November 19, 2016 Masters Track Nationals 60-64 Points Race
Colorado Springs, CO
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

The Masters Track Nationals were held in August in Indianapolis. However, the last 3 days got rained out, so USA Cycling put on a makeup event in November. Due to my illness that began in mid-March, I had not fully recovered by August to justify the trip. One of my best events on the track is the Points race and this happened to be the only individual race for my age category that was included in the makeup event.

It also happened that I was making a flight out to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with my family and it was easy to make a one day layover in Colorado and hit the event for little cost or time disruption. I flew out of Phoenix at 9:30 Saturday morning to Denver, rented a car, stopped at a Safeway for food, and drove to a hotel in Colorado Springs. I assembled my bike at the hotel and was at the velodrome by 4 pm, with warmup time on the track available at 4:30. Racing began at 6 pm and my event would be about an hour into the program.

The race was in Colorado Springs and the temperature outside was below freezing. Fortunately they cover the track with an inflatable dome, a practice just started the previous year. It takes about 2 weeks to erect the dome and it had not been completed until the Thursday before the event. I had brought many extra clothes with me in case it was too cold in the dome, but didn't use any of them for the race, wearing just my club skinsuit. It was probably in the low 60s, so a bit chilly, but tolerable once the blood was flowing. Extra clothing was needed when just sitting around. I used my regular round tubed titanium bike, with 28/32 spoke aluminum clincher wheels. Due to the cooler temperatures and the pressurized dome, the high altitude air density would not be a factor as it would in the summertime, so I used my regular track gearing.

Only 5 riders were entered in my event. Probably many of the usual competitors could not justify the expense for just a few events and also many riders peak for a certain time of year and may not have been best prepared for a November event. I'm pretty much at the same ability all year long. Although it would have been more fun to have more competitors, the smaller field would be easier for me to control. I had placed second in this event last year and the year before, so I had realistic expectations that everything had aligned to make me the favorite for the win.

Shannon Fox entered early, being from Colorado. He is a strong time trial rider and could make a lone break. His sprinting is fairly decent also, so he would be the rider I would monitor the most. A late entry by Mark Altamirano was also a potential threat. He had been an extremely good rider in years past, so I'd have to hope that he was not in the best of form.

My niece Arianna was attending University in Denver and made the trip down to watch my race. She brought her friend Maverick, who I enlisted to hold me at the start.

The 10k race would take 30 laps to complete on the 333m track, with 5 sprints occurring every 6 laps. With such a small field, the race progressed more like a match sprint runoff and we were riding close to 20 mph at the start. We were basically all just watching each other until we came to the final stretch approaching the bell signalling the first sprint. Shannon took the lead with Tony (William Byatt) taking his wheel, followed by Mark and then myself. We were going full speed with one lap to go and I was surprised that the positions held all the way to the sprint line. With points awarded at 5, 3, 2, 1, this gave me only 1 point and had Shannon in the lead. Not my original plan and I was a bit concerned, but decided to learn from the experience.

A couple laps later I tried to change things up and took the lead. I went down to the pole line and picked up the speed to a normal race speed for a bit more than a lap. However, when I pulled off in hopes that the others would continue with a normal race, they all pulled up and we settled back into turtle speed. I was carefully keeping track of the laps to know exactly when the next sprint would occur. As we came off the last turn and got the bell for the next sprint, I jumped to take the lead, but not so hard as to try to escape. I kept a good pace of about 30 mph until 200m to go and then punched it to hold them off, which was successful for a win. Shannon was right behind me, so I only gained 2 points on him. The big surprise was that Mark had fallen far behind from the effort, indicating that he was not going to have the stamina to be a big threat.

So the main thing was to not let anyone just meander off the front and to do my best to place ahead of Shannon in the sprints. With the slow speeds, it was easy for everyone to regroup after a sprint. Occasionally Tony and Larry would get a gap, still riding slowly, due to both Shannon and Mark trying to force me to work to close the gap. Before the gap got too dangerous, I'd oblige and tow them back up, but still we were not going fast, so it took no energy toll. As we came to hear the bell for the next sprint, Larry made the smart move to take the lead and jumped very hard at the start of the front stretch. Although I was in fourth position at the time, I was watching carefully and successfully jumped hard below the other riders to take his wheel. I waited until the end of the back stretch to start to pass him and had enough of a lead on him coming out of the final turn that I did not need to go full out to take the win, putting me in a tie for first with Shannon at 11 points each at the time. The other riders were also stretched out, so I was very cautious to watch for an attack for a lone break from Shannon (lapping the field would gain him 20 points).

Surprisingly, no attacks occurred. I took the lead as we approached the bell for the 4th sprint, but did not open it up immediately. Tony made a very strong jump from behind at 300 m to go and got a good gap on me, but I chased him down, quickly losing Shannon who was on my wheel, and nipped Tony at the line with a good bike throw for the 3rd sprint win with 5 more points and only 2 points for Shannon with his third place. I now had 16 points with 1 sprint left. Shannon was second with 13, Tony with 8, and Mark with 6.

So Shannon was the only rider that could possibly take the win from me and he would need to win the last sprint and I do no better than third. With about 2 and a half laps to go, Mark slowly rode off the front of our lumbering pack and nobody chased him down. Shannon was watching me and I had no problem letting Mark take the only points that Shannon would need to beat me. Tony had the most to lose if he wanted to keep his third place, but still he also did not chase. Eventually Mark got almost half a lap on us for the easy win of the last sprint, putting him in third ahead of Tony. As we came to the bell, I took the lead with good speed with 350m to go and then punched it at 200m to go. Shannon did a good effort in trying to come around just at the end, but a good bike throw from me gave me the second place points to seal the deal.

This was my first National Championship win in an individual event.

Points accrued (Accumulated points in [ ] ):
Sprint   Lionel   Shannon   Mark   Tony   Larry  
1 1 5 2 3  
2 5 [6] 3 [8] 1 [3] 2 [5]    [0]
3 5 [11] 3 [11] 2 [5]    [5] 1 [1]
4 5 [16] 2 [13] 1 [6] 3 [8]    [1]
5 3 [19] 2 [15] 5 [11] 1 [9]    [1]


 
Outside view of the Dome.
 
 
Colorado Springs Velodrome under the Dome.
 
 
Maverick holding me for the start (3rd position).
 
 
Most of the race was above the blue line.
Tony, Mark, Shannon, Lionel, Larry
 
Podium.
 
Results

Racing page     Bike page