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It was a long day (4:00pm – 10:00pm) of Virginia State Track Racing at Southside Speedway Saturday, August 28, 2010. For Tom Doyle’s age group, he was up against five track racers from the Tidewater area. All five came in hopes that one of them would win the championship on their own track bike, but they failed to tell Tom. Pete Swann’s wife, Sally, felt sorry for Tom, told him he had his number on the wrong side and repined it for him. Tom had been loaned a fast, but tricky CSK track bike. The first chance he got to ride the bike was in the 500m race (which required a 1.3 lap all out sprint) and he did okay, but he was a little scared by how fast it went trough the corners and still held a tight line.Before his next race he got to adjust the saddle height, do some fast practice laps and started to relax on the bike. For the 2000m (5.3 laps) Tom showed how relaxed he had become on the CSK by winning the race by almost 1/4 of a lap. The final race was a 15 lap Points Race in which the entire age group are on the track and racing as a group. Every five laps there is a sprint to the finish line and the top five were scored points. Tom placed 2nd, 1st and 1st. By winning the final sprint Tom got double points and was declared the Omnium Winner and Virginia State Track Age Champion by one point. Tom feels Track Racing is so much fun, quite safe and hopes more of the Rostello presented by Fiorucci/CyCor members will give it a try because nothing else improves acceleration and sprint ability like Track Racing.

The Man or the Machine?

The team was on the bikes this weekend, some longer than others… For those of use who think riding our bikes for an hour is painful, we have nothing compared to our Mountain bike brothers and sisters.. 

The Mountain bike folks raced 18 hours, yes… 18 hours…  Amy and Frank road their legs off and both finished on the podium with 3rd place finishes.  Paula had  little night vision problem and need to take a short break,  but amazingly still ended up just off the podium with a 4th place finish. 

Pam and Sharon were at the State Senior Time Trial event, along with the rest of the team “working” the event since the team promotes this race.  Pam and Sharon both PRd the course.  Pam finished the 40km in 1:05:04 and placed 4th in the women’s CAT 4.  Sharon finished with a 1:06:14 and took 3rd in the Women’s 40+.

Mark Pye is the officially the Team Engineer, for all the great work he did on making the course safe.  Julia can really WHIP folks to the starting line, even if it means yelling at her own teammate to get to the start line.  Ted, Hugh, Gregg, Steve, H.,  Brad, T.,  packedt the cars in the parking area like sardines in a can.  Other were keeping folks safe at the turn around, helping with registration, holding at the start.  It was really a great TEAM effort.

Of course we could not have held the race without the great support of our sponsors.

Last but not least… a shout out to Dave Luscan, I’ve checked as far back as 2006; and I’ll keep checking but I cannot find a time faster than what he laid down on Sunday… a blistering   00:51:29.263   Not sure what the current State / course record is but that is pretty dang fast in my book…

There were two races this weekend, both down in Chesapeake, VA.  Only a small portion of the road team ventured southeast, Sharon was the loan Rostello rep at the criterium, while a few more showed for the Age Graded TT.

Sharon is in the hunt for the Women’s Master’s BAR,  this year so the advise going into Saturday’s race was to sit in, do as little as possible and finish in the top ten.  Plus, mark the other 40+ gals she needed to beat and do your best to beat them in the final sprint.  It helps with the competition’s plan sort of supports your plan.  BJ Samual and Jane Seymour are the main ladies chasing Sharon in the BAR.  BJ tried to push the tempo during the opeing laps of the crit with Jane up front helping.  Well the field was not having any of that and though the pace kept the peleton in a single file, BJ and Jane didn’t not establish a break.  Sharon sat about 12th wheel the entire race.  With about 3 to go a group of 5 got off the front and opened up a little gap, mainly do to great team work by another team.  Sharon came out of the last corner about 15th and managed to move up a few places, finishing 10th overall, 1st 40+.

Sunday was a different story.  Mark Pye found a crack in his TT machine on THURSDAY, well to tell you how great a team we have, everyone that was either on vacation or just not planning on doing the TT, offered Mark their bike… Rostello, you guys rock.  Mark ended up spending Saturday tweeking his position on Bryan’s bike… So Sunday morning found the Rostello “team bus” Mark Pye, Pam Webb, Bill Battle and Sharon warming up for the Age Graded TT. Bill Battle went off first, had difficulting clipping in.. BUT still managed a 54:40, which  got him a  top 10 place in his age group.  Sharon was next and had trouble coming off the ramp, this time to the left side of the ramp, but managed to keep it up right and a 2nd place finish in the women’s 45+ group with a 1:00:33.  Mark was next, he had a flawless start and was flying, then he felt the seat move, and then the seat really moved to almost a vertical position.  Mark took the high ground and did a U-turn.  Being safe and staying up right are so much more important than finishing a race.  Pam was last to go off and she SOARed like the rocket she is.  When almost everyone else’s times were SLOWER than previous PLT’s PAM did a 59:36.  She took 2nd in the women’s CAT 4 to ladies easily 10 years younger.  Pam is really turning into a TT speicalist.

Only a couple of races left on the calendar, including the VA State Senior TT which we promote, so see you there.

While part of the Rostello team has been placing at camp Hilbert, see previous post, a few of us have been working on our TT position and are ready to rock PLT #3.

Fun day  at Hilbert today at the 9 hr race! Congrats to my teammates Mark and Bryan for placing 3rd in the Duo Male Cat.  Amy for placing 2nd in Solo Women’s.   Frank and Paula placed 2nd in the Coed category!

You guys all rock!!!

The team has been racing a lot lately and I have been remiss in capturing and posting the great results We promoted the Spring Into Spring criterium on May 16th. We had a great turn out; the race has grown in participation every year. As for results I think a quick summary is in order.

Spring Into Spring May 16th,

Sharon Leary: Women’s 40+ 1st place, Women’s Cat 3, 5th place    Krinstin Schaefer: Women’s Cat 4 7th place, Jr 10 -1 4 2nd place       Hugh Brown: Jr 15- 18, 1st place, CAT 4 8th place

Sleepyhole Smackdown May 23rd

Sharon Leary: Women’s 1/2/3 3rd place    Kristin Schefer: JR 10-14 women 1st Place Hugh Brown: JR 15-18 2nd place, CAT 4 2nd place

Casey Auto Criterium May 29th

Kristin Schaefer: JR 13-14 1st place, CAT 4 5th place Sharon Leary: 40+ 1st place Karen Hanson: 40+ 3rd place Hugh Brown: JR 15-18 2nd place, CAT 4 2nd place James Schaefer: 40+ 5th place, CAT 3 4th place

Amphibious Assault Criterium June 5th

Sharon Leary: 40+ 3rd place Kristin Schaefer: CAT 4 4th place, JR 10-14 1st place Hugh Brown: JR 15-16 1st place, CAT 4 2nd place    James Schaefer: CAT 3 2nd place