Saturday, October 24, 2009

Masters Track Worlds Day 4, 5 and 6



I think I’ve sold 4 Specialized Transitions, as long as they don’t stop making the 2008 model. This road time trial frame has done wonders for my track racing. With rear track dropouts and aerodynamic carbon tubing this is one fast bike!



Masters Track Worlds Day 4, 5 and 6

When I did the sprint tournament in 2008 I felt like I had been in a 15 round boxing match by the end of my 9 full out intensity rides. I scratched on the sprints at the last minute and after watching these great athletes slug it out for two long days (Day 4 and 5) I have absolutely no regret.

Moving on to Day 6 and the final day of the 15th annual UCI Masters Track World Championships (Saturday, October 24, 2009) my head was all over the place for the upcoming points race. I was confident because I had won this event in each of my five championship attempts, I was relaxed because I had already won two titles and I knew the rest days would help me. That being said, I didn’t have all that much confidence with my new sniffly nose and drizzly shits, nor with the most competitive field I had ever faced.

Our morning qualifying ride was cancelled as there were only 23 athletes interested in points racing (lots of sprinters on the list were pulling out), so we moved straight into the final late in the afternoon. I snuck in a nice (very rare) nap and felt slightly better. Sixty laps or 15km in total with sprints every 10 laps. My plan was to not take the win on the first sprint (uses too much energy), not let Steve Daracott (Australia), Bernardo Figueroa (Colombia), Stephane Le Beau (Canada) or Robert Upton (Australia) get up the road without me.

We were rolling it pretty good from the beginning, and when the first sprint lit up I got in line but there was a surge over the top and I didn’t place. I made a silly move after the sprint and rolled away. What a waste of energy. 2nd sprint came up and I was out of position again. We’re heading into 30 to go sprint and I have one point! Time for a quick self-talk… okay, I can still win this if I take the remaining sprints –and- slow the pace so that I’m not attacked. Thankfully I wasn’t attacked by my main rivals and was able to mark the current leaders/ contenders (Stephane and Bernardo). I took the 30 to go sprint, was 2nd in both the 20 and 10 to go sprint, and 4th in the last sprint to win 13 points to Stephane’s 11 points and Jim Rutherford’s 8 points. That, teammates and friends, was one of the most difficult wins I have ever fought for!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

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.

Masters Track Worlds (Day 2) Oct. 20


2,000meter pursuit is on the schedule. I've been waiting for this event for 6 months (when I decided to return to Sydney) and I've been training for this one for something like forty years. I say that because the 2,000 is optimally suited to my physiology. It took me years to learn that and it’s also one of the reasons why I like to coach people. So that they might reach their goals sooner than later.

For those that didn’t know (but care enough to read this), my athletic background has very humble origins. I ran in high school, college and during the “running boom” but never won a race. I took up triathlons and did pretty bad in the swimming and cycling portions… but, I’m a persistent bloke and slowly got better at cycling. Slowly! I’m talking about 5 years of slow progress and then another 5 years before I found that track cycling suited me well. That’s a long time! How many athletes do you know that are patient enough to stick out 10 years of slow progressive growth? How many give up after one month? One year? I found the track in 1992 so add another 17 years to that 10 and you have a pretty patient athlete!

Onto the race: As the defending champion I’m in the last heat. I not only have the advantage of seeing all the times to beat but I also get the adrenaline rush as the times start to fall. I received another gift when the organizers placed last years 2nd place finisher James Host (Chicago, Ill) in the 2nd to last heat, so now I get to see his time and only need to beat either the competitor across the track in my heat or the most current best time (top two go into the gold ride). Save something for the final, right? Well, it turns out James has a 2:20 in him and sets a very high bar. Yikes, I did a 2:20.119 last year. Do I have a 2:20 in me today just 30 hours after arriving in Australia? Let’s find out, shall we?

As I mentioned, the 2km suits me well because I have a weakness in starting out too quickly and that’s a price that you can not pay back in a 3km or 4km event. But, in the 2km the penalty for starting out too fast is not as great. Yes, I started off too fast. Wouldn’t you? This is the world championships!

Kenny Williams is coaching me through this ride but its his wife Annette that I am thinking about. Wait, that doesn’t sound right (he he). Seriously, Annette set the world record for a 45+ year old woman for 2,000m at 2:31. That’s a smoking time and she would have placed 11th in the M50-54 age group. Back to the story: before the ride Annette is telling me about her new tactic with 2kms. Simply, when she is going out too fast, just continue to throttle it! Instead of backing off, she drives it and hopes the blowup will hold off until late in the race.

So, when I hear “six-oh” (short for 16.0 seconds per lap) from Kenny I know that I cannot hold this speed for the whole eight laps but I stay on the throttle. Turns out that I am up on my schedule (to qualify) and simply decided to roll with it. I qualified first in 2:17.051, a new 50-54 world record.

Okay, I don’t want to sound too petty but here’s the inside scoop. I was in Manchester England when Ian Hallam set this record in 1999. It was an amazing ride to watch and Ian was a great rider, for sure (professional) but what crawled under my skin was that he “retired” from work for a year to win his road and track world championships. Heck, I was laid off in July and decided to start my own financial consulting business. Just last Friday I was at a client for 14 hours. That’s not how I define retirement.

A WR is nice, but I still haven't won the world championship. James Host (who is a leap-year baby just like my son Andrew) and I face each other in the final. He appears more nervous than me but he doesn’t realize that I’m exhausted and wondering what’s in my tank! I thought Jim might set out for a scheduled ride (consistent is better than blazing) but he decided to go blazing and hit the first four laps really hard probably hoping to throw me into his game but I stuck to my pace and ended up with a fast ride, a Kookaburra stuffed animal, my gold medal and world championship jersey.

Thanks for reading. Larry

Masters Track Worlds - Day 1 (Oct 19)

Fags... we'll get to that later.

14 hours of flying to Sydney for the UCI Masters Track World Championships and very little sleep (how do people sleep in an upright position? I can't!). I arrive at 7am, get to the hotel at 9am, build up my bike and get on the veldrome by noon. The 500m (aging does not suit all of us!) is the first event and I've signed up not expecting to do well but to a) gain valuable experience with the start gate, b) to do some opening efforts for my goal event the next day and c) improve on my horrible start in 2008.

Since I had not signed in until a few hours before the event the organizers popped me into the first heat to make it easier if I was a no-show. My 35.8 second effort was the time to beat until the last two heats and then it was crushed. Dave LeGrys from Great Britain won in a world record time of 34.4!

Awards ceremony time and he's not to be found... he was outside smoking! Yes, he's a chain smoker and a world record holder too! "Fags" are slang in both Australia and England for cigarettes ;-)

Thursday, October 15, 2009

51

To commemorate your fifty one years of age,
A poem I lay upon this page.

A year since last a celebration held,
It was of no grand occasion
Just friends and bikes and beer for all
Gathered in Australia nation.

The days were long, for it was spring,
(and what beautiful days they were)
So your daughter you thought so nice to bring
(quite generous gift to her)

Above the pacific sea you flew for hours
Alone with your planning of races
While she enjoyed Sydney’s spring showers
And dreamed of seeing new places

You rode like the wind (if it possessed wheels)
And fought the champions title
Challenged the competition, never kicked up your heals
For success was extremely vital

Hard work produced a medal and cheers
A new jersey and a nice koala
So we settled in for birthday beers
Too bad nothing rhymes with koala

You biked that day and the days before
Worked too hard and got kind of sore
You donned tight pants and a silly little hat
We all know you enjoy walking around like that

On that day it was fifty years
Since you joined this messy place
Fifty years of sweat and tears
Created a champion in that race

It was a birthday to remember, yes
But from last years story I digress…
For this year you are fifty ONE
And when you hear that starting gun
Think of family, think of Joe
Think of a squeaky “go-daddy-go”
And while you are so far away
Remember these wise words I say
You should hold every single birthday dear
Whether north or southern hemisphere.

Aubrey Leigh Nolan, our 23 year old daughter.
I love you girl!
Oh man am I ready for worlds...