National Team Track Talent Pool Race, 1/12/07

LA Velodrome
Carson, California
1/12/07
Mick Hellman

This race was the last chance to qualify for the US National Team Talent Pool for the track for 2007 (elite track is now a winter sport, so presumably there will be more chances in 2007 to qualify for the 2008 national team). It was held one week before the upcoming Track World Cup event to be held in LA next weekend. I was joined at this event by coach Harvey Nitz and capable mechanic Rob Spear. While USA Cycling offered a range of track events for endurance and sprint riders, I was interested in the 4k Time Trial.

I warmed up outside for about 1 ½ hours in unusually cold weather, then went into the velodrome to register and complete my warmup. Entering the track I was greeted by various trucks and fork lifts that were removing stuff from the infield, in preparation for the World Cup, and pumping out pretty copious amounts of exhaust into the enclosed space. This continued thoughout the early afternoon and well into the 4k event, and there was actually a visible haze during the racing. Hmmm. Wish I’d thought to warm up outside. However, like everyone else I jumped on the track and did another ½ hour there, including some laps in the low 16 seconds (this is a 250 meter track). Then back on the trainer for some more warm-up while they ran the 250-meter men and 3k women.

I was 3rd starter in the 4k. I got off to a decent start (for me; I’m not a fast starter), turning around 23.5 seconds for lap 1, then turned in 16.8 for lap 2. So far so good. I wanted to hold 16.8s the whole way, if possible, which would have brought me in around 4:36 for the 4k, one second under the time cutoff for the talent pool. Boy, I seemed to be working a little too hard already, though. And every time I came around Turn 2 I wanted to barf because the exhaust fumes were so strong.

Next lap Harv yelled out “17.1”. OK, so I’m a little behind. I can still get back 0.3 seconds though, right? Then I heard 17.3, 17.4, and I was seriously in pain. I couldn’t get slower, could I? Turns out I could. I threw in a few high 17s before I started to bring it back into the mid 17s for the last few laps. Harv was yelling himself hoarse with encouragement.

I finished with 3:46.93 and went off into the stands with my stopwatch to pretend to time the other riders, but really I was just sulking. As the race progressed, my humor improved when it turned out that all the times were really slow. I actually held fastest time for quite a while. Maybe the carbon monoxide and cold air were holding everyone back.

In the end I was 4th overall, and 2nd of the riders not currently in the Talent Pool. No one even came close to the cutoff time of 4:37, not even the national team riders. I came in ahead of Kenny Williams (who is arguably the premiere masters pursuit rider on the planet right now) and Phil Zajicek (one of the Navigators, who came 12th at the USPRO TT championships this year). I was 0.3 seconds behind Brad Huff; Brad is in the Endurance Talent Pool and also won the USPRO Crit champs this year. And I was about 3 3/4 seconds behind Tom Zirbel, who recently placed 11th in the Moscow World Cup 4k with a time around 4:32.