USA Cycling Masters Track National Championships, 8/26-9/1/2019

By Dennis Pedersen

This year, because the UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships are in gray, industrial Manchester, England, I had no interest in going there and focused entirely on the USA Cycling Masters Track National Championships, held in Carson, near Los Angeles, at the amazing indoor wooden track there, part of the Dignity Health Sports Park.

As I mentioned in my Districts race report, I trained pretty much from right after World's last year through the end of August. I was coached by Sy Shaddox for my weight training (at Santa Cruz Strength, and Jeff Solt for my cycling. I lifted weights three times a week and rode twice a week over the winter, shifting to lifting twice a week and riding three or four times a week starting on May 1st. No breaks at all during those months… luckily I enjoy working out. I also entered a few LAVRA races at the LA track (Carson is just north of downtown Los Angeles) for specific training on the 45-degree banked track with tight turns. I also had Craig at Spokesman Bicycles glue up some sticky Vittoria Pista Speed tires, specifically for use on wooden tracks like the LA velodrome.

This year I was again able to bring my wife, Margaret, with me to Los Angeles. We drove down on Sunday, spent a little time in Disneyland, and had some nice dinners by the ocean too before the racing started at Nationals on Tuesday. Life is short, and I don't want to miss out on living life too. I didn't become a racer to live like a monk.

Tuesday, August 27th, Match Sprints

My first day of racing started on Tuesday morning: Match Sprints in my age group, 55 to 59. I felt very comfortable, and felt barely any nerves at all, a huge contrast to Worlds in 2017, and somewhat in Worlds in 2018, where I had some trepidation about this event. Margaret was there to help me and encourage me.

Qualifying

Warming up for the 200m
(Photo: Margaret P.)

As always, Match Sprint tournaments start out with a timed flying-200m qualifying ride to determine "seeding" of the riders in the tournament. Setting a fast time improves your odds of advancing into each successive round, as the faster qualifiers are usually seeded (matched) against the slower qualifiers.

I selected 99.7 gear inches (48x13t), based on previous luck with this gearing. I had considered renting a front disk wheel, but in the end settled for my usual vintage Zipp 808 front wheel and Zipp 900 rear disk. I did my best to build up speed in the wind-up, just as I had last year at Worlds, to avoid using too much energy. I felt pretty good when I rushed down the banking to start the 200m timed section, and thought I did a decent job of powering through the turns, which is always difficult. But you never know how well you do until you see your time in the results. Fortunately, this year I was able to set another PR (personal record) in my flying 200m, hitting 40 mph max, stopping the clock at 11.877 seconds! That was awesome. I had qualified in 6th place; what a great way to start the week! I then switched to lower 96.4-inch gearing (50x14t), rested, and prepared to do battle in the actual sprints.

1/16 Finals

Lining up against Shon
(Photo: Margaret P.)

For the 1/16 finals I was matched against Shon Halasi, from El Segundo. I knew nothing about him, except that he qualified 13th, at 13.116 seconds. We drew numbers on a tablet, and I drew a "2," meaning that I could start after him, and higher up on the track. At the end of our first very slow lap (out of 3 laps), he slowed way down to force me ahead of him, hoping to gain the benefit of my draft, and ended up stopping completely for a "track stand." He was so focused on getting his balance just right, that I sensed a huge opportunity. I jumped and opened a massive gap, then rode at a tempo pace for 2 laps, hitting just 33.6 mph max for an easy win. I thus advanced to the ⅛ finals.

⅛ Finals

Blocking James in turn 1
(Photo: Margaret P.)

This time I drew a "1" against James Nakae, who qualified just behind me in 7th, with a nice 12.058. We slowly rode along, until he went up-track to the rail, with me following closely next to him. He tried to come around me a few times, but I was always there to block him. After 1-1/2 laps, we entered turn 3 still at a fairly low speed, and I thought I still had him blocked pretty well. However, he took a massive risk and dropped behind and below me, surprising me and missing my rear wheel by just 1 inch according to people who were watching. But he then sprinted all-out down the home straight and into our final lap, with me in hot pursuit in his draft. Coming out of turn 2 in the final lap, I could tell he was tiring and I was able to get next to him in turn 3. And coming out of turn 4 higher up the banking than James I had momentum in my favor and won by about a bike length.

¼ Finals

With the slower riders now out of the race, I was matched against the third-place qualifier, Rich Rozzi, who also happens to be my team-mate in Team Sprint. He qualified with a very nice 11.707 seconds so I knew this race would be difficult, just as it had been for me at our Districts, where he beat me in the semifinals. Because we're also teammates, we shared a space in the track's infield, with his girlfriend and my wife becoming great friends and being supportive of us all. So it was a little awkward for them when we raced against each other. But it's all in good fun, right?

Ride 1:
I drew a "2" against Rich, and went high up the track, forcing the pace higher, and surprised him in turn 3, with over one lap remaining, by riding hard above him, and sprinting quite hard for most of the last lap. But as I neared the finish I sensed him gaining on me, and though I was at 100% by then I lost by a few agonizing inches at the very end. Darn.

Ride 2:

Rich and me rolling up to the start line (Photo: Margaret P.)

This time I started first against Rich. I zigged a little ahead of him, then went high on the back straight to force him ahead of me. His momentum carried him past me at first, but then he slowed way down. I faked a track stand, and when I noticed Rich looking to his left to locate me, I jumped 100% over his right, opening a huge gap, and then went hard for 2-1/2 laps, looking back at him to gauge the effort needed to maintain my lead. But in the end we finished just like our ride 1, as I again lost by inches. I kept wondering: did I go too hard at first? Or should I have gone harder sooner? I'm still not sure, as it's hard to gauge your effort over that long of a sprint. All I know is that I tried to keep ahead of him and it didn't work. So I was now out of the medals. Sigh.

Minor Finals

It's a bummer to be so close to the Gold medal round, only to be demoted to the minor finals where 5th through 8th place are decided in a 4-up race, but such was my lot. The minor finals were held during the evening session, so we had plenty of time to recover from the morning's sprints, where I had raced six times. I must admit, I wasn't that motivated at this point. To me the difference between 5th and 8th didn't seem that significant, so I went into this with a little less energy than usual.

My poor minor finals start (Photo: Josh Burton)

I drew "3." I was up against Bob Francis, starting in 1, Darrell Farlow in 2,and Tim Gaidis in 4. My holder wasn't Jeff like the last few years, and I probably should have coached my holder a little on the best technique for holding. As it was, when the whistle blew the other riders all got a nice push, and that's important in a 4-up race, as these usually end up being at a much higher average speed than 2-up races. I caught up and drafted Tim who was up-track from the others, and blocking Darrell in the pole behind Bob, for a bit, but Darrell started to push, literally, Tim up-track so he could pass, and after some bumping around he surged forward, though a final flick made Tim veer, almost hitting my front wheel just as I started to ride over him… I was pretty much out, and finished behind them. So I finished 8th overall, while Rich finished in 2nd.

Friday, August 29th, Individual Events

For me, this day was for racing my 500m ITT (individual time trial); a standing-start drag race. I used 96.4-inch gearing again and a rented front FFWD disk wheel for better aerodynamics, especially in the second lap. I'd won this event at our Districts, so I thought I had a good chance at a podium finish, and if I could PR I might even win, who knows?

In the start gate for my 500m ITT
(Photo: Margaret P.)

I was the 15th starter out of 18 total. I got up onto the apron with my bike and handed it to the official who clamped it into the starting gate which is connected to the timing system. I strapped into my pedals and focused on the countdown. I tried to channel my anger into the pedals at the "0" tone, and rode my heart out. I clipped a few of the foam pads lining the edge of the track with my left pedal in my careening haste, and thought "I must be doing well." But it's so hard to keep the power up in the tight turns at the LA track, and I caught myself a few times letting the power drop. So I wasn't sure how I had done when I crossed the line, even though I was cautiously optimistic.

Lap 1 of my 500m ITT (Photo: Josh Burton)

I had finished my first lap in 20.926, and finished the two-lap race in a total of 36.610 seconds. Not great, not even as fast as I'd gone at our Districts on a slower track. I was not too happy, but philosophical, as my final 5th place was about what I had expected. Had I equaled my previous PR I'd still only have finished in 3rd place. 5th was still good for a podium appearance and a token Bronze medal. My Team Sprint teammates, Martin Harris and Rich Rozzi, finished 1st and 2nd, which boded well for our Team Sprint chances!

Sunday, September 1, Team Events

I rested thoroughly on Saturday, and had a big pancakes and eggs breakfast to prepare for our 55+ Team Sprint, in the Sunday afternoon session, my priority race for the whole season. Rich, Martin and I had trained for this a lot, but the field was stacked with 24 fast riders from all over the country. I thought we were definitely in the running, though perhaps not the obvious favorites. Margaret and I entered the lap splits from all of the 500m results into a spreadsheet for each 3-man team (most Team Sprint entrants raced the 500m too), to guesstimate how all eight teams compared. I was optimistic, but there was one team that looked really fast on paper, but I thought perhaps their assumed starting-order would hurt them.

After warming up and getting everything ready (I kept the 96.4-inch gearing), we awaited our heat, heat 2 of the 4 heats (they started two teams at a time, from opposite sides of the track), which came at about 2:15 pm. We lined up in our start order, with my bike clamped into the start gate, and Rich above me to my right as our "man 2," and Martin above him as our "man 3," both held up by officials. I focused and breathed along with the countdown timer, and at "0" I went as hard as I could, gapping Rich a little for the first half lap before he came even with my rear wheel. At the end of my lap I came out of turn 4 and shifted slightly above the red line at the top edge of the pole lane, thus allowing Rich to start to sneak past me on my left for a head-start on his lap 2. I swung up-track and breathed while Rich and Martin continued on, close together. So far everything looked good. As Rich pulled off too, Martin looked fast and finished lap 3 strong. It was with great amusement that I heard the announcer say, "New Best Time sets a new best time" ... our team was named "New Best Time" as a fun joke.

Me, with Rich and Martin following, in lap 1 of our Team Sprint
(Photo: Josh Burton)

We watched the other 7 teams do their rides, each time hoping to stay in the lead, and each timed we breathed a sigh of relief as our time held. Until the last heat, when team "Medium Sausage Pizza" beat us by just 0.417 seconds. Argh! I had thought they'd start in a different order, but they were able to stay fairly close together, barely, and eke out the small margin of victory. Oh well, winning Silver ain't bad either, especially given the quality of competition we had faced.

In a post-mortem of our Team Sprint, I saw that while Martin and I both were third-fastest in our respective laps, Rich had ridden the fastest lap 2 of anyone! So I was bummed about not going any faster, but my 20.842-second lap 1 was pretty decent for me, and my best all year, though still not a PR (I had hoped to best my old lap-1 PR of 20.523 from 2017 Worlds). Had I done so, and had Martin been just 0.1 faster, we would have won. But that's Monday-morning quarterbacking, and I will just have to hope that next time I will be able to reach my full potential.

Martin, Rich, and I with our Silver medals
(Photo: Margaret P.)

Final Thoughts

So, was I happy with how I had done this year? Partly. I was pretty happy to have set a PR in my flying-200m, for sure, and I thought I rode well during the Match Sprints too. But I won't deny I was disappointed at being somewhat slow in my 500m ITT, and in my Team Sprint lap 1.Still, the season went pretty well for me, even as I got older, and I am certain I am stronger and a faster rider than ever. And I am so happy not to be burned out at the end of this season, unlike some past years. I am looking forward to competing next year, though my plans hinge mostly on where Nationals will be held in 2020. We shall see.

Speaking of the future, I haven’t yet decided what my 2020 season will consist of, but I will restart my weight training next week so I will be as prepared as possible for whatever comes along. My hope is that the 2020 Nationals will be in either LA again, or Colorado Springs. Training for Colorado's track would be simpler as it is so similar to Hellyer, but LA is such an awesome track that I’m OK with either.

Thanks for reading!