July 09, 2005
Junior National Track Championships
Trexlertown, PA
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos provided by Nate CarrickThe final day of the Junior National Championships at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome featured the team events. Because it was the last day of competition the riders were willing to lay it all on the line and give it that little bit extra. This, combined with several riders who were competitors in some events becoming teammates in others, created an interesting dynamic. Competition in its purest form became the focal point of the day as rivalries were set aside in the quest for gold.
The first big event of the day was the Team Pursuit. It turned out to be a very close and competitive race, as the top three teams finished within five seconds of each other. Emerging the victor was a team simply named, The Who? (Cody O'Reilly, Guy East, Daniel Holloway, Jared Downing). Their time of 4.48.31 was four seconds faster than T-Town Express (Chris Ruhl, Taylor Brown, Jackie Simes, Rodney Santiago), who came in second. Team Vortex East Coast (Kyle Oberly, Alex Kinsey, Bett Jacoby, Nik Reinert) came in a very close third, one second behind the T-Town Express.
The Women's 17-18 sprint tournament turned into the Cindy Lakatosh Show as she qualified with the fastest time in the 200 meter TT, swept all her heats, and then came up victorious in the final. Lakatosh (Tri-State Velo) faced Shelby Allen (Home Depot Center) in the ride for first and second and won two close finishes to earn the gold. Amara Boursaw (Greggs/Trek) beat Cristin Walker (NWCC/Alkek) in two straight rides to earn the bronze.
One of the most intense races is always the Team Sprint, and this year was no exception. The four teams that qualified for the finals, in order of their times from fastest to slowest were; New Kids on the Block (Ben Barczewski, Mike Schnabel, Spencer Hartfeld), Triple A (Dan Holloway, Matthew Fox, Shane Kline), Act (Austin Byrd, Bary Miller, David Espinoza), and Vortex East Coast (Brett Jacoby, Nik Reinert, Kyle Oberly). In the final for third and fourth, Act edged out Vortex East Coast by two seconds to earn third in a time of 1.10.41. In the final for first and second, New Kids on the Block ran away with the gold in a time of 1.04.92. They not only bettered their qualifying time by two seconds, but they beat Triple A by three second, which is a large margin in a race of this distance.
In the 15-16 Women's 15 kilometer points race was punctuated by the speed and style of Catherine Fiedler (Home Depot Center). Nobody could match her jump as she won all but two of the points sprints, and she was easy to spot because of her bright, rainbow knee-high socks. Fiedlers 38 points were enough to over come Colleen Hayduk's (T.E.A.M. Fuji) 25 and Taylor Boglioli's (Greggs/Trek) 21.
The final event of the evening was the Madison. The high pace and save nothing attitude made this rough and tumble spectacle the perfect event to end four days of racing. The action was heated with several blistering attacks launched by the Lombardi Sports team (Daniel Holloway, Chris Ruhl), Tri-State Velo (Taylor Brown, Jackie Simes), and Team Fuji (Shane Kline, Rich Schank). When the dust settled, Team Fuji was on top with 16 points. Both Lombardi Sports and Team Echelon scored 10 points, but Echelon was given second place by virtue of their position in the final sprint.
Race report courtesy of Nate Carrick