On July 25 & 26th, the annual Atlantic Masters Regional Track Championships were held at the Valley Preffered Cycling Center in Trexlertown, PA. Kurt Begemann and myself were there for the previous night's racing--which as has been the case down there this summer--was rained out. Under the tent all day long to ride in 4 events was a long day, but one well worth the experience. It was my first big event, so I didn't know what to expect, but with Kurt's coaching expertise, the day went off really well. Holding only a Cat 4 Track license meant I could only do the timed events, whereas with a Cat 3 and higher, one can race in the bunch events, such as the Scratch race which was the last event of the day.
Proudly wearing our new Cycle Loft Velo team strip, by Capo Forma, and riding the new Tiemeyer custom Signature bike fitted w/ the TT bar set up [pic to come] I entered the Masters 40-44 Kilo (1km TT,), 40-44 3km Pursuit, 40+ Team Sprint, and 40+ Team Pursuit. I was a bit rushed to the line for the Kilo, but ended up doing well with a time of 1.18.14, good enough for a 3rd place Bronze Medal. I then rode the Individual 3km Pursuit, another TT on aero bars, and missed another 3rd place by just .79 seconds, with a final time of 4.05.72. The 3rd event was a team event, that myself, Kurt, Steve Gauthier, and Mike Bergstrom, both guys from MA and the NEBC all participated in. This was a 4km TT, which is 12 laps of the T-Town track--Kurt did the first lap to get us up to speed, then I followed, then Steve, and Mike, with each of us taking 1/2 lap pulls. At the beginning of the race, we (all) frankly thought I would get popped off the group by the end, and considering you only need 3 riders to finish, that would have been ok--but once it got going, I knew I wasn't going to let go of the wheel in front of me, and in the end, it was Steve that popped off. Irregardless, we finished with a team time of 5.16.44, good enough for 2nd place Silver medal. That's 2 out of 3, this was fun stuff!
My last event was the Team Sprint, which I rode with Steve and Mike. Our plan was for me to ride the first lap, then Steve the second, then Mike to anchor the third. If I may say, I had a great start off the line, kicking out of the saddle through turn 2, it was so strong that afterwards, Mike had to admit that he was caught a bit unaware and had a bit of time getting onto the wheel. We rode well as a team, even though we hadn't practiced, and with a time of 1.1.15 we rode to a 2nd place Silver medal. Kurt rode quite well with multiple medals, one from each of his races. You can see all of the results here on bikereg.
All in all, a fantastic day of racing and an enormous learing experience. We've got a bit of video of our two Kilo races and will endeavor to figure out how to upload that. Up next is the New England Regional Track Championships to be held in Londonderry, NH at the New England Velodrome & Cycling Park. Hope to see you there.
Check out these short video clips to see a bit of the Kilo TT efforts.
