By James Tainter, NSC Systems Programmer/Masters Track Cyclist
This is going to be short because its late here and I've been in a skin suit for most of the day racing, and for those of you who have never had the pleasure of being in one of these skin tight lycra outfits, sweating all day, its not very pleasant.
Today we had Ted Schmid and I match sprinting and Pat Whalen riding the points race.
Pat narrowly avoided being taken out by a crash about half way through his point race. Pat went on to earn 4th place finish, scoring points in three of the sprints and finishing strong. Pat earned his first nationals medal!
Ted and I both road personal best times in the 200 and both qualified to sprint. There were three guys in our group UNDER 11 seconds! And Ted had the 'pleasure' of having to sprint one of them the first round, not an easy task. But Ted went on to ride a great 5th-8th final to win the ride and take his first individual national medal! (Ted won a silver last year in San Jose in his first attempt at National competition). I was able to some how get through my sprint rounds and after the dust settled, snuck out a bronze. I still can't really believe it. Totally unexpected.
So all three Minnesotans that raced today, medaled. It was great having all the guys/gals there who weren't racing - helping out and just being there for support. We have a great group out here.
More coming tomorrow - for now I have to eat and get to bed.
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