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Story by Leif Clarke
August 9th, 2005 I
left Sea-Tac International airport on United flight 475, destination LAX. I was traveling to Carson California to
compete for the first time, at age 29, in the 2005 edition of
the United States Cycling Federations Elite National Track
Championships. Set in the urban city of Carson is the
grand 125-acre Home Depot Events Sports Complex, home of the $15
million ADT indoor velodrome. The ADT center velodrome is the
only indoor venue in the United States. A truly
world-class facility, the track itself, at 250 meters in length,
is made of Siberian white pine and has 45 degree banked turns.
A successful
performance at elite nationals was to mark the completion of my
return to the superlative ranks in the sport of cycling.
Once an elite level road cyclist and novice track cyclist, I hung
up the wheels in 1997. At the undeveloped age of 21 I
fell victim to overtraining and burnout. After a six-year
break from the sport I was ready to return to compete in 2003,
primarily on the track. Seeing the accomplishments of some of
the guys I grew up racing with had inspired me. Guys
like Russell Stevenson, Johnny Sundt, and Kenny Williams who had
fulfilled the dream of racing professionally. I gradually eased into the sport
over the 2003 and 2004 seasons. I was careful, and leaned
more towards under-training than doing too much. Balancing
racing with a full-time job is tricky. For the
2005 season I refined my training further, reducing my time
lifting weights, and increasing my time on the bike. I had
found a great combination and my form was better than ever
before. For most of the season I was ranked #1 in the
Marymoor Velodrome series, I won events at the Marymoor track
championships, and I won the kilo and placed well in events at
the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge. With those results in
the bag I decided I was ready to tackle nationals.
I arrived Tuesday afternoon
at LAX toting a monster black Tri-All double bike-box on casters
that I pulled around like a dead dog on a three-foot leash.
If anything it looked more like a coffin on wheels and I got
some strange looks from the other travelers at the airport.
I haven't traveled to a bike race since I made the trip to
Durango Colorado in 1997 for collegiate road nationals so I had
forgotten what a pain it is to take a trip
with a bicycle.
Shortly after I had my luggage my good friends the Triplett's
picked me up in their rented, silver Dodge Caravan. Jen
Triplett is a first year bike racer. That's right, not
just a first year track racer but a first year bike racer
entirely and is already competing at the national level!
Her supportive husband Ryan was along for the ride and to see what kind of trouble he
can get himself in:) I would be sharing a
room with them at the lovely Carson Best Western, host hotel for
the event. Also staying at the Best Western from Seattle
was the Recycled Cycles duo of Jimmy Lingwood and Adrian
Hedgevary, junior track star Amara Boursaw and her Mom Diana,
and the "Player-Coach" Ryan Miller and his lovely girlfriend Ms.
Molly (Mole'). We had quite a good crew, supportive
parents and significant others, and we all had a good time.
Actually, I don't know what we would have done without Diana Boursaw there. We could not have pulled it off without all
of her help.
After a good night
sushi, a decent nights sleep, and a power-bar breakfast the
competition kicked off Wednesday morning (8/10/05) for the men
with pursuit qualifying and scratch race heats. The woman
were only doing pursuit qualifying and none of the girls from
our camp were competing so they got to sleep-in. This
was my first day on the bike after the previous day's flight and
a couple days off the bike completely before that. I was a
little stale but my legs got fast in a hurry. Unlike
most racers I ride best on a couple days complete rest. Originally
I had toyed with the idea of forgoing a fast ride in the pursuit
to use it as a practice for the next nights kilo time trial.
The kilo was my primary focus and I thought I could just ride
the first couple laps of the pursuit to improve my feel for the
track and then quit. Well, a couple things made me
change my mind and actually try to do a good ride in the
pursuit. First, I was interested in setting a PR since this
was a great opportunity to ride a fast track. And second,
well, I didn't want to look like an idiot out there. Being
my first trip to nationals I didn't want to lose respect on the
fist day. I rode smoothly, minding Ryan Miller on the
apron calling lap-splits, and finished strong, passing my
opponent, to record a PR of 4:56.060. The time got me 17th
place out of about 35 starters. Kenny Williams was the
fastest local rider squaring off in the finals against Curtis
Gun to take 4th place. I believe he rode a 4:42.
Click Here for Full Results from CyclingNews.com
Shortly after the morning pursuit were the scratch race heats. There
were 50+ entrants and the field limit was set at 24. A
small track like the ADT Center can not safely accommodate all
50 racers. All
entrants rode in one of three 30 lap heats of about 18 men and only
the top 8 per heat would advance. No problem, I haven't finished
further down than 5th in a scratch race all season. The race
was easy and I had no problem matching the accelerations. Then
something I didn't expect occurred with 10 laps to go. It
basically turned into a miss n' out. People were simply racing
for a top 8, not the win. So the usual flurry of activity
towards the end did not come. I was counting down the laps
thinking what the hell. Simply put I couldn't fight out of the box
I was in and didn't make the cut. I was super upset because the
wheels were turning for me and I felt great. I should have
been more physical and fought harder to get out because I had a
lot of gas left in the tank. In the finals
later that night NW rider Ryan Miller had a great race and
finished in 3rd place with the bronze medal. Anchor Man
quote generating machine and amateur comedian Josh Kerkoff
successfully defended his 2004 title by taking the win. It
was an exciting race to watch but I was more bummed than
anything that I wasn't in there.
On day 2, Thursday, I
decided not to compete in the morning sessions
points race heats. Much
like the scratch race, there were more entrants than there were
starting positions. Thursdays sole focus would be the
evening sessions kilometer time trial so I opted to sit out the points race and
save my energy. It felt good to sleep-in but come race
time I ventured over to the track with the Triplett's and
the Miller/Mole' connection to watch the points race heats.
Rising 21 year old track star Adrian Hedgevary stepped up to the
big-league plate swinging by taking key points in his heat earning
a spot in the finals. Later that night he proved it was no
fluke finishing on the field lap and taking 5th place in the
under-23 class.
The kilo is a short timed
event, just 4 laps around this track. It doesn't take much
more than a minute to complete but I assure you it is the most
excruciating minute ever. I prepared meticulously for my
kilo ride Thursday evening. Warming up thoroughly,
assessing and preparing my equipment, hydrating, exercising
extreme self-control by NOT eating the steak burrito from
Manhattan Beach's Wahoos I had in my cooler that was calling my name,
even appointing coach Miller to carry my bike up to the start gate
and shout inspirational slogans at me.
I
prepared for every detail, even shaving my arms that afternoon
at the hotel. I realize that probably won't even give me a
1/1000 of a second but maybe it would help give me a mental
edge. I exploded out of the starting blocks and wasted no
time getting up to speed. One lap in I was cruising at 39
mph. I tried to conserve energy by "floating" on the
pedals. At the 3 lap split, out of 4 laps total, I was
setting the fastest time of the day. But once the 4th lap
started I realized I was in trouble. I had gone out too
hard and started to crack. I finished with a PR of
1:08.157, good enough for 2nd place but the fastest riders were
still to come. I was not satisfied with that time. I
was looking for a low 1:07 or a high 1:06. I felt like I
had failed and wished I could do it again. I was getting
congratulations on the ride from friends and competitors but it
was hard to accept them. Needless to say that time did not
stand up to the deep seeded athletes.
Once it was concluded I had slipped to 6th place, just one step
off the podium, out of the 36 starters. I learned a lot on
that ride, about that track, and what it takes to succeed here.
I'm bummed but not discouraged. I plan to get on podium
next year, more specifically, one of the top 3 steps.
The NW girls, Jen and
Amara, had the best night of all, racing very competitively in
the women's scratch race. It was one of the most exciting
races to watch because they raced so well against a DEEP
talented women's field. Southern California local Becky
Quinn eventually prevailed in the field sprint but the NW
darlings made moves toward the front. With more experience
I think both have a legitimate shot of making the podium next
year.
Complete Kilo and Day 2 results from CyclingNews.com
Day 3, Friday the 12th, was supposed to be all about fun.
On the way to the track we were more interested in the cheesy
advertisement for the sleazy Mexican lawyer with the dirty sanchez mustache
on the side of the bus than the race. Not everyone knew what a
dirty sanchez was and Jen told us a somewhat embarrassing story
where her mother had over heard the term and looked it up on
Google! That also set off a discussion about the term
"metro-sexual." I had heard the term before but was little
embarrassed I had to ask what it meant. I was asked to
guess and I guessed that it was someone who beat-off on the bus.
I was very wrong. I'm not even going to get into what a
dirty sanchez is but I guess a metro-sexual is one of those
Kenneth Cole shoe wearing, shiny shirt sporting, Gucci watch
toting pretty boys who can't stop looking in the mirror.
With the humor behind us it was team pursuit time and we thought we had a legitimate shot
at a top 3 result. There were three other extremely
talented teams. The NW Mortgage team coached by Jame
Carney containing points race champion Bobby Lea, workhorse
Mike Friedman, Gui Nelleson, and the northwest's own Ryan Miller
were the favorites. The TIAA-CREF professional entry lead
by Olympian Colby Pearce as well as the Texas Road House team
containing individual pursuit champion Brad Huff (Zoolander:
"That Brad Huff is so hot right now"), 3rd place pursuit Curtis
Gunn, and 4th place pursuit Kenny Williams were all worthy teams
as well as a couple other unkown entries. Our team was a
thrown-together at the last minute composite of myself, talented
first year California dwelling track racer Mike Garrett,
Portland based kiwi transplant Walker Starr, and the Recycled
Cycles duo of Jimmy Lingwood and Adrian Hedgevary. In
qualifying Jimmy sat out. If we qualified in the top 4 we
would use him in the evening session finals. We had a
decent ride, qualifying 4th with a time of 4:39. In the
evening session we would face off against the TIAA-CREF team for
the bronze medal ride. The NW Mortgage team would face off
against the Texas Roadhouse team for the gold.
Between sessions we
had a little down time and I took a relaxing nap. Before
heading to the track for the evening session the Triplett's and
I stopped off for some food and a cup of Joe. Being
somewhat of a sandwich connoisseur I noticed a cheese steak shop
next to the Starbucks. Intrigued I cautiously entered.
Knowing that I was just 3 hours away from my pursuit I
shamefully ordered a "small" sandwich. Oh it was
delicious. What happened to the self-control I had for the
burrito the night before?! I washed it down with a iced
coffee and I was ready for a night of TV watching. But
wait, I had to get on the bike, warm-up, and then compete
against the best in the country at maximum intensity!
Embarrassed by my lack of self-control I pleaded with Ryan and
Jen not to tell anyone I consumed an entire cheese-steak
sandwich before my ride.
With that behind me the team pursuit final started out well. We
drilled it from the gun and the sandwich stayed down.
Facing off against such accomplished adversaries as the
TIAA-CREF professional team we knew we would need a break-out
ride. We
actually pulled ahead of TIAA-CREF and maintained the lead until
the halfway point. Then in the second
half of the race we started to crack while at the same time
Colby Pearce took a wicked pull for the CREF crew closing the
entire 125 meter gap separating us just before the bell-lap. We came out swinging
but our lack of practice for the event made it difficult to
maintain the speed needed to win. Regardless we were
happy to have given it 100% and were excited to stand on the
podium in 4th place.
When a team
gets caught by the other team one of two things will happen. The officials
will fire a gun 2 times signifying the catch and the team making
the catch wins, race over. The other is they will wave a red
flag
signaling the team being caught can no longer exchange and ride
the inside line while the other team can pass, keep going, and
post an official time. Because these nationals were being used
for national team qualifiers that is what happened. But the
officials only had one tiny little red flag and on one straight
away. On the other they had a green flag. So we got waved a
red which I didn't see, then we got waved a green which made me
think we were still on, so I swung up track on turn one as the
CREF crew was approaching. All the while, Colby had hit the gas
so hard he had blown off two of his guys. You have
to have at least 3 with you to make the pass. Long story short,
after many protests, the USCF, despite their short-comings, found us guilty of not abiding by the red flag
rule, regardless of the fucking green flag they showed us,
regardless of the fact CREF was down to 2 guys, and we got DQed.
It's as if the USCF abides by UCI rules only when it's
convenient for them. No podium for our 4th place team pursuit
rides. Everyone I talked to couldn't believe the ruling.
Paul Swift was so offended he didn't even have words to describe
the situation. A representative of the USCF also couldn't
believe the ruling and he surreptitiously took 5 medals out of a
gym bag and gave them to us. He said, "I know this doesn't
make up for it but we feel you should have these."
This excerpt
from a
letter teammate Mike Garrett wrote to the USCF sums up the way we all
felt and the mood after the event:
"I took the medal from the USA cycling representative. My
eyes began to water. "Thanks", I said. I wanted to throw it at
him. I didn’t. I knew he was not an official. I knew he had
been moved by our disqualification, just like the people in the
stands who had booed and jeered. Like the mothers of the
Northwestern Mortgage Team, who had stood and turned their
thumbs down during part of the awards ceremony while their sons,
the best in the USA, received their stars and stripes jerseys.
The 4th place podium spot remained empty."
Click here for complete results and news on the team pursuit and
Day 3 from CyclingNews.com
It was a long night and regardless of our
disappointment we needed to eat. Ryan Miller, who was more
in a celebrating mood as he had just won the team pursuit,
suggested we take the crew down the street to Tony Roma's to get
some grub and blow off some steam. Unbeknownst to me that
is also where the NW Mortgage team was celebrating their victory with
their friends and family. Seated at the long table
parallel to ours it made for somewhat of an interesting
atmosphere. There were beers of celebration being poured
right next to the beers being poured to drown our sorrows.
With the exception of the terrible BBQed chicken sandwich I ate
it was actually a good time. The NW Mortgage team was
supportive and interested in what had happened to us. A
tall frosty sounded good so our table asked what was on tap.
Waitresses please! Don't confuse Budweiser with Hefeweizen
resulting in a made up beer called "Hefeweiser." I just
smiled and said, "the hefeweiser sounds great, thanks,"
praying that a tall mug of foggy Hefeweizen, served with lemon,
would show. I was not prepared to be let down again that
night. The Hefeweizen showed and was delicious. I
had a feeling my luck was about to improve.
After a terrible nights sleep I was up early. We were all
up early for the 4th and final day of competition. The
women in our camp were competing in the team sprint, Amara was
competing in the keirin, and a couple of us fellows were
competing in the Madison. Just like the points race and
scratch race there were more racers than there were starting
slots. The field limit was set at 12 teams and there were
16 entered. So two heats, eight teams per heat, and six
teams per heat advance. Adrian Hedgevary and myself teamed together
wearing Recycled Cycles Team kits. Adrian is going very
good these days. He's pretty new to track racing but is
taking to it well. Our heat was stacked. We had the Kenny
Williams/Curtis Tollson team, the Bobby Lea/Mike Friedman
express, The Colby Pearce/Chad Hartley connection, and a few
other worthy opponents. Adrian and I had never raced the
Madison together but had practiced together a couple of times.
In training our compatibility was less than optimal. I was
a little concerned about how we would ride. We arrived at
the track very early to get some exchanges in before too many
people were out. We actually clicked and were making great
exchanges. Once the heat started Adrian and I made some
gutsy attacks and believe it or not at the half way point we
were in first place. All we had to do was finish the race now
to advance to the finals. So we were racing conservatively and
following wheels, clean exchanges, no problem. Dual citizenship
kiwi "Luke Sky" Walker Star from Portland threw me an
unnecessary hook as I was already started down track and I hit
the deck pretty hard. We were going about 30 and I slid a good
100 feet on my left side. I didn't realize it at the time
but I put a big dent in my bikes top-tube. Oh well, time
to get a new one. The body was okay,
no splinters, just rash. I got up and jumped back on the bike
but Adrian was not in position to jump in for me so we lost a
lap in the chaos. We drilled it trying to take our lap back but
it couldn't be done. Losing the lap put us out of
the money so that was my last race at nationals. We were urged
by many parties to protest the Walker Star team and take their
spot in the finals. Colby Pearce's team and Kenny's team as
well as Paul Swift felt we should do this. But Walker was on
our team pursuit team last night so it just didn't feel right.
Plus it wasn't fun last night when we tangoed with the USCF and
lost so we really didn't want to go through that again.
Complete results and news on the Madison and day 4 from
CyclingNews.com
All in all there were more negatives than positives about this
trip but it was still a great experience. All the
negatives were big learning experiences. I realized I can step
it up and race with these guys. I'm going back next year
and I'm taking home some medals! |
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