National Collegiate Track Cycling Championships (Very late report)

So this is long overdue, but right after I went to nationals I got caught up in a whirlwind of exams and applications, but here is how it went.

Me and my dad headed out of BWI EARLY Wednesday morning on our way to Colorado Springs, during our connecting flight in Atlanta I met two other guys on their way to nationals, one guy from a small college in South Carolina and one guy from Georgetown who I raced with earlier this summer. When we all got to Denver safe and sound and went our seperate ways for the hour drive to Colo Springs. When we got there, we found our hotel room, which, thanks to my girlfriend's dad's Marriott points, was so nice I almost didn't want to race. We went to the track and tried to sign in. I learned a great lesson hear, for all cycling nationals you need a proof of enrollment from you registrar. Luckily I had the wonderful Linda Yost, RU Rec Sports Director, on my side. She faxed me the forms and I was good to go registration wise.

I forgot to mention that my bike took a different route to nationals. It went with my buddy Will Fissel from the Univ. of Delaware, who was staying with me and my dad in return for the bike transport. Unfortunately will was running late and didn't get in until 1am in the morning. So after about 5 hours of sleep will and I both got up and went to the track. After getting our bikes together we had about 5 minutes on the track before the women's 2K went off. So we did a few laps and spent the rest of our time waiting for our event, the 3K, on our rollers. After about two hours, it was finally my turn to go. Will was nice enough to let me use his Zipp disc wheel, which is now my disc wheel!! I got up and after the first two laps that 6,000 ft difference in elevation kicked in and my lungs started to scream, but I held on for a time of 3:57.644. This being my first 3K I don't know if it was an improvement, but it landed me 53rd out of 80+ guys.

Gearing up for the 3K, check out my disc wheel

Friday was suppose to be my 1K time trail, but the morning session got rained out so it was postponed to Saturday morning. The days wasn't a complete wash, I got a good workout on the track and David Espinoza from Penn State won his first national championship in the match sprints that night.

One of the only 60 supposed days of rain in Colorado each year

Saturday was crazy, we got to the track and got ready for the one kilometer time trial, better known as the kill-a-meter. This is tough because it is like the 400m in track, it is not a short spring, but it is not a long distance event, it is everything you have for a little over a minute. My first lap of the kilo went smooth and the other two were a blur of pain and more pain. I finished in the middle of the group with a 1:12 and change, 4 seconds faster than my previous best. David Espinoza continued his dominance by winning the kilo in a new collegiate record 1:05 (he is fast).

Start of my Kilo

Next up was the qualifier for the points race. I was in the second heat of 30, the top 15 from each heat advanced to the final. The first heat went off and was relatively mild, my buddy Will picked up 4 points to move to the final. The second heat however, apparently these guys thought it was the final because they were going hard. After a few points sprints, a group of 6 guys went off the front and soaked up the points. They eventually lapped us with about 6 laps to go. By the final sprint I didn't have any points and thought it was now or never. I jumped off the front and was caught by three guys at the line. After we finished the results were posted, I missed the final by open place in the final sprint, half an inch! Needless to say I was pretty mad. After I had time to cool off, I watched the rest of the racing with dad and family from Colorado, including my Dad's cousin SSnake (that is not a type-o his name is spelled S-S-N-A-K-E). The U18 national champ in points race, Nik Reinert, from U of Pitt and a TTown regular won the points race. He is a really nice kid and an incredible racer.

Me on the rail before the points race (w/ over 30 guys!)

All in all a good trip and I am pretty happy with my results. I just hope Rutgers can keep sending guys out to Nationals until we are track phenoms!

Me and my dad outside of the Velodrome

Me and my dad's cousin SSNAKE