New York State Track Championships

A nice way to spend a Friday afternoon, track racing with friends. I teamed up with Ken Harris and Tony Slocar for the 1/2/3 catagory and went up against Lacorte and his teamates. We lost by two seconds. Better luck next time! I did the Masters 30+ with Harry Zaverdas and Derrick Davis. We had to two heats. Our first heat was perfect. Harry was running a very light gear and he's a pretty slim guy, so he took off like a bat outa Ozzy show. Derrick caught up to him and i was right his draft. Harry's top speed wasn't blazing, but that's good because it paced Derrick's effort, since he was still pushing a lot of air. He really turned it up though on his lap. I was running a 50x14 and that gave me a lot to push off and I really surged through my lap. We did a 1:30.96.

My next heat was the 1/2/3 with Ken and Tony. We had Tony start and both me and Ken passed Tony in the start, but that is better than Tony taking off too fast. We got organized and I felt strong on my lap, a little less though than my earlier effort. Ken flew through his lap and we did 1:28.21, came 2 sec short of Lacorte's team.

I had one more heat with the Masters. This one was a little off. I didn't have enough time to fully recover from my last effort, as one of our opponents was late to meet his wife. Harry was a little all over the place through the back straight. Derrick's effort was amazing but mine was sub par.

I ended up with Silver for the 1/2/3 and the Master's 30+!

Saturday I did my kilo and went home. Andrew did a 1:11.92 which is amazing. I did 1:16.76, which is as fast as I have ever done. That got me the Bronze. Tony got the Silver with 1:15.54. I didn't do the points race and just went home to work. I was a little disappointed that I was so spent from the Friday's team sprints. The three starts, even though they weren't full on kilo starts, took it out of me. I also was looking at Chis Hoy's start technique and I changed my start body mechanics, bringing my hips close to the bars, locking out my arms and exaggerating the hip extension. This changes the movement to something more like the second pull phase of the clean. A little more practice with this new technique and I will shave a second or two off my kilo.

Sunday was sprint day. I had a full plate of races: three rounds of sprints, scratch race and keirin. The first round of sprints was against Ken and Tony. I knew they were going to work together to try to get a win. I looked at Ken's gear and figured that he was going to go long and Tony was going to try come around me at the end. I had the fastest time so I was last. Andrew told me to get in between them and bust up their team work. Tony tried to block me getting between them and he bounced right off me, checked me again and I knocked him out of his pedal. Ken jumped when he saw Tony blocking. I chased him down got the win. 

My next heat was Tadeusz Marszalek and Nelson Li. Jared ran up to me as we started and told me to watch Nelson. He looked fast, he was a thick sprinter type. I had the rear. I knew that Todd was going to attack several times to try and wear me out. He jumped right out of corner two. I reacted and he quickly pulled up. Nelson jumped underneath and went to kilo me. I knew that I was going to have to time it right not give Todd a chance to come around me. I waited until we came back to corner two and jumped into the back stretch. That got me into the finals.

Scratch race. I put my 88" on and figured on tail-gunning. The field was spread out, pretty quick. Todd, Tony and Ken kept attacking and I kept reacting. I was intent on not doing any work except bridging, which I did a lot of. Once I would catch them I would just sit in. I went with about six attacks. I kept dragging up the the rest of the field and fought to keep it together. Eventually I let Tony and Todd go and then Ken bridged up, I chased for a little bit. I knew that this combo would wear me out for the rest of the day. I gave up my pursuit. I pulled laps with the next three guys back and sprinted them for 4th. Omnium Points!

My final match sprint was next. I had to go up against Andrew Lactorte. I knew that he was going to win but I didn't want to just give it to him. Ken told me to try and get him angry so he makes a mistake. He said I should laugh at his little jumps and fakes. I got him to skid into a trackstand and gave a little chuckle. He jumped on me on corner two. It took everything I had to reel him in. I got into his draft and hung for a second before trying to come around. He kept that half wheel advantage the whole time, razoring me to the line. It was a crowd pleaser.

My last race was the keirin. Ken, Tony and I worked out a plan to get me the win them the podium. Ken was going to take the motor, and string the race out, Tony was to take second and I third. On the sprint we were going to go three wide so that anyone else would have to take a really high road around us. Sounded good. I drew the motor, which would have had me freaked out if I hadn't had the plan. Ken took the motor but Tony didn't take second. I kept second wheel and Nelson Li took third. As the motor took us up to seed, I started looking around for attacks from behind. Nothing but a pace line. When the motor left, Ken turned up the heat even more. I kept looking back for any surprise jumps. I came up a little and Nelson took the opportunity to come underneath and push me out of Ken's draft. I was out in the wind. I knew that I would have to keep him boxed in, that I had to tough it out. We elbowed around for three fourths of a lap before I took off the back straight into corner three. I got the win with Ken in second and Nelson for third.

Medals: 1/2/3 Keirin Gold, 1/2/3 Team Sprint Silver, Masters 30+ Team Sprint Silver, 1/2/3 Match Sprint, Silver, 1/2/3 Kilo Bronze and 1/2/3 Omnium Bronze. Not a bad day! I celebrated that night at finish line for Victor's Longboard Alleycat.