ATRA News

7/17/12

Points Update After Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge

A great weekend of racing at the Alpenrose Velodrome in Portland, OR saw quite a number of records fall and several riders climb their way up the NCS standings ladder. The star of the weekend was hometown sprinter Kevin Mansker for the Project London team. Blazing his way to new track records in the 1km TT, flying 200m and flying Lap TT, Mansker commented on his form on twitter, "If I can't use Olympic form in the Olympics, I might as well use it at home." Taking wins in the 1km TT, Keirin, Flying Lap and Match Sprints, Mansker catapulted himself all the way up to second in the overall standings, just one point behind Switzerland's Franco Marvulli. Giddeon Massie also took advantage of the weekends events scoring a total of 20 points to move into second in the sprint standings just 3 points back from Mansker. In the endurance events, Zachary Kovalcik broke the 10 Mile Scratch Race record and scored himself 14 points to move into third in the overall standings and the second position in the Endurance standings behind Marvulli.
On the womens side of things a two way battle emerged between Home Depot Center's Dana Feiss and Northwesterner Tela Crane of the Broadmark Capitol team. Crane opened the battle with a new track record in the flying 200m TT, Feiss won the 500m and broke the track record for the flying lap and both riders teamed up to brealk the track record in the Team Sprint. In the end Feiss got the better of Crane, scoring 33 points to Cranes 27, but with Tela Cranes previous NCS performances, she sent herself all the way to the top of the standings holding a clear 19 points lead over previous leader Lauren Stephens. The Women's Endurance races saw an even three way battle between Erin Glover, Beth Newell and Steph Roorda. Glover and Newell each scored 18 points, with Roorda just one back with 17. Glover's performance was enough to move here up to third in the endurance standings, and in addition to the points scored by her Bike Central team mates over the weekend moved their team up to third in the team standings just one point behind Texas' Matrix RBM.

Here's the standings: http://www.raceatra.com/NCS/2012ATRA_Results.htm
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7/12/12

Outback Bikes presents 'The Omnium' Race Report at DLV

The third round of the American Track Racing Association’s National Championship Series (NCS) headed to the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point, GA for the Outback Bikes Omnium. The field included several Team Type 1 riders; Russian Olympian Alexe Shmidt and Team Type co-founder Joe Eldridge, as well as strong master’s riders Steve Carrell and Tony Scott for Peachtree Bikes and Darin Marhanka of the POA Cycling Team. Kyle Knott (Athletix for Globalbike), David Worth (Swiftwick Factory Team) and Jamaican Oneil Samuels (United Healthcare of GA) were some of the other strong riders in the field.
The pace of the racing was fast a furious from the gun with the day’s events getting started with 5 Lap Scratch race heats to qualify riders for the Sprint and Keirin finals. Marhanka, Kyle Knott(Athletix for Globalbike) and Carrell won their respective heats qualifying them for both the sprint and Keirin finals, with Shmidt, Jarek Mol (East Point Track Club) and Wayne Whitesides (Faster Mustache) winning their way into the Keirin final. The 20 Lap point a Lap saw Team Type 1 begin to exert their will onto the field with Shmidt and Eldridge starting and driving a five person break clear of the field to gain a lap and finish 1-2 in the finale ahead of Tony Scott. The Points Race went much the same with Shmidt taking the reins and most of the early points of the race. The breakaway was formed after the fifth sprint, with 5 riders going clear once again, being led by Shmidt, Tony Scott and David Worth (Swiftwick Factory Team). With a lap gained those 5 riders were well clear of the field on points scored, but a late race scare for one of the breakaway riders, Andrew Armstrong (Matrix RBM) as he was dropped from the field and was in danger of losing his lap and bonus points, but was able to not get caught in the final few laps to remain in fifth place. Shmidt, Scott and Worth took the top three placing, with Florida Velo’s youngster Lucas Wardein finishing in 4th place.
The start of the evening session saw the sprint final going down between Marhanka, Knott and Steve Carrell. Marhanka could not match the pace of Knott and Carrell conceding early, but the final sprint between Knott and Carrel saw Knott edge over the top of Carrell to take the win by just a couple of inches. The Unknown Distance was up next and a careful race by most of the riders saw the group mostly stay together with only a few attacks coming early in the race. The word from the referee’s came down for 19 lap race, and as the bell rung it was evident that Alexe Shmidt was one of the smarter riders being right on the front of the group as the bell rang and was able to jump out ahead immediately for an unimpeded sprint to the line with Tony Scott and Jamaican Oneil Samuels (United Healthcare of GA) in tow for second and third respectively. The Keirin final saw the six qualifiers take the line and jump onto the back of the pacing derny. When the derny came off with one and a half laps to go, the lead was taken up by Czech rider Jarek Mol, who seemed to set a perfect lead-out for Shmidt to jump around with 200m to go and take a clear victory taking his win tally to four for the evening. A tight sprint for second once again saw Carrell and Knott coming to the line side by side with Carrell getting the better of Knott this time around. The last and final event of the Omnium was the Miss and Out, and with a 24 rider field on the track, the field was spread edge to edge on the track, with some of early eliminations just having no room to pass anyone at all. The early pace was set by Jeremiah Dyer (Chainheart Cycling Studio) but the pacemaking proved too much for him to stay in the race, as he was eliminated with about 10 riders still left on the track. The pace got progressively faster through the final few laps and it came down to the three-up sprint between both Team Type 1 riders, Eldridge and Shmidt going up against Tony Scott. Shmidt was content to let Eldridge and Scott sprint it out, knowing he had sewn up the omnium victory already, and it was Eldridge taking the sprint from Scott to catapult himself up the standings into third place ahead of Kyle Knott in 4th. Shmidt had sealed his victory with four race wins and Scott rode himself into second place with a total of 28 points, which included three second places.

Race results can be found here: http://www.dicklanevelodrome.com/results/Results.php#2012-07-07

NCS Standings here: http://www.raceatra.com/NCS/2012ATRA_Results.htm
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