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Results
TIJD RIT Van Vlaanderen
(Flanders Time Trial)
1st Annual Giro del Cielo
Women's Stage Race (PDF)
Race Manual (PDF)
Recent News
NJBA Hosts “Women’s Category 4 Cup”
for the Second Season!
Commitment to Women’s Cycling
Reinforced by Early Season Clinic
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Report from Elite and Masters Nationals
Elite Nationals
After entering two double doors of the ADT Event Center Velodrome, the first thing that hits you is the smell of wood. It's the same smell as at a wood pile or when you're building an addition on your house. At the same time, the sight is staggering! The velodrome built into the side of a hill (if you can believe there could be a hill in Los Angeles), so when you walk in, you are high above the track at turn 1. It's like the first time you go to a baseball game and get a glimpse of the field from your gate in the upper deck.
The track is 250 meters around with 45 degree banking, rows of flags, and huge photos of Olympic and World champions hanging from the ceiling. I could neither take my eyes off it nor believe I was standing there.
Getting on the track while on my bike for the first time was somewhat daunting. The steepest track I ever rode was Trexlertown at 28 degrees or so. As I circled the apron several times and several times more, I just took a deep breath and got on that thing!
There is no resting on that track. At T-town you can soft pedal on the straightaways, but here, if you're not exerting force on the pedals, your wheels slip out from under you and down you go.
As you most of you know, I learned that in the first heat of the match sprint. Unbelieveably to myself, I qualified by getting the 7th fastest time in the 200 M qualifier (top 8 move on to the next round). Then, you're seeded against another rider as follows: 1st races 8th, 2nd races 7th, 3rd races 6th and 4th races 5th. This round is "sudden death" as opposed to best 2 of 3. Winners move on the the medal rounds and losers get put in a race for places 5-8.
I'm in the second heat and pull lane 1, so I have to lead out the heat. I want to get high on the track, but my opponent is in the way. At the first turn, I slow up as she starts to pass me and all of a sudden I'm laying on the ground. They fired the gun to end the heat (you get a do-over when a mishap like that happens). Later I found out Rod thought I got shot because they fired the gun immediately when I fell.
I wasn't hurt - just a small tear in my skinsuit at the right elbow and my whole right side was black from the rubber rubbed off from the surface of the track. Our heat was started immediately again. As I later learned, you gotta be the one to jump first on that track because the banking makes it nearly impossible to come around somebody on the homestretch. I wasn't the jumper and lost the heat. In the next round for places 5-8, I took third, finishing 7th overall in the match sprint.
I also did the 500 M and Keirin, but don't have much to tell. I hope I have the opportunity to compete next year to try out everything we learned!
Masters Nationals
As Rod said before we left for the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, Masters Nationals was going to be "the icing on the cake." I, however, wasn't so sure when I saw that most of the starting lists at Masters were awfully similar to those at Elites...
Since we were driving all the way out there, I registered for all 4 events - 500 M, 2K TT, Points Race and Match Sprint in that order. Major Taylor Velodrome is very similar to Trexlertown so I felt right at home. My first event was the 200 M qualifier to seed us for the Match Sprint. Rod put a nice big gear on my bike and as I was warming up, I was afraid of how easy it was to pedal. When it was my turn, I was taking my free lap before the bell and I literally giggled because my legs felt so great. I won the 200 M by half a second, giving me a major advantage later for the Match Sprint.
Later that night was the 500 M time trial. Checking the wind and remembering how Elites went, we decided to take off the aerobars and lighten the gear. Still flying from my 200 M, I found my smile again on that starting line. I had my best standing start ever and despite my "squirliness" all over the track from spinning at such a high RPM, I took a second off my time at Elites finishing with a 40.75. As a was cooling down, two more women were left to go and I knew I had the fastest time up to that point. As I rode the infield waiting for their 40 seconds or so to be over, I kept straining to hear their times. Nothing, and nothing, until finally I hear 42 and something seconds. Oh my gosh, I just moved up to silver. Then there's some silence and I hear them announce the last rider and her time starting with 40....point....822. Holy s***. I just won a national championship.
Two days later was the 2K TT and Points Race. No good news there.
Friday evening was the Match Sprint, the event I went to nationals for. I watched my competitors race each other, with one clear winner - a woman who was also at elite nats. We would race 3 heats and the best 2 of 3 won gold. Waiting for our turn, I felt great. Whenever I started to feel stressed, I took a deep breath and smiled. I rode up to my opponent in the infield and wished her luck, returned with a grumble.
I drew the ping pong ball with the "1" on it, so I was leading out the first heat. That was ok, because I wanted to be out front (my lesson from elites). Robert Kowal's words, "Ride high," echoed in my mind, and I rode right to the top, pinning her between me and the rails. We rode a good pace for the first lap and right before the bell, she made this little move by turning down on me and back up quick to get me to flinch. Well, I didn't - it just made me mad. In the next second, they rang the bell and I saw her start to jump over the top of me. I immediately jumped and held my line, leaving me to lead the sprint in the sprinters lane before turn 1. I never looked back and kept my lead all the way to the finish, also getting my best 200M time ever.
There were points races in between the heats, so there was time to wait. All I kept thinking was "I don't want to race again after this next heat." I was feeling a little nervous at this point until we were called to the staging area. The race before us had some controversy and the officials were working that out and told us we had about 5 more minutes. My opponent and I were sitting down at the start/finish with our coaches standing. While she was holding her head in her hands and they were whispering back and forth, Rod was watching the officials standing in a circle at the far end of the track. He was using voices to guess what they were talking about, i.e., "Where should we go for dinner tonight?" and "I thought I got to wear the blue short today." To top it off, he managed to get a hold of a remote controlled - and please forgive me - fart machine from the track director that he had in his back pocket and kept activating every 2 seconds. I had tears in my eyes from laughter.
When it was finally time to go, my opponent had to tell us it was our turn to start up the track (oops, guess we should have known). When we started, it was just like the last heat, except with me between her and rails. And, guess what, right before they rang the bell, she did that same little move again, but it didn't work that time either. However, this time she didn't jump right away. From watching her other heats, I had a feeling she would jump between turns 1 and 2. After turn 1, she was right on schedule. She jumped, and it it took me a moment to get on her, but I was on my way to passing her before the 3rd turn, competely past her at the 4th turn, and won the second heat with some room to spare. All the way, I kept repeating, "I do not want to race again." That's the story of jersey #2.
My two wins gave me enough points to win the Women's 30-34 Best All-around Rider competition.
Thank you and congratulations to Rod Murray, 2005 two-time national champion coach! Rod has been my coach, advisor, mechanic, trainer, strategist, nutritionist, soigneur and partner, among many other things and not necessarily in that order. I literally could not have even considered nationals without him. We've come a long way together from that bike he pulled out of someone's garbage for me six years ago.
And, thanks to everyone who gave me their good wishes, advice and support.
- Brooke
Robert Kowal has six wins on the track this year, most recently including wins in the Win & Out and Unknown Distance races. Above: Bob Roll congratulates Robert on these recent successes.
