6/27-7/1 by Jimmy MacDonald
As most of you probably know, this last week I was in Kutztown, PA attending a USAC junior development camp. I left on Sunday and after one of the worst drives I have ever experienced I arrived at the college campus where we would stay and was the first one to check in on Monday morning. From there I spent a couple hours unpacking and helping kids with their bags. An introductory meeting preceded a 2 hour ride to get to know each other. There are few things more discomforting than riding double paceline and listening to a 14 year old kid talk about his 5 crashes so far this year and go no-hands to show me the scars and remaining road rash. Other than a few like him, most of the group was fairly experienced. There were 21 juniors and 4 espoirs, and were mainly cat-4's, with 2 other cat-3's and a handful of 5's. The interesting thing was that being from New England, many of the kids' seasons consisted of ONLY junior races can't pull that off here. We rode back to the campus and ate dinner and then went for an evening speaker. Sarah Uhl, junior world champion on the track and current women's pro riding for the Quark team, was kind enough to come and talk to us about the importance of really enjoying cycling. She was pretty cool, and had a lot of interesting experiences to talk about.
Tuesday morning we had to wake up at 6 and ride trainers in the hall for 30 mins. After breakfast, we rode out to a place called Rodale park. This place was awesome (right next to the LeHigh Valley Velodrome) but I'll talk about it on the Thursday write-up. There, we had our first test, 200m street sprints. There were 5 rounds with 3 or 4 person heats and the top 2 advancing. I took second overall and was beat buy a big sprinter that was my age. We went back to the campus for lunch then returned to the velodrome for our second test. It was very, very hot in the velodrome (it was outside, but that didn't help). We did, on road bikes, a 500m pursuit and a 2km pursuit (that's the standard distance for 16 and under track riders, the kids over 16 did a 1k and a 3k) and got 2nd in both, losing to the same kid by 1 second and 3 seconds (my times were ~38 sec and ~2:35). Riding on the track was an awesome experience. It was unbelievably fast and the control that you had in the forty-some degree banked turns made it super safe. I defidently recommend that anyone who has a chance to try one does so. We rode back to the campus and ate dinner and then went for another evening speaker. The evening speaker here was a cycling nutritionist and was very informative on the nutritional demands of cycling. He gave us a packet of a powerpoint presentation and I'll make copies of it if anyone wants any.
After another "morning discipline" and breakfast on Wednesday, we drove out to Hawk mountain for a 3k, 800ft vertical uphill TT. This climb was crazy-steep for its length. Just as a comparison, the beast (which I hope most of you enjoyed) Is 3 MILES nearly twice its length, and my time there from LAST year was 40 seconds faster than my time up Hawk mountain, and I'm in a lot better shape this year. 2 of the espoirs beat me, but the nearest junior was around a half a minute back (my minute man was the kid who beat me in the sprints, and I got him at the 1.5k marker). After lunch, we were joined by the Puerto Rican national jr champion and a member of the US Junior National team for a 2 hour ride while we worked on bumping and paceline riding. The first speaker at night talked to us about training and that sort of stuff. The second was a masseuse that had been driving a support vehicle for the week and she showed us how to give ourselves massages after hard rides to flush out any lactic acid and improve circulation. My question for her led to an answer that many of us have probably wondered about. You know those "THE STICK" massage things with the little rollers she said that they are not worth it and you get the same effect, if not a better one, with a rolling pin or her preference, your elbow. One thing was for sure, she knew her stuff.
Thursday morning and yet another morning discipline. They ditched the planned Team TT for a 2 hour developmental ride. Sebastian Alexandre, member of the Colavita pro team, accompanied us for some work on race tactics. After lunch we got 3 hours to hang around and prep for the criterium at Rodale Park. Now let me tell you about this place. It was built by the owners of the velodrome and was designed solely for criterium races. It was a paved 1 mile loop with NO corners and a lot of snaking, but safe, turns. There was one uphill section and one downhill, neither of which were the least bit steep. The entire thing was on beautiful asphalt that was the equivalent width of a three lane road. The finishing straight had the closest thing to a corner that made you ease up if you wanted to take the inside line and then a perfect 200m straight shot to the finish. Half the course was open and half was wooded. They have Thursday night Crits there and from my understanding, the crashes aren't near as fatal as Westlake. Any cyclist would just drool over this course because of its speed, chances for breaks, perfect road and finish, and safety (the turns were even slightly banked).
Well anyways, the race was going to be a 21 lap points race with a 5-3-2-1 point sprint every third lap and points 10 deep at the finish. There was a 22 year old kid who was a pro triathlete and I knew he would hang off the front by himself for the win. It stayed together for the first six laps, I got 1 point on the first prime and 5 on the second where the triathlete went. I jumped also to try and shed a few riders and instead left all but the one up the road and 4 others chasing with me. We drove the pace to get a gap (most of the peloton at this point had zero points and had no hope besides catching us). Well to make things easy I will now describe the race as if the points were 3-2-1 because the triathlete was long gone and taking all of the first place points. On the third sprint I jumped with 300m and led out my roommate (a really cool sprinter named Euri from NYC) so I got second in the sprint (really third). We held the pace high until the three behind us shed one kid (the sprinter from Tuesday), and then brought it together again to work. The pack was down to seven and was about 10 seconds back. Over the next three laps I brought up the lead to at least 20 seconds by taking long and hard pulls. We agreed on an order for the next prime in order to keep the pace high and make sure all four of us got points. The pace stayed high and on the next sprint I went early again to shed one kid and grab another 2 points. The three of us stayed for the rest of the race as I grabbed another 2 points on the last prime. On the last lap I went on the uphill and kept a 20m gap for to the finish straight. It was a thing of beauty, Euri came around me at the last second and we both had to throw at the line, where he won (second place) by inches. I ended up with third place in points. For dinner we got a party room at a nice restaurant and had a wing and pizza buffet while 2000 Olympic gold medallist in match sprints and member of the Navigators team Marty Nothstein talked to us.
No morning discipline on Friday morning, but we did go for a 3 hour hill ride, and the coaches told us to let loose on the ascents and regroup on the way down. I think I grabbed 6 of the 8 peaks, all but one by sizeable margins. It was a very hard ride. Right when I got back I jumped in the car with my mom and rode home.
Overall it was an awesome trip. I benefited a lot from going. The coaches there were great. They were Erin Hartwell (Olympic silver medallist and USAC elite track coach), Ray Ignosh and Jorge Romero (USAC elite track coaches), Mike Beers (mechanic), Bob beise (ride leader), and Liz Reap (professional photographer).
I have not received the results of the camp yet, although I am 99% sure that I won the junior omnium. Erin took me aside this morning and told me that he has noted my excellent all around performance and that he will submit my results to USAC for further evaluation and recommended continued development. I will get a resume in the mail stating the results as well as any decisions made thus far, along with a CD with thousands of awesome pictures taken by Liz. (I'm giving them to Denis to post on the site)
I'd also like to thank SFW for the idea and support for attending the Development Camp.