Masters Track Worlds (Day 3) Oct. 21

“Reunions” - that’s how some competitors describe these track championships and I have to admit that I have a lot of fun when I come to these things. The majority of the world would think us odd for taking vacation time to do something like this: race, eat, sleep, do it all over again the next day. I mean one comes to a beautiful place like Sydney and we’re racing in circles, not walking to see sights, sitting on our butts whenever we can and generally have a whole lot of fun doing it.

Two points to this lead-in. To be a world champion, which is one reason why a lot of people come here, one cannot be like the majority. We racers tend to go bed earlier, party a lot less and work a whole lot harder than most would think possible. We ride in the rain, dark and cold to get our aerobic base and we do more intervals than our competitors (at least we think we do!). We skip a lot of extra servings and steer ourselves towards the road less traveled, including walking stairs, not concerning ourselves with parking too close to a store and generally ride where it would be easier to jump in a car. What a strange lot we are. But, we’re a goal driven bunch that emits a positive energy that is usually contagious. It’s a great atmosphere to live in and around.

This is my 6th UCI masters track world championship. Former teammate Vic Copeland was the first to test the competition when he attended the first edition in Manchester, England in 1995. Vic won 9 championships and taught me a lot about being humble, thankful and working really hard for your goals. In 1997 former teammate Glen Winkel went to worlds and won the pursuit and points race. In 1999 I finally had a reason to get a passport though my work and squeezed in the September 1999 event, taking home my first (3km pursuit) and second (points) masters world championships. Our family lived in Belgium in 2001 so I just had to get to Manchester and scored two more wins in the same two events. I continued this two year pattern in 2003 with wins number five and six but was foiled of my pursuit bid in 2005 and “only” won the points race. I skipped 2006 and 2007 so that I could focus on 2008, my 50th year on this spinning globe and the 2km event, which as previously written is well suited for me. Well, it turned out that my myopic focus on the speed that I needed for the 2km win helped to carry me through the other events, including wins in the scratch race (new to the championships in 2007) and the sprints, which was quite the shock (but with 9 rides in 2 days it is an endurance event.

Yesterday (October 21) was scratch race and team sprint day. With a record breaking 430 athletes Day 2 was a 16 hour day of pursuiting. Yikes, no wonder the UCI wants to close down the event! Some groups had their qualifiers in the morning (we had thirty seven riders in two heats to pull 24 into the final). I qualified.

Next up was the team sprint where Reid Schwartz (Chicago, Ill), James Host and I did our best but only managed an 8th place finish.

Twelve hours after the qualifier we’re back on the track for the final. I’m exhausted as this lack of sleep is catching up to me (the awards ceremony for my pursuit win ended around 11:30pm and I was up at 5:30am, simply wide awake with my mind racing about all this racing. I got up and worked. Okay, so I’m tired and I cut a deal with myself. If I win the scratch race I’ll pull out from the sprints and reward myself with two days away from racing. Sold! But, winning is tricky with this BIG S on my back! Americans James Host, Aubrey Gordon and I talk about not chasing eachother. That’s sort of like teamwork, right? James gets into the early move and it looks promising with the 2nd (James) and 3rd place pursuiters (Stephane Le Beau) up the road. Well, Didier Ramet from France bridges across and now the trio is rolling away. After a hard chase by Bernardo, Upton, Rutherford and others the trio is caught but thankfully almost everyone is gassed. I’m talking 30 laps of almost 30mph speeds. 50 year olds can motor! The group is caught with about 8 laps to go, we do our little slower speed dance, I get a close encounter with a guys rear wheel and with 3 laps to go I hit the front. I can’t wait to see this video but for some reason no one attacked and I was able to razor my sprint to the line for the win.

check out: http://photoaction.net.au/site/#/gallery/uci-m5-scr/uci-m5-scr-8107/
for a nice shot of my vee!

A full night of scratch racing, some of the best I have ever watched.

Larry

- note: Rumor has it that the 2010 championships will be held in Lisbon Portugal. Now, there’s a place I’ve not been! Reunions… I love them.