Boulder CO |
2:28.407 |
55-59 |
2nd |
Andrew Buck |
Dresher PA |
2:29.638 |
55-59 |
3rd |
| Chip Berezny |
Easton PA |
2:30.383 |
55-59 |
5th |
Our biggest competition was comprised of three riders from the same area, which also happens to be close to a track, so presumably they've had some good practice for this beforehand.
The actual members of each team had not been previously posted until the morning of the actual event,
so the above details were not put together until after the event.
On paper, the Pennsylvania team is much stronger.
There was a third team, but they were not nearly the same caliber as this team and would finish about a minute slower.
We were riding our race simultaneously with our main competitors who would be starting on the other side of the track, so whoever won this heat would be the National Champions.
 |
 |
Our lineup.
Woody at the pole, Mark, Lionel, Jim. |
And we're away. |
We had worked out a speed to shoot for and we needed about 24.0 seconds per lap to average about 31 mph.
We were to start a little easy and keep things running smoothly.
I have a tendency to get too excited at the beginning and when taking my turn, so I had to keep myself in check.
 |
 |
 |
| Jim, Woody, Mark, Lionel, about lap 2. |
Finishing a turn. |
Coming through again. |
Although I had asked Woody if we had anyone that could call out lap times for us, he had said no, but there was someone at our first turn that was doing so.
I heard several calls in the mid 23 seconds and another at 24.0 seconds, so it seemed that we were on a pretty good schedule even at the beginning and it wasn't yet hard riding.
Mark took his turn as we passed the line with 8 to go out of the 12 total laps and as he pulled up he yelled "Three", meaning that he was abandoning and we were now down to 3.
That seemed a little earlier than I had expected, but better to have him not slow us down if he was struggling.
The other team would eventually finish with all four riders contributing to the end.
 |
 |
| Woody pulling. |
We kept doing our full lap turns and things felt pretty smooth.
Our caller stopped calling out lap times and instead yelled "Down", meaning that the other team was beating us.
A couple laps of hearing this and it didn't seem that we were going to be fortunate to win.
But with 3 laps to go, he called "Even" so wow, maybe we actually have a chance.
With 2 to go, he yelled "Ahead" and I took my turn, giving it a little extra to try to gain some time on the opposing team.
I swung up with just under a lap to go and my team mates came through.
I dropped back onto the back, but my last effort made it difficult and I was just barely hanging on.
Normally the third rider (whose time the finish is dependent on) would try to pass the other riders at the finish, but I was struggling to not lose contact.
The timing boards are able to display the time of the first rider across the line and if it went by that time, we were about 0.4 seconds ahead.
But the official time would be on the third rider and I had been slightly off the back.
For about half an hour I had to worry if I had been the cause of losing a National Championship.
But fortunately, we prevailed and won.
If you review the split time, you'll see that we lost almost a full second on the first 1000 meters, but were able to be faster on every other quarter and finished much stronger.
 |
 |
 |
| Posted results. |
50+ Winners. |
National Championship Jersey and Gold Medal. |
So the event I had least prepared for and our loose knit team that should have been at a handicap, turned out to give me a National Championship.
A great way to cap off a week of racing.
The officials also measured and weighed our bikes to submit our time for a World Record, since this is a new event, we may be the first to set a time and may get a World record out of it in addition to our National Record; bonus.
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) |
| 1:05 pm |
2.5 |
12 |
4:51.491 |
82, light |
0 |
30.9 |
33.5 |
169 |
181 |
49 |
100 |
Didn't Noel do a great job taking the photos? I really appreciate that, as I'm sure you do too.
Link to USA Cycling story at http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=2480
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