last day - BETTY JOES TAKE THE GOLD!!

The big news of the day is that the Hammer Betty Jo pursuit team took GOLD in the 3k team pursuit. We were seeded last so got to see what the comp did. We thought we could take gold but there had already been a number of crashes in the men's team pursuits so we needed to ride safely but still go hard. Well, we did just that and crushed the competition by 8 seconds. Ken didn't have the camera for the podium shot but here we are after we'd just finished. It was definitely the most fun event of the week. There's nothing quite like sticking a good pursuit exchange at speed. We got lots of compliments on how smooth we looked. I have to say, we really ROCKED and as I heard the announcer say with two laps to go, "They really put the HAMMER down!!"

Earlier that morning Deb and I did the team sprint. We were seeded in the final heat with Annette Hanson and Linda Foti. We ended up qualifying 3rd and will ride for the bronze medal tonight. I was pretty beat after that event. The last 1/2 lap felt like it took forever. I didn't realize how hard it is doing that second lap by myself after sucking wheel for a lap! I think we'll probably go faster tonight, but unfortunately, the best we can get is bronze.

All three Hammer men's teams qualified for the gold medal rides tonight, so we're looking at more jerseys for the team.

And then is the famous Hammer Racing after party.... :-)

evening session of day 4

Ron and Jim took silver in the sprints.
Marsha won the points race (she was the only 60-64 in the group sadly).
The big excitement was seeing Shannon win GOLD in her points race; she also won the entire 50+ race. Marsha was in that race and did a great job helping Shannon out. They had plans to break from the field but that never materialized so Shannon just turned on the juice on the sprint laps and Marsha did a super job leading her out and boxing the competition in. Shannon was actually tied for first with a local favorite until the last sprint. Her time trialing skills came in handy as she basically rode away from the field on the last lap. It was amazing to watch!

We were awarded the Best Overall Team Championship and ended up with lots of free tshirts, hats and bottles of wine!! woo hoo. They know us too well!

Off to the team events tomorrow for the last day of racing.

day 4 - pursuit

This morning I did the pursuit. six laps of PAIN. I went out too hot and ended up 4th. The gal who won did so by something like 5-6 seconds and I was out of third by a few hundredths. Deborah ended up second. We're both kinda tired. Marsha and Shannon are going to whoop up in the points race tonight, so I'm resting now so I can have my full on cheering voice ready. Murdock and Big Sock are in the semi finals tonight. Randy qualified 2nd in the sprints but ended up 8th overall. Here are some photos from last night.

Getting ready for the sprint (above). Notice the Moe's Bagels sticker on my disc. I have a ton of them and now everyone is using them, even the manliest of men on the team. I need to hit them up for sponsorship...

Here's the start of my quarter final first ride (the ride before the flat).

















Here we have a couple shots of the Hammer "nest". It's pretty clean and tidy here (this was taken earlier this week). now we've got a table, newspapers, magazines and water bottles all over the place. stuff keeps ending up in the wrong bags and, i swear, everything is black so it all looks the same!

Here's what Butch thinks of all of this. Butch was an excellent holder for my sprints. he remembered exactly how to place my pedals. thanks, Butch!

day 3 racing: sprints...and my first flat on the track

Ok, quick post here with no pictures because yet again, I have to race early tomorrow morning!! (ugh)

Sprints (probably my favorite race after the 500 but also the most nerve wracking): I qualified third which wasn't great. Just didn't get that good of a warm up; it was an OK warm up but I could have done better (i am not always known for good warm ups as my road teammates and coach know). We underestimated how long the 3k pursuits would take and cut it too close with getting to the track.

I won my first ride pretty easily. Big Sock pushed me out for the second ride and my disc felt funky. then it started sounding funky. then i looked down and noticed that my tire was FLAT. i was only coming out of turn 2 at this time on the first lap! i had no idea if this was a legit mechanical or really what to do, so i decided to keep riding. by the time we wound it up i knew i was not going to contest the sprint. i did not want to go sliding down the track. so i ended up losing that round. i immediately checked my tire, and yep it was flat. not punctured flat but flat. Ron had checked both wheels when I started and they were fine. Later I talked with someone in the locker room who said she knew i had a flat because she could hear the wheel sounding funny from the infield. Now i had to do a third ride (ugh!). I won that ride which put me in the gold medal final.

The bottom line is this. I ended up with silver. My first ride went pretty well but she got me at the line. I just didn't have the legs in the second ride after trying to take her long. I was really happy with my racing in terms of having good tactics and riding smart. Just didn't have the horsepower for gold in the end.

Other results from our sprinters: Wil Zegers got 4th, Mark Pellitier got 5th, Mike Paulin got 7th, and Deborah Kidd got 4th. Kenny rode a great 200m and qualified 4th, but ended up 7th overall. Steve Worley and Paul Mack rode an awesome points race but didn't make the podium.

On to the pursuit tomorrow morning!

Pictures from yesterday.
To the left here you have the drive to the track. Yes, this is rural Penn. You've basically got a track out in the middle of corn fields.

Rich getting ready for the sprint.










Here's Deborah TTing off the front in the points race. this was the 2nd to last lap when two gals decided to finally chase her down. she had about a 1/2 lap gap on the field for much of the race.

Randy checks out what's going on in his race.

You can click on the photos for a larger version in case you didn't know. I say that b/c I only realized that recently.

day 2

Well, another long day at the track but there is nothing like watching match sprints and points races. Those are the races to watch at the track. Nothing can get my heart rate up like thinking about doing match sprints!!

Today Randy got a 6th in his points race. Rich qualified third in his sprints but had a lot of back pain so was going to scratch but decided go ahead and ride for the team points (you know we have won 7 of the 8 last national team championship titles!!). he got points with his fourth place finish. The big fun of the evening was watching Deborah Kidd (our Hammer from NM) attack in the 30-39 points race (the one I chose to skip this year) with 20 (of 30) laps to go and she basically TT'ed off the front until the final two laps. These other chicks just could not or did not organize and Deb pushed her 93 inch gear around to win the race. Pretty cool for her 7th race ever on the track! This year they broke down the womens sprints into 5 yr categories (usually they stick all of the 40+ women together) which put Jan in 3rd for her age group. The big excitement was watching Donna Smith take Annette Hanson in two rides for the 45+ sprint. You really have to know these folks to get it, but for those who do, it was very cool!

I'll post some pix tomorrow. Time for bed here. I gotta sprint tomorrow.

evening session of day 1

It was a loooonggggg day at the track yesterday. I think all of these days are going to end up being kinda long. Last night, Marsha pursuited and won. Shannon rode an excellent race and got silver. Jan was fifth in her race. Jim Murdock won his pursuit, as did Steve Worley (Boulder Masters). Paul Mack from Boulder Masters was fifth in his pursuit. In the kilos, Ken was 14th, Mike Paulin was 7th, and Wil Zegers got silver after two false starts. That's gotta crack the nerves!

Here are some photos.

official results

day 1 of racing - morning

500 meters this morning. here we are warming up. pic taken from the bridge that goes over the track. pretty cool feature of this track. we have a tunnel, they have a bridge.

I had a BAD start (which is why I am not posting the movie of my race! sorry, Katie and Melissa!) but I made up for it and here's the result.















Here are our other podium shots of the Hammer women. The other Hammerer on the podium with me is Deborah Kidd (former pro mountain biker from Santa Fe, NM) who is riding for us here. She's on our team pursuit squad and we're riding the team sprint together.
















Jan got 5th (above)
Marsha got 2nd (left)

Shannon got a 6th but unfortunately didn't get on the podium.

Jim Murdock was 2nd. Here's a cool pic of him. Why didn't Ken get my picture like this?



The other big news was that Big Sock Ron Hargrave won his 500 meters! He was the last to ride of 20 competitors in his group. Sorry, I don't have any photos of Big Sock right now.

Now, it's time for a nap! Pursuits and kilos tonight but nothing for me. And I'm off tomorrow! woo hoo.

masters track natz - trexlertown, pennsylvania

well, we made it!! delayed flights, too much airport food, rain, crazy Jersey highways... here we are in rural eastern pennysylvania. it is really purty here - very green and very different from the urban scene in denver. here are the four Hammer babes who came to T-town (Marsha, Shannon, Jan and me). click the pic to get a bigger version. there was a classic car show in town this weekend so we were besieged by old cars at our hotel. the hotel is really nice - great breakfast, a mile from the track, nice rooms. (i made the hotel arrangements for the team, thank you.)

I didn't get a great shot of the whole track but here is turn 3 and 4 from the bridge that takes you to the infield. We have a tunnel, they have a bridge. I'll try to get a better shot this week.

They even have flowers on the infield.

Shannon made up these shirts for the people that Rich coaches. He is the S&M Task Master from what I'm told!! (OK, i realize you probably can't read the shirt. I'll try to get a better shot later.)

This wins the award for coolest thing I saw. Maybe this will be my new endeavor (along with the 27 other ideas I have for various things to make and sell...)

Tomorrow it's the 500 meters for me early in the morning, and Ken has the kilo in the evening. I'll let you know how everyone does!

i have a blog??!

so what does this mean that i've started a blog? does this make me a narcissist? geez, i hope not. i know i enjoy stalking other blogs on occasion, and i often stumble across funny things in this thing called life that i think others would get a kick out of, but maybe blogging is just for you the author. whatever. i guess this is my chance to tell the world my point of view, as if i don't do that already!!

i took this picture with a potential blog in mind. it was a great weekend with no racing (rare this summer), out of town family here (lots of that this month actually) and a first multiple item harvest from my garden!! here it is.

also this weekend, along with my wonderful in-laws being here from San Diego, we had a Girls Night Out at Lakeside Amusement Park. All women cyclists. It was fun to see people off the bike. Here are are on the Cyclone. No barfing on this ride.