Masters Track National 2018 Team Sprint — @fastkadence
Three time is a charm, indisputably!
My trusted teammates Ethan Boyes (@ethan_b_bikes), Joshua McDonald (@hapakid78) and I traveled across the country to the world renowned velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. We first battled each other earlier in the week in the match sprint and time trail events, much like we had been doing all season long at our home track, Hellyer Velodrome.
Team events (team pursuits and team sprints) are typically held on the last day at nationals. At that point, physical and mental fatigue do become considerable factors. It was not exactly a well-kept secret, our team did have an unfair advantage over others.
Each of us merely lived a couple zip codes away, so Team Rice-A-Roni was able to regularly practice exchanges leading up to the event. Whenever we were pressed for time, we would huddle at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park and ride along other recreational cyclists and roller skaters around 38–40mph!
Team Sprint Final
Over numerous seasons (see recap from 2015), the Rice-A-Roni boys played around with the starting order. Fortunately, my speed endurance had always been lowest amongst the three of us. I would typically be Man1 or Man2. After few rounds of rock-scissor-paper, we decided starting with me (Ken), Josh, then Ethan.
Thanks to Kate Wilson (@golden_state_kate), we had ourselves a high-quality video from a great vantage point. Excellent job, Katie!
I went off the gun decently well, Josh continued to build upon that, and Ethan brought it home in style. We were announced national champions, the third time out of the past four years. After the award ceremony, we promptly proceeded to stuffing our faces at the Team Performance Cycle Coaching (@performancecyclecoaching) celebration. That, my friend, was a happy ending.
Originally published at https://fastkadence.com on July 18, 2018.
