USA Cycling Junior National Track Championships

Frisco, TX

By Lucas Wardein

The day before my first race I had a terrible crash that landed me in the hospital for 2 hours. The minimum speed you have to be going on this track to not slip is 14 mph. This idiot was at the top of the track which is nearly 25 feet in the air and is only going 10 mph. of course he slides out and slides all the way down the track, I had just dove to the bottom of the track and he slides right in front of me. I plowed right over him and went face first into the concrete apron. I knocked off the bottom 20% my two front teeth and ripped open my chin. I needed 6 stitches for that. I also had road rash covering my whole left arm, and my right knee. There is also some on my hip and on my butt. Needless to say, I was in pretty bad shape ready to race!

Omnium

The Omnium was just changed to tracks “endurance race” by the IOC and UCI. Since I am 17-18 all the races I do give me a chance to go to worlds if I break the time standard or do amazingly fantastic in mass start events.  This event contains 6 races: the flying lap, the points race, the elimination race, the individual 3K pursuit, the scratch race, and the kilo.  My biggest competitor was definitely Matt Lipscomb, this kid is super strong and is a very good all rounder.

Flying lap- my lap was super slow; 15.84 seconds. The winner was Lipscomb with a 14.39.

Points race-next was the points race which I thought I had very good chance in. I ended up getting dropped and lapped 4 times, I was last place.

Elimination race- I knew I could do well in this, every other lap a bell is rung and that means that the last place person on that lap will be pulled from the race. This keeps happening until two riders remain, then they sprint it out to see who wins. I was 5^th in this race, I should’ve done better but I made a stupid move that got me boxed in and shoved into last place for that lap.

3K pursuit- I ran a 3:54, both Neal and I had bad days today. We both got bad times. He did a 3:52. Matt did a 3:34 setting a new national record. That record only stood for about 20 minutes before Gregory Daniel of Garmin Junior Devo beat it by 2-tenths of a second.

Scratch race- for anyone who doesn’t really know a lot about track, a scratch race is your basic crit. It’s a certain amount of laps and the winner of the last lap wins. I was last in this race as well; need to work on my track sprint!

Kilo- I had another bad time. 1:18, the winner got into the sub 1:10’s I think. I had a bad two days; I just didn’t have the legs to compete with these guys. I was the only first year 17-18.  My whole body was sore from the crash but I did the best I could.

Individual Events

Team Pursuit- Now for some fun stuff! On day 3 I felt tons better! Just a little sore and my legs felt fantastic. It was now time for the Team pursuit. 4 teammates have to cover 4K, the clock is stopped on the 3^rd rider to cross the line.  4K comes out to 16 laps on this 250 meter track. Due to some complications we had to use a ride we had never even practiced with, let alone met! We met 20 minutes prior to our start. The teams that win this practice together for a really long time, but, we still had high expectations. We had an awesome race for our first time ever riding together. This was just the qualifier for the night race. Chipotle Devo team beat us by a second and half, we were shoved into 4^th by this team. Of course the National team killed it along with another team that we expected to beat us. We qualified for the bronze medal round later that night. They would put both Chipotle and us on the track at the same time and let us face off. We would start on opposite sides of the track and try to chase each other down. All of us wanted revenge so bad, we knew what we had to do and we would rip ourselves inside out to beat them.  We had our work cut out for us. 

Points Race- Right after the qualifier I had 100 lap points race to do. The way a points race works is such that you have to sprint many times to win. Since my race was 100 laps, we had a sprint lap every ten laps. The winner got 5 points, 2^nd place got 3, 3^rd place got 2, and 4^th place got 1. So, I had to be top 4 if I wanted points. Like I said, I was feeling tons better that day, and I had some good legs! Coach Bob told me to be very patient since this race is so long, if anyone knows my racing style this would be hard to do.  There is another way to get points besides sprinting on sprint laps. If I managed to lap the field at any time I would be awarded 20 points. Since I like breakaways, I thought this was my best chance to get some big points. I was very patient in this race until lap 22. I didn’t even try for the first two sprints. Right after the second sprint everybody looked pretty tired, I was getting ready to attack when I saw Andrew Lanier beat me to the punch. Either way, it was a positive, I followed him and another guy followed me. Within a lap we had a half a lap on the field. We knew we were going to lap the field. It was just a matter of time, the field had sat up and we had gotten lucky.  Luck was really on our side, we were only 20 feet off the back of the field when the called a sprint lap. We sat off the back and collected those points and then lapped the field. I took 2^nd in the sprint, so within a matter of 10 seconds I gained 23 points. I burned a match to lap the field, but it was worth it. I was now going to sit in the field and rest up since I knew that wouldn’t be enough and I would have to contest a few more sprints to stay in a podium spot. Before I knew it, 40 laps had gone by and there is now only 30 to go. Once I got back another two man group checked out. Except, their strategy was a little different, they sat out there a half lap ahead of us for 40 laps and collected the top 2 sprint points 4 times.  I assumed they would then try to lap us. I saw this coming so I started working to get them back, the other two guys that I lapped the field with knew it too and they assisted in the chase. We brought them back and I knew I had to start going for points now, I grabbed a point on 30 to go. I grabbed another point 20 to go. The field was obliterated into tiny groups after the second to last sprint. I was in the chase group after a 3 man lead group. My group consisted of three guys as well, we worked to catch them but they weren’t coming back. Its now one to go and I decided to lead out the sprint so I attacked going into turn 1, I held it all the ay until the final straight where I was edged out by about a foot. It all paid off, my little nabs for points kept me in 4^th place! This was my first medal of Track Nats.

Team Pursuit bronze round- after an hour-long nap and a good lunch I was ready to assist my team in beating Chipotle. We knew we had to push each other to our max’s to beat them. And that’s exactly what we did. Our plan was to have Max do a death pull a little over half way. He was to a pull a lap and a half as fast as he could. He did it perfect, he dropped us off with 4 and a half laps to go. We were all red-lined and just trying to hang onto the small lead we had. 1 lap to go and the crowd is screaming an ear splitting cheer, I was dying out quickly and was getting gapped. We come out of the final turn and I look across the track at their 3^rd rider. I was watching his front wheel getting close and closer to the line. I threw my bike as much as a track bike would allow me and heard the gun shot that signaled that we had crossed the line. I heard their gunshot a split second later!  We had done it! We beat them! They ran the exact same time as the morning session and we did 2 seconds better than our first run! We beat them by .49 seconds! 3^rd place has never felt so good! It was Max’s birthday that day and he got his first national medal on his birthday!

Its day 4 and all I had to do was a 40 lap scratch race. This was my kind of race. I just didn’t pay attention to what was happening in the race. Before I knew it 5 guys had already lapped the field. So even if I won the field sprint the best I could do was 6^th. Field sprints on the track get very hairy, I wasn’t going to try and contest it. I had already had my fair share of crashing for the next year. I was at the back when, ironically enough, some guy got a flat right next to me, he was thrown to the apron and I just backed off so I wouldn’t get taken out. Flat tire on the track is bad news.

Day 5 was a fun day; all we had left was the Team Sprint and the Madison. These two events are just plain old fun! The team sprint is 3 laps and requires 3 teammates. All 3 start on the same line. Max was our starter since he had the best start, I followed him and did lap two, and Neal was on my wheel for lap 3 since I had a scorching flying lap time. (14.61(I think)) Any way we did it in 54 seconds and 79 milliseconds. Of course, the Chipotle Garmin squad beat us by .37 seconds!!!! Ugh. We got 3^rd! 7 teams started, so we were pretty excited about it.

The Madison is basically a two man team points race. We do exchanges by grabbing each others hand and slinging each other as hard as we can. It was definitely a learning experience! There were five teams entered, which means we were guaranteed a medal. So, all we had to do was finish. We had good exchanges but unfortunately we didn’t have the legs to back them up. It was an 80 lap race, and by lap 20 Neal and I were off the back by ourselves.  We basically chased for the last 60 laps. Ha-ha, we were happy with it, we got 4^th. We both were in agreement that it was a good first race, if only we had the legs that day.  We both felt like junk again, overall the ORC team came away 11 medals! My national medal count is now up to 7, and many more on the way!!

2011 USA Cycling Junior Road Nationals June 21^st-June 26th

Augusta, GA

By Lucas Wardein

Time Trial, Junior Men 17-18

We ended up doing 30K which comes out to around 19 miles. I really like the long time trials so I had a feeling that I could put in a pretty good time. I got the perfect warm up and got to the start house a perfect 3 minutes before my start time. Since I am now 17-18 I am subjected to UCI’s rules on positioning and equipment. To make sure I didn’t have any problems when I got up to the starting line, I went to the race hotel where they had the jig set up and were checking our bikes.  My bike passed with absolutely no problems. They would put my bike on the jig one more time about three minutes before I shot off.  So here I am at the jig the next morning only 3 minutes away from leaving the start house, and they decide to tell me now that my previously checked UCI approved Vision bars did not fit the standard 3 to 1 ratio.  This rule states that the piece of equipment or tube of frame has to be at least 3 times as wide as it is tall or vice versa. They stated that the extensions to my bull horns were not 3 to 1, this meant that it was a “safety issue” and they made my mom run to the mechanic tent and grab duck tape and cardboard to tape to my bars to make it “safe.” It looked ridiculous and the officials were able to keep a straight face the whole time. To make matters worse I dropped my chain down the starting ramp, I quickly threw it back into the big ring and took off. I was able to put what had just happened aside and was calm already by a quarter mile into my ride. I felt so fantastic, I passed my 30 second-man only 2 miles into it, the second one came at mile 6.  I just keep feeling better and better as the TT went on. I got a half mile away from the turn around before I finally got passed. I knew this kid was going to pass me, he was a second year 17-18 and he was a decent Time Trialist. I was surprised I had actually held him off this long. It was a tailwind on the way back and I was still feeling very strong, I finally caught the 3^rd guy 2 miles after the turn around. I hit it so hard on the way back I almost passed back the guy who caught me. I was red-lined 2 miles to go and I could feel my legs starting to give out, I just kept telling myself only another 4 minutes of pain, I was doing 2 minute miles. That’s 30 mph. on the way back I never went below 28 unless there was a climb. I came onto the finishing bridge(flat) and it was the first time I have actually ever got tunnel vision. All I saw was the finish line, I didn’t hear anything or feel anything.  I finished with a time of 41:50, which gave me a 13^th place at the time. Unfortunately, there were still tons of big dogs to finish. By the end of the day I had slipped to 42^nd, but I was still happy with that result because there were 140 of us that started. I was 12^th out of the first years and look forward to improving my TT skills for my last year in juniors.

Criterium, Junior Men 17-18

Everyone was asking me if I was nervous before this race. I simply said no, I know what I need to do to win this race, and I know I can do it, I have done the training that will allow me to do what I need to do. I feel fine. The most important thing about this race was the position I started in. With 140 of the best guys in the country and a tight course, stuff was gonna hit the fan! If you started in the back of this race, your race was over before the announcer even said “go”. I was lucky enough to get in the 2^nd row, there were about 9 rows. This race went ballistic from the gun. There was very little time to rest and almost no chances to move up unless you knew what you were doing. A couple of times I was shuffled to about 30^th place, but nothing worse than that. I did exactly what coach told me to do, which was absolutely nothing. I didn’t even see the front of that race until I needed to. Moves went off but nothing lasted more than 3-4 laps. Its now 7 laps to go and my good friend Thomas Wrona attacks, he’s kind of my rival, we have been “duking” it out since 2008 nationals. I felt obligated to go after him, but I knew I didn’t have much left in the tank, so I had to wait just a little longer. On 4 to go I decided it was time. I’m sitting 2^nd wheel going into turn one. Now I’m pulling going into turn two, I come out of the turn and peel to the right side of the road. A favorite to win this race, Matt Lipscomb, was right on my wheel.  He didn’t follow me and stayed on the left side and looked back to see if anyone was going to come around him, I took this moment to go for it. He and Neal are kind of rivals so he thought I was Neal because we both look pretty similar on the bike, he came right after me. I turned around and looked at him and he looked at me and for a split second our eyes met and he realized it wasn’t Neal, he sat back down and stopped chasing. I now had my gap and was closing on the break of two very quickly. When I got 5 seconds away Thomas looked back and saw me coming. He knew I would out sprint him if it came down to it so he picked up his pace and my gap stayed at 5 seconds for a whole lap. Finally, going on to 2 to go I knew I was about to die out if I didn’t get that draft, so I stood up and accelerated. I latched on to the back and checked out our gap on the field. We had about 15 seconds and only had 2 kilometers to go.  The other guy that was with us refused to work and his excuse was “I have a sprinter in the pack, I’m just doing my job.” Both Thomas and I were very peeved but got over it quickly and got back to the job at hand. On the back stretch our gap was only about 5 seconds. I hit it hard on my next pull and we got the gap up again, we now came out of the final turn going onto one to go! I hopped on Thomas’ wheel and planned on staying there for a while. Thomas attacked me right at the start line; I caught him on the back stretch only for him to attack me again. He knew I would out sprint him, so he was being very smart. The second attack was enough and I was spit off his wheel. Then the guy who wasn’t working passed me too, I was completely dead and now by myself trying to hold off a raging field. I came around the final turn and all the screaming and banging on the boards deafened me. It truly was a tunnel of noise. The final straight away is a good 500 meters and every 50 meters or so I checked my gap. It was getting smaller by the second. I barely made it across the finish line and not a second later I was passed by 4^th and 5^th place that sprinted so fast they might as well have been their own breakaway. I had done it! I got podium as a first year! It felt GREAT! I quickly did roll out and then was escorted by USADA to a bathroom in the back of a hotel so I could empty into a cup. Top 3 were drug tested as well as a random. It was my first drug test and I had never peed while being watched closely. I needed 90 CCs and I could only give 70. I had to start drinking like crazy so I could finish filling the cup.  Since podium had to take place, more paper work, Coach Bob and a USADA chaperone escorted me around the corner to the awards and after a few podium pictures, I was escorted back to the testing area. It took me another two hours to complete that task. Many first experiences that day!

Road Race, Junior Men 17-18.

This was a perfect course for me, I love climbing and this course had 4 hard climbs in it. The rest of course was pretty rolling. The finish was a 1K climb that was pretty steep; it then flattened out for a 500 meter sprint. We did 4 laps on this 14 mile course. Unfortunately, our race started at 8 in the morning so it wouldn’t get hot enough to take toll on the kids from cooler climates. 146 riders started this race. 110 finished. Only 60 riders finished in the field. Breaks went but everything came back very quickly. I didn’t do anything the whole race. I marked the guys I wanted to mark, which the only 2 guys were Matt Lipscomb and Thomas Wrona. I almost never left Thomas’ wheel.  There were a lot of stupid crashes, and also one funny one. On lap 3, there was a touch of wheels and Ben Gabardi( one of the strongest) went down and Cory Williams(4^th in the crit) ran over him and flipped over his bars, except he went over feet first. He landed on his feet and just kept running in a dead sprint. We were going about 22 mph at the time. I was right behind this so in my attempt to avoid I went right. At the last second Ben’s arm landed right in front of me, I still feel bad about running over his arm. Everyone patted Cory on the back as we went by him and shouted nice save. I was able to stay far away from the other crashes. Nothing interesting happened until the sprint, except for a breakaway that checked out 7 miles to go. It consisted of three guys that were caught in the sprint.  At the base of the final climb I was sitting top ten. Feeling great! Half way up the hill a lot of guys were in dead sprint. I was still feeling great but sadly 2 guys in front of me no longer had any energy and gave up. They went from 15 to 5 mph and I was stuck behind them. I lost a good 15 spots. I got out of that and start my real sprint, before the top of the climb I had gained another ten spots back. Once it flattened out I gained nothing, I finished 21^st. Even though I knew I would have gotten on the podium I was still happy with my performance. I finished top 30 as a first year, just means there is room for improvement. Already stoked for next year!

Now, Coach Bob, Neal Shepherd, Max Thilen and I are off to Frisco, Texas where we will compete in USA Cycling Junior Track Nationals!