NCNCA District (State) Track Championships, 9/2021

 By Dennis Pedersen

This year has seen the return of racing to Hellyer Park's velodrome after over a year marked by closures and limited sessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 

I restarted training in November, 2020, with plans to focus on the 2021 Masters Track World Championships. I had raced at the 2017 and 2018 Worlds, and I was looking forward to getting a chance to improve on my results.

Last year's Worlds was to be held in Manchester, England but had been canceled due to COVID-19, not surprisingly. This year's was to be held at the VELO Sports Center near Los Angeles, in Carson City, in October. I figured the pandemic restrictions would be reduced enough to not get in the way by then.

For this season I even hired a new coach, Adey Dent, because my two teammates for the team sprint, Rich Rozzi and Martin Harris, were already coaching with him, and it made sense to have coordinated training. I was able to attend fairly regular advanced training sessions with them at Hellyer on Sunday mornings, plus race in several local races there. 

For this year I was completely focused on team sprint, and secondarily the 500 m individual time trial (ITT). Read about these types of racing here. As much as I have enjoyed match sprints in the past, the tournament format is very exhausting and lowers my odds of doing well in the other events, so I've skipped them for now. 

Elite Championships, 8/8/2021

A couple of weeks before our Masters Championships we had the Elite Districts, racing against all the young guys. We decided to enter that as a way to get training in official events, with proper holders and timing, in the team sprints, and also our 500 m ITTs. I skipped the match sprints which were on Saturday. 

I was a little disappointed with my 500 m ITT (38.46 seconds), which has been consistently slow this year. But then again, my teammates also seem to be a little slower in the 500 m. Maybe we're just getting old? Or maybe it's that I only used my spoked warm-up wheels instead of my faster Zipp racing wheels? 

After a restart caused by my right shoe not being clipped in, we were pretty pleased with our team sprint time, 1:11.31, which gave us a silver medal (gold time was an amazing 1:08.9!). Though it was slower than the 1:10.71 we set at a race in July, our time was faster than the 1:10.96 my previous team set in 2016, prior to us winning the National Championships in Colorado Springs, so I was very optimistic about our potential for Worlds. 

Then we got a bit of a bombshell dropped on our plans. Worlds was cancelled, due to… COVID-19 restrictions of course. Travel to the U.S. was impossible for many of the foreign racers in any case, so attendance would have been low too. 

So then my priority would have to be either Masters Track Nationals, in Pennsylvania, or our local races. Martin announced that he couldn't justify traveling to Nationals, so Rich and I were left with few options but to stay close to home. That meant our District Masters Track Championships were suddenly no longer practice races, but the whole bag of marbles. 

Masters Championships, 8/22/2021

For Masters Districts, I again opted to skip the Saturday racing, with match sprints, so I could be more rested for the Sunday timed events. I hauled all my gear, including my Dixie Flyer with Zipp racing wheels mounted with tires suitable for the concrete velodrome at Hellyer, and drove over the hill to San Jose. Turn out is lower than previous years, but still respectable. 

For the 500 m in the morning I used 51x14t (98.4") gears. I was up against local legend Larry Nolan, and Erik Salander. Even though my time was only 38.87, I still managed to win gold with that. I feel like my first lap is still pretty good, but two laps is just a little bit far for me at the moment, it seems. 

Rich, Martin and I had a little time to rest and prepare for our team sprint. I used 50x14t gears (96.4") as man 1, Rich (man 2) had 98.5", Martin (man 3) used 102.2". My start was decent, and Rich and Martin were never far behind me, with only a small gap opening up behind me for part of my lap. I pulled off and watched Rich lead Martin for lap 2, then Martin finish our race, with a gold medal time of 1:11.72. 

Me, Rich and Martin, with our gold medals.

So while my result was 2-for-2, gold in both events (bringing my total District Championships to 13), the numbers were a bit mixed for me. 

It seemed a waste of all that training to just call it a season, so we are likely to race in LA a few times. And it will give me a chance to try out the carbon FFWD wheels I bought specifically for the wooden track there, mounted with the ultra-soft tires needed to keep from slipping down the steep, 45-degree banking. LA’s track is always exciting, so that will still be fun. 

And hopefully 2022 will be pandemic free.