Masters NCNCA District (State) Track Championships, 8/25-26/2018

By Dennis Pedersen

I haven't been racing much the last few years, because I have been so focused on just District, National and World Championships. It's hard to train properly while also racing local races. But Masters District Track Championships are still a big deal to me, and a great way to gauge my fitness leading up to Masters Track Cycling World Championships. 

When I got home from Worlds last year I took a week off to rest, but then started training heavily (pun intended) at Santa Cruz Strength again, and over the next few months I set a number of PRs in various lifts, including bench press, squats, and deadlifts. I also started training with Tony Colicchio, another track cyclist that my coach, Jeff Solt, coaches. Having a training buddy helps to push me further. There is a link between strength and speed on the track, but it isn't a direct link. My hope was that my higher strength would fill in some performance gaps in my racing fitness. 

I skipped Nationals this year and last, because it was earlier in the season and I didn't want another long training season. That's what's required to properly prepare to be fast in early July (Nationals), then again in late August (Districts) and early October (Worlds), and I didn't want to burn out. 

In July I started to train more intensively on the bike with Coach Jeff, increasing my rides from 1 or 2 days a week to 3 days, then 5 or 6. At the same time I backed off on the gym workouts, from 4 days a week to 3 days, then just 2 days. 

Because of my shorter training season Jeff and I agreed I would mostly train right through Districts, held at Hellyer Park Velodrome, San Jose, so as to prioritize my preparations for Worlds. (You can read about the various types of races on the NCVA site).

Saturday: Match Sprints

I was skeptical I could do well in the match sprints but I signed up anyway, because you never know, and they can be very fun and exciting, even for spectators. But I had some tough competition: Bill Nighan, who I barely beat last year, had been riding really strong this year, and Rich Rozzi, who beat me in 2014 when we were both in the 50 to 54 age group, was once again in my 55 to 59 age group. There were only 4 riders in our group, which was disappointing. 

For the qualifying runs, we did our usual flying 200 meter runs. It was a bit windy and cool, so not great for speed. But I managed to qualify fastest, much to my surprise, with a 12.15 second run, hitting 38.6 mph max (in 96.4-inch gears). Bill got a 12.34, Rich a 12.51, and returning trackie Craig Parker a 12.63. Our matches would be two laps, winner would be best-of-three heats. 

Semi-Finals

Heat 1:
I was matched against the slowest qualifier, Craig Parker. We drew numbers and he took the lead in the start, while Coach Jeff held me on my bike next to the rail at the top of the banking. He rode very slowly along the rail ahead of me, which left him vulnerable to attacks. I won by seizing the lead in turn 3 by jumping below him from behind, and into the pole lane. I then floated a bit into turn 1, did a bit of a jump on the back straight, but never hit 100%. 

Heat 2:
I led this heat, in my second  round with Craig. I won by steadily increasing my speed, looking over my shoulder almost continuously; I just had to match his speed when he attempted to pass. But he always left too small a gap to run, or none. So I was never caught off guard and I advanced to the Gold finals round. 

In the meantime, Rich beat Bill, so Rich advanced to the Gold finals with me, while Bill would be matched against Craig in the Bronze finals. 

Finals

Heat 1:
Rich and I drew numbers, and he got the lead at the start. We started slow, with me just slightly behind and above him, but Rich quickly accelerated until we were moving along at a fairly brisk pace. I dropped in behind him to draft, save a little energy, and coming out of turn 2 on the last lap I was able to drop down from the banking a little, run the gap, and pass him into turn 3. I held him off, hitting 35.5 mph max, for the win.

Heat 2:
Me, Rich. I went as slow as I could reasonably do, zig-zagging a bit up-and-down track, and he followed fairly closely behind me. In turn 3 on the first lap, I was about halfway up the track and he was still going too slow and too close. Out of turn 4 I was able to use the banking to attack. He followed too closely behind me, and when he tried to pass me in turn 3 I was able to accelerate one more time to maintain my lead. As we exited turn 4 I knew he would try to attack, so I jumped instead, and held him off at the line. It's unusual that I have the legs to jump three times, but I felt good today. We hit 35.8 mph max.

Match Sprints Podium: Rich, Dennis, Craig

In an upset, Craig beat Bill to seize the Bronze. And I was the Champion for the 3rd year in a row. So, for me, the match sprints ended up being a super fun, exciting, and motivating experience. 

Sunday: Timed Events

The weather continued with cool, windy mornings, which isn’t ideal for high speeds. 

500 meter Time Trial

This standing-start time trial is just about 1.5 laps at Hellyer, but still a pretty cool race. For the competitors anyway. Our bikes are held by an official, and we strap ourselves into them, get a countdown timer, and try to channel all of our anger into forcing the bike up to speed when the clock starts. I apparently had more anger than the others, because I not only got Gold in my age group, but also set the fastest 500m of all the age groups that day, out of 26 riders, with a 37.06-second run. Rich got 2nd, with 38.02, Larry Nolan 3rd, with 38.08. My legs did feel good, throughout the run, but I was still not at my PR level. 

500m time sheet.

I used a lower 92.6-inch gearing for this as an experiment, resulting in a max cadence of about 130 RPM, in case you were wondering, based on some research I’d done on the pedaling cadences (pedaling RPM) of Pro track racers. There is an optimum cadence for power, and I believe I may have been geared too high in the past… while I’m still not certain, this event shows that perhaps I was right to “gear down” this time. 

Team Sprint

Earlier this year, Rich Rozzi, Bill Nighan and I had decided to form a team for the team sprints. But a couple of weeks before Districts, Bill dropped out to join a different team. That was disappointing. But we were able to get Kurt Bickel to join us instead, and we got to train together a little before this race. 

There were only four teams competing, of which just two were in our 55 to 64 age group. We were "Team 1," and felt confident we had a good chance against "Team 4," which had strong riders: Ray Gildea, George Miranda, and Larry Nolan. In other times some were my teammates, and almost were this year too. But putting together a team is complicated. 

I was man 1, the starter; Rich was man 2; Kurt was man 3, the “anchor.” My start felt great, my legs felt strong throughout my lap, and as I pulled off after lap 1, my job done, I was very happy to see Kurt closely following Rich. They continued around until Rich pulled off, and Kurt's lap 3 looked good to me. Our main concern had been that Kurt would not be able to stay right behind Rich, because standing starts aren't his specialty. But Kurt had a nice start, only getting gapped for part of lap 1. 

But while we managed to beat two of the other teams with our time of 1:13.29 (my lap 1 was at 35.6 mph max, in 94.5-inch gearing), we ended up losing to "Team 4" (with 1:11.97). And since they were in our age group we ended up with Silver. Our lap times tell the story:

Rider:	Lap Time:	E.T.:
Team 1:
Dennis	25.61
Rich Rozzi	23.27	48.88
Kurt Bickel	24.41	1:13.29
Team 4:
Ray Gildea	26.35
George Miranda	22.59	48.94
Larry Nolan	23.03	1:11.97

Unexpectedly, it was our lap 3 that hurt us, though admittedly Larry's lap 3 was pretty amazing. When I won TS at Districts in 2016, our time was 1:10.96… and I know we can be faster. So, if we wanted to be competitive at Worlds, we had just 6 weeks to do it! 

So my long off-season and short training period didn’t hurt me at Districts, that I can tell, and I’m hoping my current training will add even more speed to my legs for Worlds.