The Wheelsucker cannot do ANY of the above! Never-the-less, he has ridden the track a few times, and rather than miss riding the track entirely in 2012, entered the MABRA Track Championship event which was held Saturday September 1st at Trexlertown PA. This is an omnium event, with the final standings based on points from each of the events.
Kevin Dillard images: http://alleycat.phanfare.com/5735366
When he checked the entry list after registration closed there was some "good" news and some "bad" news:
The good news?
There were only five riders registered for 45+, so events would be quick and not too crowded (a crowded bunch on the track riding fixed gear with no brakes terrifies the Wheelsucker).
The bad news?
Don Saroff and William Short are very experienced track riders – both ride for Team Saroff – and they were joined in the points race by Mark Sommers. All three of these guys have probably spent days on the track over the last few years, and have dialed in their gearing, position and tactics. Apparently they have track national championships, MABRA track championships, and multiple appearances at track nationals between them. Sommers is actually 55+, but is so strong he races senior (123) most of the time, was racing senior at this event, but jumped into the 45+ points race for fun.
The Wheelsucker has converted his Cannondale Capo (aluminum single-speed) into a quasi track bike (track bars, remove brakes, shorter cranks, flip rear wheel from single speed to fixed gear and acquire used American Classic 420 track wheels), and has ridden the track three to four times. He has no idea what he is doing. He is most probably a danger to himself and to anyone near him. The other two riders in the 45+ field had less experience on the track than Saroff, Short and Sommers, though one sounded like he had a little more experience than the Wheelsucker.
It is a long day with four events in the omnium and a flying 200 meter to seed riders for the match sprint, so five events. And there were nine categories (of cat or age group) racing. So it is a day of short intense efforts with long breaks in between events. Riders warm up between events on indoor trainers, or roll around slowly in the "infield" of the track.
Ben Williams and his wife Emma were kind enough to offer the Wheelsucker space under their tent roof set up in the infield so he could stay out of the sun between events and warm-ups.
The infield is a terrific place to watch the events from. With the long breaks between his efforts, the Wheelsucker had ample opportunity to watch other races and try to learn the techniques and tactics.
In particular, Ainhoa Perez-Diez of the ABRT women’s elite team was dominating her field, winning every event except the 2000 meter pursuit (in which she was second). It was a pleasure and an inspiration for the Wheelsucker to watch her dominate the women’s points race and the matched sprints.
The initial event was the flying 200 meters, which seeds riders for the matched sprints. A rider rolls out on the track on the back stretch, does one lap easy, gets high on the track, then starts to accelerate. The rider angles down the banking to accelerate, somewhere in turn two. Timing starts as the rider crosses a sprint line on the back side of the track and the rider is timed to the finish line, a 200 meter distance, about 2/3 of a lap of the track. To minimize distance the rider takes an inside lane through turns three and four and to the finish. As everyone knows, the Wheelsucker is not a sprinter, and short hard efforts are not his strong suit (it is not clear what IS the Wheelsucker’s strong suit other than a grim determination to hold the wheel in front of him). Trying to emulate the good riders who went before him, the Wheelsucker tried to do what he had seen them do. The Wheelsucker struggled to accelerate, struggled to keep his speed up on turns three and four, and struggled to stay in the fast (inner) lane on the track. He wonders if he could have been disqualified for touching the inner black line on the track. The Wheelsucker ended up ahead of the fifth place rider in his group, by a ridiculous .01 seconds, so was seeded fourth for the match sprint. The two experienced riders were much faster, and third place was just considerably faster.
The next event was a short pursuit. Some categories raced 500 meters (one and a half laps), others raced 1000 meters (you guessed it, three laps). The 45+ group did the 1000 meters, known as the kilo. Unlike most track events, the MABRA Track Championship allows the use of geared road bikes with brakes for these timed events, so the Wheelsucker brought his TT bike, rather than try to mount a base bar and aero bars on his fixie, between events. Riders with geared bikes are not allowed to change gears during the race.
These are very short intense races. Riders are held at the start, and accelerate from stopped at the gun. One rider starts on the front stretch, another on the back stretch. In theory each rider is pursuing the other. In practice the Wheelsucker was concentrating so hard on pedaling, and staying in the fast lane on the track that he never looked at his opponent. If you watched the Olympic pursuit, you probably saw smooth, very powerful riding. That was not what the Wheelsucker looked like. Trying his best to look like the good riders, the Wheelsucker stood at the "ready" and accelerated hard at the gun, at least hard enough to not fall over. Once up to speed good riders drop into their aero bars and pedal smoothly, keeping their bike roughly on the red line as they go around the track.
Riding his TT bike with a Powertap wheel, the Wheelsucker thought he could use the power meter to pace his effort, but it was so hard accelerating and then keeping the bike in the lane that he never looked at his power meter display.
The Wheelsucker ended up third out of his group of five. His time of 1:18:47 was about four seconds slower than the times of Short and Saroff, and about two seconds faster than Ray Plewacki.
The next event was a 2000 meter for some categories, a 3000 meter for others, including the 45+, and a 4000 meter for the male seniors. The format is the same as the kilo, but 3000 meters is nine laps of the track. One might ask "The race is nine laps and approximately four minutes long; how hard can it be?" At least for the Wheelsucker, the answer is, "extremely hard!"
From the standing start the Wheelsucker tried to accelerate a little less hard than he had in the kilo. In nine laps he never looked at his opponent, being too focused on keeping his bike in the lane (and he swerved a few times when not paying quite enough attention). Joe Jefferson was 'announcing' the event and giving an account of the action. Early on in his 3000 meter race the Wheelsucker heard Joe say that the Wheelsucker might have a slight advantage over his opponent. But then it was quiet except for the Wheelsucker's desperate breathing. Nine laps takes an incredibly long time when one is in pain.
When it was over the Wheelsucker did not know if he had defeated his opponent or not. He did not know if his opponent was riding a track bike or a road bike, or if he had aero bars or not. All he knew was that he had crossed the finish line, could stop pedaling (do NOT stop pedaling if you are on a fixed gear!), could roll onto the apron and off the track and get some water. His mouth was so dry the inside of his lips were sticking to his gums.
It took the officials some time to post the results of the 3000 meter event.
The next event was the points race. While some categories were combined, the five man 45+ group raced without another category on the track. This group raced 20 laps, with a sprint for points every five laps. Mark Sommers joined in "for fun" or as a "warm up" for his senior points race, so there were six riders on the track.
The Wheelsucker knew he had finished third in the kilo and suspected – or hoped – he had finished third in the 3000 meter, and was starting to dream of finishing third overall. With Don Saroff, William Short and Mark Sommers on the track, the Wheelsucker knew that beating one of these three was not a real option. But he was working on something of a plan that could see him finishing ahead of the other two riders.
The tactics of a points race are driven by the points awarded for each of the sprints. Points are awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at each sprint. The Wheelsucker expects that riders not scoring any points are sorted out by finish position (which is the 4th sprint). Some points races are slow at times, riders may go hard for a sprint but ease up afterwards which gives the riders further back at the sprint an opportunity to catch back on. Or a break may go for a sprint, and continue hard after the sprint so the rest of the field is left out of contention for the next sprint in five laps. A rider or break may lap the field, which puts them in a very strong position for the rest of the sprints in the race.
Since track bikes are fixed gear, selecting the optimum gear is important. Experienced track riders know what "gear inches" they are using, and know from experience what gearing is best for them. They may change gearing between events if they believe the optimum gearing for the next event is slightly different than the optimum choice for the previous event, and they may alter gearing as they tire in the course of a full day's racing. Typical track gearing is something like 48x14 or 49x14. Elite riders may use a 50x14 expecting the races to be fast. Spinners may go 47x14. The Wheelsucker knows he does not develop much power at high cadence, and his experience in the two or three points races he had done previously was that he was chasing a break desperately, wishing he was pushing a slightly bigger gear. So the Wheelsucker had chosen 50x14 for gearing, which was probably too tall for his strength and hard to accelerate, but which allowed him to wheelsuck behind a fast rider, at a cadence he could hold for a little while.
The Wheelsucker had watched the earlier points races and had seen races go slow between sprints, had seen break attempts and even seen an individual rider break free alone and stay away for enough laps to win to sprints.
With three very strong and experienced track riders in his field, the Wheelsucker suspected a break would go, and the race for 4th, 5th and 6th could well be decided by which – if any – of those riders made that break.
The points race starts with riders stopped and lined up in self selecting order, against the high wall of the track. They hold on to the wall with their right hand. The official blows a whistle, the riders let go of the wall and start rolling. The first lap is somewhat neutral. Riders maneuver for position, with many trying to stay high on the track so they can dive to accelerate quickly.
The Wheelsucker wanted to be behind one of the strong three riders, ideally one who would not jump too hard, giving the Wheelsucker a chance to stay on his wheel. But the Wheelsucker is nervous riding fixed gear with no brakes on the track, in a group, and quickly found himself riding sixth wheel, last. But Don Saroff was not riding in line, rather he was positioned up the track banking, nose in the wind, but positioned where he could dive. The Wheelsucker moved up track for Saroff's wheel. The pace increased and then suddenly it was game on.
The strong three knew the game and easily gapped the other three riders while accelerating for the first sprint. While the points were awarded on the fifth lap, the accelerations and maneuvering started well before that.
When Saroff jumped the Wheelsucker gave it everything. He was still gapped behind the three leaders, but he was riding fourth, with the other two riders behind him. The strong three were riding away, but the Wheelsucker chased as hard as he could, knowing his best chance was to get up to the break. He did not know if anyone was on his wheel, was unable to look behind him to check without risking going off the track, so kept going hoping no one was on him. And he was also hoping the leading three would ease up after the first sprint.
And ease up they did.
It was not much of an ease up. They were still going fast, just not quite as fast as they could. The Wheelsucker was at max cadence and max effort but somehow closed the gap before they accelerated again for the second sprint. When he finally got to that third place wheel he had almost nothing left, but riding fourth in line was just enough relief that he was initially able to hold his position. Somehow the Wheelsucker knew no one was on his wheel.
Last year at the MABRA track championship the Wheelsucker had been in a similar situation, chasing the break as hard as he could. And Paul Mittelstadt had waited until the Wheelsucker tired, then had come off his wheel and around him, gapping the Wheelsucker. Paul caught the break and proceeded to win the points race, while the Wheelsucker stayed gapped and chasing for the rest of the race.
But this year the Wheelsucker made it to the break, and made it alone.
Shamefully the Wheelsucker opened a gap in front of him each time the lead rider pulled off to the right, momentarily climbing the banking and slowing down, so that the rider could pull in, in front of the Wheelsucker. While it may have annoyed these riders to have to pull in ahead of the Wheelsucker, pulling in behind him and expecting the Wheelsucker to close the gap was too big a risk for them, so as the lead three rotated pulls, the Wheelsucker did the only thing he could do well, wheelsuck.
And all the while the gap to the two riders behind was presumably increasing. There was no time for the Wheelsucker to congratulate himself on catching the break, there had been an all too brief moment of mental relief when he caught the three and when the first rider rotated in, ahead of him. But the Wheelsucker was still going as hard as an aging Wheelsucker can go, just to stay with the strong three.
Experienced track riders know how to look around, or sense what their competitors are doing; the Wheelsucker was too focused on the one most important thing, holding the wheel in front of him. But given the pace the strong three were setting the Wheelsucker was hoping the gap to the two behind was opening.
The lead group contested the second sprint (lap 10) and that broke the group up. The Wheelsucker was going as hard as he could just to be there, and had nothing to accelerate with. The other three gapped him, but hoping he had enough of a gap on the trailing two, the Wheelsucker kept chasing as hard as he could.
And then something strange happened.
The Wheelsucker found himself gaining on one of the leading three riders (the other two kept going), and realized it was Don Saroff. The Wheelsucker was too focused on the task of pedaling as hard as he could to ponder why Saroff was gapped from Short and Sommers, but with desperate efforts he caught Saroff’s wheel.
And Saroff was slowing, so holding that wheel became a little easier. And then Saroff pulled off up the banking and slowed further.
The Wheelsucker had no plan other than to stay ahead of the trailing two if he possibly could, so he continued rolling, and to his amazement was ahead of Saroff for the third sprint, taking the extra point.
But the effort was tiring the Wheelsucker rapidly, and soon Saroff, who was going easy, caught him. The two traded short pulls, with the Wheelsucker unable to understand what Saroff was doing. But the slower pace gave the Wheelsucker his first opportunity to glance anywhere but the wheel in front of him, and he saw the trailing two closing the gap. Still unable to fathom what Saroff was doing, the Wheelsucker yelled, "lets go, they are going to catch us!", and jumped. The Wheelsucker was again going as hard as an aging Wheelsucker can go. He had no idea how far ahead the leading two were; it didn’t matter, catching them was impossible. He did not know how far behind the trailing two were; it didn’t matter, he had to keep going. And for some reason Saroff accelerated and easily followed the Wheelsucker. The two traded pulls again, with the Wheelsucker taking half lap pulls thinking he had to conserve something because Saroff was obviously so much strong than he was.
Once in awhile the Wheelsucker had enough presence of mind to check the lap counter as he rolled across the finish line, to check how many laps were left. And then Saroff said something about not letting Sommers lap them, and accelerated to speed. The Wheelsucker held on for grim death. At the finish line the Wheelsucker was still on Saroff’s wheel and Mark Sommers was coming past the Wheelsucker to his right. The Wheelsucker has no idea of Sommers lapped him or not, but it didn't matter to the Wheelsucker, he had been ahead of his two real rivals at each of the four sprints, and had even taken the extra point from Saroff at one of them.
After the race Don Saroff congratulated the Wheelsucker for being able to bridge and explained his tactics. Saroff had been working for his teammate Short, and had dropped off the pace to create a two rider break, confident that the two rider break would stay clear and that his teammate could win the sprints over one other rider. Somehow Sommers had gotten clear of Short at some point in the race, but Short had crossed enough sprint lines ahead of Sommers that Short won the points race, by one point, with Sommers second.
The Wheelsucker is unsure of scoring, but suspects that if Sommers had lapped Short, Sommers would have won despite Short winning more sprint points. Perhaps that was why Saroff finally started to go near the end of the race, so as to not let Sommers catch him and draft briefly, and then catch Short.
The Wheelsucker was in 4th for three sprints, and 3rd in one, so five points in the race, good for 4th in the points race. Short won with 36 and Sommers was second with 35. For the Wheelsucker finishing 4th in the race and ahead of his two rivals for 3rd place in the omnium was a victory.
And when the results from the 3000 meters were finally resolved and posted, the Wheelsucker had finished 3rd in that event, putting him solidly in third for the omnium with just the match sprint to go.
His 3000 meter time was 4:05.94, about ten seconds slower than the winner, but seven seconds faster than Ray Plewacki, and further ahead of James Bellora.
The larger fields had initial rounds for the match sprints, then second round, and so on, until they determined a winner. With only five riders in the 45+ field, Saroff and Short raced for first and second while the Wheelsucker and the remaining two riders raced in a field of three, to sort out 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the match sprints.
The Wheelsucker had been watching the earlier match sprints carefully, trying to understand the tactics. The Race Officials were extremely helpful in explaining each event to the riders just before they started, and answering the Wheelsucker's many questions. And the Wheelsucker had many questions about the match sprint, as he had never done it before.
The Wheelsucker drew position one, the most down the track banking. That meant his two rivals started higher up on the banking. As per the officials the rules were that the low rider had to stay ahead of the other rider (or riders) until crossing the sprint line on the opposite side of the track. However it was OK if the other rider or riders accelerated to go ahead. In response to the Wheelsucker’s question, the official explained that the low rider could go as high on the track as he wanted, but had to leave room for the other riders above him. As the riders approached the start finish line to start the second lap the bell would be rung. Any rider could jump at any point, and the first rider to the line would win.
The Wheelsucker was unsure what tactic he should employ. He considered that he was a weak sprinter and was probably geared slightly higher than the other two riders. And all he could think of was getting behind the other riders and wheelsucking, and then trying to come around one or both as they tired.
The three riders were held at the start line, the official asked each rider if they were ready, and then the whistle blew. While he was supposed to lead to the sprint line the Wheelsucker was desperate to not lead after that, so he rode as slowly as he could. And the other two riders appeared to have the same strategy. The three rolled around the track at a snails pace. But it was not working, as the Wheelsucker approached the sprint line the other two riders were clear behind him, not where he wanted them to be. So the Wheelsucker slowed even more.
And then he blew it!
Riding very slowly on the steep banking, he suddenly felt himself start to fall towards the high side of the track, and unclipped and put his foot down to stop falling. This was immediately seen by the officials, a whistle was blown, and it became apparent that there would be a restart. The Wheelsucker was unsure if he was disqualified or not. He apologized to his competitors, and to the official when the three had returned to the start line. The official explained that it was a restart, and that the Wheelsucker would be disqualified if he put his foot down a second time.
Once again the whistle blew and the three rolled out. Once again the three all rode as slowly as they could trying to get behind the other riders. Once again the Wheelsucker was unable to get off the front. But once past the sprint line and clear ahead, the Wheelsucker was able to climb high on the track staying next to the high wall, so he could get the best dive to accelerate. He could see one of his competitors overlapping him and below him on the banking (Bellora), Pleewacki was somewhere behind. Experienced track riders can ride slowly and look behind to check where their competitors are. The Wheelsucker can barely ride the track at all, never mind ride slowly near the high wall while glancing behind him.
And then it happened. Bellora, the Coppi rider, below the Wheelsucker on the banking jumped going into turn three. The Wheelsucker saw it happen, and used his position higher on the banking to accelerate and was very quickly on Bellora’s wheel. Bellora apparently knew how to play the game and immediately turned up the banking in the middle of turn 3, to slow down. And the Wheelsucker followed him.
And then it really happened!
Plewacki jumped from wherever he was, and in an instant was going fast and low out of turn three. Bellora dove and jumped hard for his wheel but was gapped. And the Wheelsucker in turn dove and jumped as hard as he could but was gapped slightly behind Bellora. In an instant the three were across the finish line and on the last lap. Everyone was going absolutely as hard as they could. Bellora slowly fought his way up to Plewacki's rear wheel, and by about turn three, the Wheelsucker had closed the gap to Bellora's wheel.
But the speed was high and time was running out very rapidly. The Wheelsucker moved slightly up track between turn three and four and gave it everything he had left – darn little – to try to come around on the right (Plewacki and Bellora were both in the sprinter's lane). As they approached the finish line the Wheelsucker felt himself gaining on the two others, but he was still behind Plewacki and overlapped but behind Bellora, as the three crossed the line.
That gave the Wheelsucker fifth out of five in the matched sprint. Unsure of omnium scoring, the Wheelsucker hung around after carrying all his bikes and gear back to his car, loading the car, and showering and changing. But the officials were still working on results, and with a three hour drive to get home, the Wheelsucker finally left without knowing for sure what his finish position was.
But while stopped on the way home the Wheelsucker checked his e-mail and saw the results had been e-mailed out. He had finished third in the 45+ omnium, one point ahead of fourth.
Results on US Cycling website: http://www.usacycling.org/results/?year=2012&id=2426&info_id=54249
The Wheelsucker is rather pleased with himself for finishing third in his age group in the MABRA Track Championship, but knows perfectly well this was due to a combination of blind luck and a very small turnout.
The Wheelsucker greatly appreciates the work of the promoters and their club in organizing the event, and greatly appreciates the officials for their patience, support, and willingness to answer all his questions.
It is really too bad the velodrome is so far – 2:45 driving time – from Annapolis, because riding the track is a LOT of fun.
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