National Sports Center Blog

Track racing hasn't stopped for all of us here in the tundra!

By James Tainter, NSC Systems Programmer/Master's Track Cyclist

The fall colors have started to sneak into the trees here in Minnesota, and for most of us who ride the track at the National Sports Center in Blaine, now is a time to swap out the fixed gear for a mountain or cross bike and get out on some of the great trails we have in and around the city of Minneapolis (yes, there are some GREAT off road trails in and around Minneapolis, some of the best just a 5 minute ride from downtown!).  But for one of our master's riders, the season isn't quite over yet. 

Pat Whalen stuck both feet into the fire this year.  In August he traveled out to Colorado Springs to his first Master's Nationals (earning a 4th place in the points race) and if that weren't enough, he figured he would go down to Sydney Australia to race the Master's World Championships for his first time.  Pat will be contesting the 60+ age group races all week long down under in the land of 'Oz' .  He's doing a good job of sharing his adventure on his blog.  You can check out his updates and photos at:  http://2008downunder.blogspot.com/

Good luck Pat!

Master's Track Nationals, Day 6 - Conclusion

By James Tainter, NSC Systems Programmer/Master's Track Cyclist

When we first arrived out here in Colorado Springs over a week ago, this day seemed SO far away:  the final day of racing.  Team Sprint, Team Pursuit and the Madison are the events on tap for the day.  I teamed up with Ted for the team sprint along with Chris Barbaria from New York.  We crossed the line with a time that would eventually place us 3rd. 

As soon as that event was over I had to take my sprint bars off and throw on my pursuit bars in prep for the 4K team pursuit.  This is an event that has sunk its talons into me.  There is just something about it that I really like;  it hurts, yet its short enough where you can suffer through it and there is also the fact that you are a cog in a 4-man machine and you have three other guys relying on you, and you don't want to let them down.  That fact alone sometimes is enough to push yourself to places you haven't been before.  Local time trailer Dan Casper (MN), Scott Kasin (CO) and Mike Miller (PA) made up the other parts of the team.  One interesting fact about Scott is he, at age 40 - just over a year ago, suffered a heart attack after Master's Road nationals.  So to have him out there burying himself in a team pursuit after something like that was incredible.  Hats off to Scott!  Since his incident Scott has set up a non-profit to help educate people who may not think/know they could be candidates for heart problems and to help them identify the symptoms.  The organization is called "MI Aware".  If you believe you, or someone you know, may be susceptible to heart problems, please check out Scott's foundation.

Going into this event I figured we had a great chance to post a good time.  The team to beat though was the Texas Roadhouse crew, comprised of Kenny Williams (you've heard that name before here), Curtis Tolson, Jason Sprouse and Steven Carol.  These guys are heavy hitters; Kenny and Curtis, between the two of them, have more national jerseys than I can count and Jason is the current world record holder for the Hour attempt for 35-39 year-olds.  The man of the day on our team was local Dan Casper.  Dan definitely was 'feeling it' as he took a full lap pull on his final turn, accelerating the entire way pull us in at 4:39.  After everything was said and done, we were able to secure a silver medal behind the Texas Roadhouse crew.  Hats off to those guys for putting together a great ride.  This was Dan's first year of working on the pursuit and he blew the doors off of it.  I predict big things coming out of this guy next year, mark my words.

Kevin Schaeffer and Dave Gray put together a team at the last minute to participate in this age group as well.  I believe this was the first time they had ever done one and they started out on the conservative side, lifting the entire way and finishing strong.  Their effort secured them a 4th place finish and a spot on the podium!  For not planning on even doing this event, this was a big surprise to them.  Congratulations! 

Next up:  Madison.  Dan teamed up with team pursuit member Mike Miller in the 'young' age group, while Kevin teamed up with Franco from Kenosha WI for the 'old' age group.  After a full week of racing and the day being the hottest of the week (temperatures were touching 90 and the asphalt infield and concrete surface of the 7-11 velodrome made it seem even hotter) my hat goes off to these guys for going out there and mixing it up for 120 laps!  Everyone stayed upright (no crashes) and raced hard and they got to test themselves against some very seasoned (and FAST) Madison teams.  Nice job guys!

Special thanks go out to the follow:

Hollywood Cycles and HED wheels for unsurpassed service and support.  The NSC Registrar Sponsorship group, Bob Williams and the Nationals Sports Center for support and help and for allowing me the time off to prepare and race.  The Bike Line team out of Trexlertown PA, always willing to help out and always good for teaching me something new each year.  Team WUSH for bringing back the fun in road racing, time trials and criteriums for me this year.  And to Kevin's girlfriend Olga for letting us take her brand new car out to Colorado on this trip (if you've ever seen Kevin's truck, you would know how much of a commitment this was for Olga!).  To all the other local racers who came out, I hope you come back next year too, it only gets better.  And to all the friends and family that have offered up so much support behind the scenes (way to many to list) - THANKS!  This would not be possible without your help and support.  And a special thanks to Tiffany for everything you do - those medals are as much yours as mine.

So that's it, 2009 Master's Track nationals are done and in the books.  Thanks for reading.  Check back soon for updates regarding the Blaine track, upcoming racing and yes, Master's Nationals 2010!   

Master's Track Nationals, Day 5 - short recap

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. 

Master's Track Nationals: Day 3, 4

By James Tainter, NSC Systems Programmer/Masters Track Cyclist

A few more of the locals raced today, including myself.  Dave Gray and Kevin Schaeffer participated in 45-49 3K time trail.  Dan Casper and I participated in the 40-44 3K time trail, Linda Sone-Casper in the points race and Greg McCrea (50-54) and Pat Whalen in (60-65) 200TT and match sprints.  Linda raced tonight and I haven't heard how she made out yet, but I did hear she scored some points.  The performance of the day goes to Pat Whalen.  Pat shaved a HALF a SECOND off of his personal best 200 time, and in the 200 meter time trail that is HUGE.  Pat qualified 7th and the top eight go on to match sprinting, so Pat made the cut.  In the first round he had to race the 2nd fastest qualifier, a guy who posted a time an entire second faster than him, but that didn't deter Pat at all.  Pat road the sprint rounds like a pro even though he doesn't have much match sprint experience and this is really his first 'big' competition.  Watching him you would have though he was and old, surly pro at it.  Pat unfortunately lost both of his rides (best 2 out of 3) and went on to race in a 4-up sprint to determine 5th-9th place.  At nationals, medals are given to the first 5 places.  Pat had to win this ride if he wanted to medal.  Again, he road smart and strong, and it came down to a two man race for the line, with Pat closing on the leader, but running out of room to the finish line.  Pat finished 6th other all.   Hats off to Pat -  congratulations!!  Greg also threw down a 200TT but did not make the cut for the sprinting.  I didn't get to chat with him to see if it was a personal best time for him or not, but today was Greg's last day of racing - so hats off to him as well for coming out and performing in the 500 (personal best time), 2K and 200!

The 3K is a new beast to sprinter-type Dave Gray.  But you wouldn't have known it today - Dave set a schedule and target time he wanted to ride and stuck it.  I think there will be more pursuits in Dave's future.  Kevin also road a 3K - but Kevin went out a little 'hot' in his first 1000m and it took a little out of his legs.  But for going out as fast as he did, he was able to hold it together and post his fastest pursuit time since he was out here with me back in '06 for nationals.  Kevin has been working hard and this was a great time for him.  Though if you ask "Skibby" he more than likely won't be that happy with it - even though, as I mentioned, it was is fastest one in 3 years!  I don't know where their times placed them with the other participants - I didn't have time to look because Dan and I were preparing for our 3K efforts that immediately followed theirs on the program.

To put it bluntly, Dan and I have an 'anomoly' in our age group called Kenny Williams.  You may remember the name from my first post (Kenny won the kilo on Tuesday night).  Not to sound like I have a defeatist attitude, but being realistic, I pretty much knew Kenny would win this event.  I also assumed that Jason Sprouse (new comer to our age group who handedly won the pursuit last year at Nationals in the 35-39 bracket) would be a solid second place.  But after that it was a crap shoot.  There were 4-5 of us that could end up in any order, we are all that close. 

Dan road in the 5th heat (there were 8 total).  Dan put together a GREAT ride, shaving 2 seconds off his personal best time, putting himself atop the leader board.  A rider in the next heat bested Dan's time bumping him to 2nd overall.  Heat 7 were the big guns - Kenny and Jason.  These two were incredible to watch, both reeling off top times for the day - Kenny setting a WORLD RECORD for our age group in the process!  So with one heat left (mine) Dan was sitting in 4th place.  If we both bested Dan's time, he would be out of the medals. 

I was pitted against Mike Hutchinsen, a road rider who has recently discovered the track.  I beat Mike by a 100th of a second last year in San Jose and he reminded me of that when we ran into each other at the track the day before!  I figured I would have a hard ride on my hands.  I had a schedule and time down I wanted to hit.  There was no way I was going to touch Kenny's time, so I didn't try to adjust anything for my ride; I would stick to my schedule/plan and try to lift at the end if I had anything left in the tank in order to try and catch Jason.  I ended up riding 'close' to what I wanted to - being cautious not to go out to fast and burn myself up prematurely as I had seen a number of riders do prior to my heat.  Like Dan, I too shaved 2 seconds off my personal best time.  Mike was off his game a bit and I was able to better him this time around.  Dan's time withstood Mike's challenge so the two Minnesota guys ended up 3rd and 5th!!  It was great to have us both up on the podium.  Going in I didn't really care how it sorted out, just as long as we were both up there.

Kenny (3:26)

Jason (3:31)

James (3:34.2)

???? (3:34.8)

Dan (3:35)

I will try to post pictures soon.  Tomorrow:  200TT and match sprinting for Ted Schmid and myself. 

Will have an update for you tomorrow after the dust settles.

Master's Track Nationals, Day 1, 2

By James Tainter, NSC Systems Programmer/Masters Track Cyclist

The racing has begun here in Colorado and it's been hard to keep up on how every one is doing, which is a good thing!  I believe we have EIGHT people representing the NSC/Blaine Velodrome.  Kevin Schaeffer and Dan Casper survived their point races tonight.  Both of which were scorching fast!  After watching the 40-44 age point race, Dan and I both came to the conclusion there are going to be some FAST pursuiters in our age group on Friday.  Greg Mcrae mixed it up in the 2K pursuit today after posting a personal best time in the 500m time trial the previous day.  Linda Sone-Casper just missed the podium in her 2K effort and Pat Whalen posted a best time as well in his 500, though when I asked Pat he admitted he didn't really have a 'best time' since its an event he just stepped in to do - but you have to start somewhere, so nice job Pat!  I had today off after racing the kilo time trial last night.  I admit, even after shifting focus from this event to the pursuit this year, the kilo still means a lot to me.  After seeing who showed up to race and who stayed home, I figured I had a pretty good chance to actually take a shot at winning this year.  I couldn't have asked for a better stage:  I was paired up against Kenny Williams in the last heat of the night.  Kenny is the 'iron man' of track racing and is just getting back into master's racing after having to have sat out for 2 years due to participating at the Pan Am games in '07 and I believe a UCI World Cup (masters loose their 'masters eligibility' if they participate in UCI elite sanctioned events).  He's a multiple national champion as well as elite champion and master's world champion.  So to be paired up to face him in the last heat of the night was the best scenerio I could have.  The best time of the night in our age group was a 1:08.8.  I figured I could eclipse that, but just wasn't sure if I could eclipse whatever it was that Kenny was capable of this night.  But training had been going well and my fitness was better than in years past, and unfortunantly, Kenny had crashed earlier in the season and was coming coming back from surgery to repair a broken collar bone.  Maybe there was a chink in his armor...

I'll spare you the blow-by-blow of the actual ride, but I had that national championship jersey on my back up until the last 170 meters of the 1,000 we had to cover.  Kenny put in a monumental 'push' over those last meters.  That, coupled with me fading a bit was enough for him to catch me and take the championship.  Kenny finished with a 1:07.6, and I was .5 seconds back at 1:08.1 - a personal best time for myself, but somehow the sting of losing overshadowned that for me.  Hats off to Kenny, he's a true hard-man of the sport and a great competitor. 

As mentioned, today was an 'off' day for me.  So, to shake out the legs we got out on a nice road ride that took us up to the Garden of the Gods.  The rock formations up there are fantastic and it was a great diversion from the stress of racinig.  I think everyone here has tomorrow off, but I'm not sure.  Keeping track of everyone's schedule is tough.  I do know that Friday is a big day for Dan and myself - we will be competing in the 3K individual time trial.  With all the big guns here, its going to be a knock-down-drag-out brawl.  We will both need to ride personal bests just to even have a chance of getting on the podium.  

I have pictures to post as well, I just need to get them uploaded.  

Thanks to everyone who has offered encouragement and support - it all helps.

Masters Nationals. Has It Been a Year Already? by James Tainter

You wouldn't have thought we just finished up July here in Minnesota.  Not ONE day above 90 degrees!  Many of the nights the past few weeks up here at the Blaine velodrome have required knee warmers and arm warmers on the infield.  Unheard of here in July.  But July is gone and August is now here.  And with August comes Master's Track Nationals.  This year they are hosted by the 7-11 Velodrome located at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  A few more of the locals have decided to give Nationals a 'go' this year which will add to the fun.  So, in the coming week I am going to try and find my way around the this blog again and try to remember how all this works (posting photo's, etc.).  Check back soon and often for updates! 

The adventure begins August 15.  Racing kicks off August 18.

And I can't wait...

And now for something completely different; NSC cyclocross!

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last Saturday, on a bitter cold and windy day, 156 riders showed up to compete in the 2nd annual NSC Velodrome Cyclocross race. This event was organized by the Little Guy Racing Team, sponsored by the Behind Bars Bicycle Shop, and some of the proceeds from the race will go to the NSC Velodrome Fund, to help promote junior racing and track operations.

If you're not familiar with cyclocross, it's a form of bike racing that combines riding with cross-country running. A typical cyclocross course has barriers that need to be hurdled, steep hills to run up, and technical sections that put a premium on bike handling skills. Cyclocross is a fall sport, and many riders use it as a fun way to keep fitness during the off-season.

Bad weather? It's part of the lore of cyclocross.

Saturday's course circled field U3, twisted around the Velodrome, and even ducked into the Velodrome infield. Each lap took five minutes or so, and races ran from 30 minutes to an hour in length. Here's a sampling of photos I took during the featured Category 1/2 race.

Below: Adam Bergman (front) and Doug Swanson battled back and forth for the lead. Bergman grabbed the lead for good on the last lap and rode to victory.

 

The technical course took riders into the infield of the NSC Velodrome:

 

Bergman shows perfect barrier hurdling form. There was a set of three barriers on the north end of soccer field U3.

If you want to see more of my photos, click here. Local bike journalist Andy Frye has a nice article and a big photo set posted on bikethrow.com, a Minnesota bike racing website.

NSCtv, the NSC's weekly video show, was there to cover the race as well. That show is scheduled to run on the November 20 show. Check it out.

Master's Nationals Track Cycling Championships - Part 6 (Team Sprint, Team Pursuit - The END!)

I usually ride 3rd man in the team sprint - it has treated me well in the past.  I almost always have good rides and can usually make up time on our opponents.  Today it wasn't so.  Matt started (as usual) - and we decided that between Anton and myself, that I would close it out in 3rd position.  Anton was FLYING and I think it may have taken a little more out of me than normal trying to hold his wheel because I stunk it up bad on my lap.  We ended up at a 1:07.7... with one team to go.  Well, that one team contained Jeff Solt and Bobby Walthour.  I rolled around the cool down track an watched as they road to a 1:07.1.  Another silver...  My streak of 'good' team sprints has ended.  I felt bad for letting down the other guys I road with.  But what can I say... the legs just weren't there for it.

I was a bit upset with the effort, so was more than a little fired up to try to redeem myself in the team pursuit.  I have never ridden this event at Nationals before, but figured I would give it a go this time around since my individual pursuit times had been coming down.  I was able to team up with Mike Miller from T-town PA, Scott Mercier from CA and Tom Mains from Jersey.  I was excited, we had some good engines in this group.  The only thing against us was that we had never ridden together as a team and all the other teams we were competing against had specifically worked on this event, practicing together for it.

I ended up starting 4th position.  We got into a little trouble right a way when our 2nd and 3rd riders almost rain into each other coming off the start line.  Then, our 3rd rider pulled his foot out of the pedal.  I heard this and was just waiting for the gun to fire to indicate a re-start, but it never did.  Apparently the rider must indicate they want a restart, not the official.  So, I had to drop in early behind the 2nd rider and we were off and running.  Tom (the guy who pulled his foot) chased hard to catch back onto the train - and to my surprise did!  We got a couple of laps under our belt and things were rolling, but the energy he expended having to chase us down to get on after the foot incident was too much for him, and he came off after the 3 lap.  So, there we were, myself, Mike and Scott - with 3K ahead of us to do without our 4th man.  I was actually feeling pretty good, and we were taking full 1 lap pulls.  For never riding together, we were doing ok.  I ended up pulling the last lap to the finish and tried to lift as much as I could.  Scott dropped off the pace a bit, but not by much.  I heard someone say something which I interpreted as "UP!", but in fact Scott was trying to tell us to ease up a bit.  We came across at 4:46.  Respectable, especially since we did the majority of it with only 3 riders.  At that time we were sitting 2nd but there were still a couple of teams to go.  After it was all said and done - 4th place was ours.  I was never a big fan of the pursuit disciplines, but to be honest, I'm starting to get the bug.

Stearns county star Ted Schmidt also secured a silver in the team sprint today too  (30+).  Pretty darn good for his first National event.  Nice job Ted!   

The best news of the day - my roommate Scott Butler was able to get a championship jersey on the last day by winning the 50+ team sprint! 

Week Re-cap:  silver kilo, silver 3K pursuit, 5th place match sprints, 4th place team pursuit, Best All-Around rider 40-44 age group.  I would have really liked to have pulled a jersey out of this week, but it just wasn't in the cards this year.  I met a lot of great people this trip out - and learned a lot.  Not just about racing, but some personal things too. 

Again, many THANKS to the Northeast Crew, the National Sports Center, the Housesitter, the NSC Registrar Sponsorship Fund, the Fremont Sponsorship Fund, Hollywood Cycles, HED Wheels, Bike Line bicycle club out of PA, The Bike Shop in Marshall MN and everyone who has been checking in and providing moral support during all this.  BIG THANKS to Scott Butler, Andy Buck and Chip Berezny (The Bike Line boys).  There is something to say about knowing how to travel and having your crap together and these guys do.  Maybe its the fact that between the three of them they have close to something like 70-80 yrs of racing/traveling experience between them along with multiple Master's national titles and a couple of world titles as well.  When I come to things like these, I always like to be able to come back home with more knowledge than what I left with from events like this - and I definitely accomplished this, this time around.

My week of being a pretend bike racer is over.  The real world beacons.  I start the 2100 mile drive back home tomorrow. 

      Receiving the Best All-Around Rider jersey. 

    checking out the BAR plaque.

Master's Nationals Track Cycling Championships - Part 5 (200TT and Match Sprints)

This is going to be brief because I have to get to the track for the final day of racing (team sprint and team pursuit).  I qualified 3rd out of 26 guys yesterday with an 11.7?  After everything was said and done my first ride was going to be against my own team sprint team member, Matt D. from T-town.  We talked about it and decided it was best to not beat each other up and save ourselves for the team sprint today.  Our other teammate (Anton Quist) had qualifed first and would more than likely win the event (he did).  Matt initially was going to let me go through and win the rides so I could compete in the semi's later that night.  But after thinking it over, and having a full week of racing in my legs, I decided to step aside and let Matt take the rides.  So I ended up riding in the 5-9 final while Matt went on to ride in the semi's later that night.  He ended up 4th. 

Sometimes you have to take one for the team.  It will come around for me some day (remember the 'banked karma'?).  I have no reservations about the decision.  It was the smart thing to do.

I  got a nice surprise last night when I was awarded the "Best All-Around Rider" award for the 40-44 age group.  Pictures from last night and more updates on the BAR award later.  I got get going.  Team sprint and Team pursuit await!!! 

Adios!

Master's Nationals Track Cycling Championships - Part 4 (3K Pursuit)

After having a couple of days off, I was slotted to ride the 3K individual pursuit in the morning session today.  The other's all had 200's and sprint rounds right a way in the morning.  They all made the cut (top 8) so in turn, they all got to sprint.  Andy qualified 8th and Chip 3rd in the 55-59 and Scott qualified 1st in the 50-54 group, with most of the qualifiers all grouped within 10'ths of a second of each other.  Andy unfortunately got dispatched during the early rounds.  Scott and Chip ended up going through and making it to the semi's, that would take place in the evening session.  Normally, a guy would go home and get off his feet and out of the sun between sessions if they need to come back in the evening to race.  But Scott was a rock star and stuck around to help me with my pursuit schedule and to 'walk the line' for me. 

I laid out a 3:38 schedule. A 'schedule' being how fast you 'plan' on riding each lap of you nine lap effort.  I figured a 3:38 would win it, plus it is my personal best time for this event and I at least wanted to match this, and if possible, lift at the end oand possibly set a new PR time.

"walking the line":  This is a technique for communicating these schedule times to the rider on the track.  If you have ever watched a pursuit at the track before, chances are you also saw a coach or fellow rider, standing next to the track yelling out numbers (time splits) to the rider on the track.  "walking the line" communicates these time splits to the rider in a non-verbal manner.  This technique was taught to both Scott and I from a previous coach of ours and it works rather well.  You have a static object next to the track where the rider can see it (a water bottle, shirt, shoe, anything).  The person walking the line uses this as a starting point.  For each 10th of a second the rider is "off" their time (slow), the walker takes a step "past" the "line".  For every 10th of a second the rider is "over" their schedule (fast), the walker takes a step "back" from the line.  This method enables the rider to visually see where they are at related to their schedule.  It also takes away the chance that something is not heard, or mis-heard.  It works really slick when done correctly. 

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect out of myself today.  It was HOT day and I wasn't sure how the two days off were going to treat me - sometimes you can come up flat if you aren't active enough on those days.  Or you can come up fatigued if you are too active those days. 

Mike MaCarthy was the man to beat.  Mike is a past elite world pursuit champion (I can't recall the year).  So obviously, he knows how to ride this event.  As far as others, I had no idea who they were or what they could ride, so I was just going to go out and rock it as hard as I could, the best I could and see where I stood after all the times came in.

I was the 8th heat of 13.  So I would be able to see the times of the 14 guys a head of me, but after my ride there would still be 10 guys that could take a shot at the time I posted.  The one thing I didn't want to do was 'check out' during the middle of the ride like I did last year in Trexlertown and have it cost me a gold.  I was determined that would not happen this time around.   

(ok - I would like to go into more detail on this ride, but I have a migraine headache from either dehydration or heat stroke and I'm tired and need to get my bike set up for tomorrow's sprinting - so the following is going to be abbreviated)

I went out hot - but it felt really good.  Scott walked the line great for me.  But on lap 3 he had to yell at me to throttle it back a bit.  Looking back, that is what saved me.  Without that verbal queue, I would have went up in flames 3 laps later and limped home.  I adhered to his request... I tried to soft pedal a bit and take the edge off and fall into a cadence that I could push, and that hurt, but hurt just enough that I could tolerate it until the end, but not so much that it would destroy me before the finish.  With 4 laps to go I still had him pushed back from our 'line' a significant distance - BONUS!  With 3 laps to go (one kilometer) I did a quick check of all my systems.  The suffering was increasing but I determined  I could endure it for 3 more laps without falling off the pace.  With 2 to go, my confidence was boosted even more.  I started feeling good about things, and almost started to pat myself on the back mentally, thinking, "dang, this was a good ride"... then Scott brought me back to reality with a somewhat concerned tone of "come on!!!!" (or something like that, my memory isn't so good right now).  So with one to go I really tried to bury myself.  I could hear the announcer, but couldn't make out what he was saying.  I tried to throw my bike at the line best I could, but I don't think it amounted to much.  I was toast.  I tried to listen to the announcer as I coasted around the track trying to figure out how to put out the fire that had erupted in my lungs.  I hear something about 8 hundredths of a second... but I didn't know what.  After rolling a little longer, I made it out.  I had edged the guy who started across from me on the track by 8/100th's of a second!  Then the other news... 3:36!!!

My time stuck until Heat 12 when MaCarthy road a great ride of 3:33.

I've been on the other side of that 8/100th's before.  My first year at Master's Worlds in Manchester England I lost out on a bronze medal in the kilo by 3/1000's! -- of a second.  There have been other times as well when I have been on that other side.  "Banked karma" is the term Scott used.  I like it.  Lord knows, I've made my share of deposits.  So the withdrawal today was well received. 

Below, the podium of the 40-44 3K Time Trail, and the best sight I have seen in a LONG time...

 

200's and Sprinting tomorrow, check back tomorrow night for all the details.