NOTHING COMPARES TO THE SIMPLE PLEASURE OF A BIKE RIDE
~John F. Kennedy

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Colorado Track State Championships

The weekend of September 4 and 5th enCompass Racing headed down to Colorado Springs to race in the state championships. Despite being in a hard training block, Maddie zipped up the speedsuit and put on the race wheels for a dress rehearsal for Elite Nationals. She raced the women's 500 meter time trial and was recruited to be a starter for a men's team sprint.

Race Report:
The 500 m went off first, and the goal of the ride was to see where I was time-wise, seeing as I haven't ridden a 500 yet this year. Since I am riding second wheel and consequently a 500 in the team sprint at Nationals and the Pan-Am Games, this would be a good practice run for the upcoming track season. The gun sounded and I pushed the gear over and just kept winding it up as fast as I could. When I came into the infield to ask my coach what the time was he just looked at me. I had taken 1.1 seconds of my previous PR, and the time was good enough to win by over 2 seconds! In track racing where races sometimes come down to thousandths of seconds, to take over a second off is a very good thing and bodes well for my future racing.

500 m podium (the 3rd place finisher was MIA)

I had a while until the team sprints so I just relaxed and hung out. When it was time to go I warmed up on the rollers and made my way to the ready area. I was to start and my two teammates were to follow me with one of us pulling off each lap until the last person completes a lap by himself. By this time the wind was starting to pick up, but we all stayed in a tight formation and held out for the win!

On the top step of the podium!

Men's team sprint podium

Look for more updates as the track and cyclocross seasons start to heat up!

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