Festival of Speed at Dick Lane (9/20/08)

The Kudzu duo of Joey and Oscar skin-suited up for Saturday’s Dick Lane Velodrome Festival of Speed, which was the final track event of the season. The pair was fresh off of a trip from collegiate track nationals held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Even though they were tired from a long season of racing, the two were hoping to pull off an upset to end the year. Oscar’s right hand man and track speedster Thomas ‘Crash’ Brown, was at home riding the couch, hopped up on more meds (pain killers) than his bike collection, after breaking his collarbone a few weeks earlier. With one man down, the two Kudzu boys were wary to think about success against such strong teams as Team Type 1 and Jittery Joe’s; plus a number of strong out of town ‘trackies’ that made the drive to Atlanta for the final event of the season.

The night started with a few 5 lap scratch heats (5 lap race to the finish) which qualified riders into the night’s handicap finals and keirin finals. With both Kudzu riders in the same heat, getting one qualified for the later races was a must. Oscar went straight to work with an early attack to stretch the field and kept the pace high to deliver Joey the win.

Since Joey advanced to the finals, the game plan was to keep him high in the overall standings by winning as many points in the remaining races as possible. The next event was a 60 lap points race, with point sprints every 5 laps. Oscar spent time covering moves from the field and chasing down strong attacks from a Fiordifrutta rider. Meanwhile, Joey was able to grab enough points in the sprints to take second in the race behind multiple time masters national champ Kenny Williams.

The trend continued through the night, as Oscar kept the field together while Joey light up the sprints. Joey place second in the 20 lap scratch event behind masters world and elite national kilo champ Steve Hill. Next on the bill, was the fastest and scariest race known on the track, the keirin, an exciting race where about 10 riders are brought up to speed, paced behind a motorcycle, and dropped off at one and a half laps to go, for an all out sprint. Positioning is key in the keirin, a full contact event, and Joey showed his true colors as an all around bike racer by fighting off some good headbutts and pushes from the big Joe Eldridge of Team Type 1, to hold onto his spot and place third in the 40+ mph event.

The only slip up of the night from the Kudzu duo came in the miss-n-out (an elimination race where the last rider of every lap is out) when a few miscommunications under the roar of the large crowd saw Joey out early. Oscar renewed the team’s hope by beating two time Giro di Italia finisher Trent Wilson for second place behind Kenny Williams.

The final event, the madison (teams of two compete in a sort of ‘tag team’ points race, complete with tummy turning high speed hand slings to exchange riders) was the only thing stopping them from a nearly perfect night. The first exchange was bungled by trying not to crash in the chaos of 10 teams exchanging at once. Consequently, the two lost about half a lap on the hard charging Jittery Joe’s duo. After about 15 laps of crisp exchanges and full tilt riding, the Kudzu boys caught the front of the detonated race which was controlled by Jittery Joes.

Everyone else was a lap down on the two dominate teams of the night. After missing the first few sprints, the pressure was building as the sprints were close, none closer than the mid-race $500 ‘crowd prime’ where Jittery Joe’s pro Tim Henry narrowly edged out Oscar by the width of his front tire.

Joey and Oscar kept tough, holding on through the insanity to end up second in the race. After a dramatic finale and successful night of racing, Joey finished second overall in the omnium with Oscar close behind in fourth.

Collegiate track nationals (Colorado, Springs)

Bad luck can't keep the team's spirit down. Last Friday, during a training session at the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point (Atlanta), Georgia, Thomas Brown suffered a major setback for collegiate track nationals. Thomas and Oscar were practicing their pursuit efforts when the mishap occurred. Thomas was leading with Oscar on his wheel, when Thomas went up track and miscalculated Oscar's whereabouts. When Thomas came down track, he clipped Oscar's rear wheel, immediately slamming him to the apron. He sustained a broken collar bone (in 3 places) and multiple lacerations on his left side, thwarting his hopes and psyche for the next few weeks.
However, Oscar was able to turn the bad fortune around with an undaunted 4th place in the 3K pursuit with a time of 3:33.724, just shy of the winner's time of 3:30.381. Joey rode a stellar race placing 6th with a time of 3:34.938. Today was day one of the 3 day track event, so expect some more big results from the Team Kudzu riders. Thomas is preparing to undergo surgery next Tuesday at the Emory Sports Clinic in Atlanta.

Tuesday Night Track racing in Trexlertown by Joey

That's the sound the tubular on my disc wheel made as it went from 130 psi to 0 in about half a second. I was warming up on rollers 10 minutes before the start of our first of 4 races when my tubular tire pretty much fell apart and flatted. We hadn't brought any extra track wheels from home in Georgia...much less to the track last night; nor had we brought any tools other than the one hex-wrench we used to put our wheels on. No worries though, as soon as it happened, the guy in the stall across from us in the infield offered up a spare wheel of his....and his tools. And then he actually ended up switching the gear and wheel for me because I guess I was doing it too unbearably slow for him to watch.

While I no longer had the advantage of racing with my aero disc wheel, I got back in business pretty quickly and off to a good night of racing. I finished 6th in the Win n' Out after getting in a break; Thomas rode a smart Miss n' Out and finished 6th out of 35 rider field; and Oscar, with the best performance of the night rode to a 5th place in the Points Race to be the best placed cat 2. For being the best placed cat 2 rider, he got a $44 prize that someone in the crowd had offered up, along with $10 for 5th place.

It was a full track of 35 riders again and once again filled with some good talent. The Australian national track team (either juniors or U23) were there along with Rite Aid's Bobby Lea, who just qualified to go to the Olympics with the US track team.

I felt a lot more comfortable on the track last night, even though I didn't place any better than last week. I felt good riding a fast, steady pace but could never really spin up my legs fast enough to contest any sprints. That was to be expected after my 4 hour ride the day before, and after the past weekend's racing. With some rest the next few days I think I'll gain a lot of speed back.....hopefully enough to do well at Fitchburg!

Track Race Report by Joey

Being the very last event of the night, it was nearly eleven o'clock as we set up along the track getting ready to start the points race. We had been at the track since 6 pm that evening and had already competed in three events. I had no idea how my legs would hold up for this final 30 laps around the track. It seemed like there were many things going against us going into the start: every race we completed was one of the fastest track events we've experienced, the last meal we ate was lunch, and it was already past our bedtime. We started in high spirits nonetheless.

The first sprint came and went very quickly as the 36-man field thinned down due to the fast pace. As soon as the speed had slowed a bit, right after the sprint, a couple other riders had the same idea, to attack. We yo-yoed off the front for a minute as others chased off and on, but eventually, after a couple hard accelerations two other riders and I broke clear of the front end of the peloton. We were able to quickly build a substantial gap. One of the guys in the break was a familiar face, as I saw him a year ago at jr track nationals. Nik Reinert, won the men's 17-18 points race, 3k pursuit, and madison, where I also competed. While I was off the front, Thomas and Oscar did an excellent job of sitting on the front of the peloton; by keeping the pace low and jumping on any attacks they discouraged further attacks. My two breakaway companions and I rolled through the next couple sprints as I took the second place points, but I was really starting to hurt. After leading out the entire lap on the second to last sprint, I made a minor judgment error when I pulled up track to let the other two come through to pull, and I got gaped off their wheels. Then, my two breakaway companions lapped the field, gaining 20 points apiece automatically. For the remainder of the race I dangled behind the field, but didn't have enough gas left in the tank to lap it. After a hard race, I took third place which was considerably better than any of my other placings of the night, which made me happy.

After swinging by the gas station to grab a snack and a "big gulp" (64 oz of whatever your heart desires) with our $10 in race winnings, we returned home at nearly 12:00!!! By the time we had showered and eaten dinner, it was well past our bed time, and all we could do was stumble up the stairs and pass out on our bouncy, plastic beds.
Scratch Race

T-town

Last night the team headed to Trexlertown for the first track race of the season, around 6 pm and didn't return till midnight! The racing took a little longer than expected, as it was a full house. A full report to follow, but enjoy the video for now.