BIG Win the Madison Event in San Diego!!

The “Madison” is a spectacular track event. Beautiful to watch and tough to pull off.

Here’s a cool video that follows one rider around while the cameraman explains what’s happening:

And now…the full report from Javier:

Race: San Diego Velodrome Madison
Teams: 5
Former Pro’s in Race: 1
Number of Former National Champions: 2
Riders with International Racing Experience: 5
Distance: 20k (60 laps) with sprints every 10 laps.
Teammate: Brett Harnish (the other SoCal teammie)
Number of other races we both raced earlier that night: 3

Going into the 4th and final event of the night, Brett stated he was feeling good and had a nice snap to his legs. On the other hand, I was lacking the snap, but was feeling okay to ride a strong pace and put in some attacks. My only concern was the slow leak in my rear tire. It
would lose about 20psi every 10-15 minutes. Not being one that likes borrowing other riders equipment, especially so close to the start of the race, I decided to pump up the tire to 140psi and with luck, it would carry me through to the end of the 30ish minute race.

We start the race and are marking the blue team since they had one the madison held earlier in the season. For some reason they didn’t have their act together tonight and would end up being a non-contender.

First sprint of the night I get thrown in for it and while trying to come around for 2nd place, my rear tire is feeling a little too soft for the speed I was riding at (33+mph) and I just didn’t feel safe to push it. I take 3rd in the sprint and it gives us 2 points.

Next sprint Brett goes in for it and takes 2nd place while in the third sprint I also manage to take 2nd.

We’re half way into the race and my rear tire is feeling way too soft. I go into the infield and it turns out it’s hoovering at around 100psi. Not good. I’m offered a spare wheel but decide it would be faster to pump it back up to 150psi and not leave Brett hanging out with less than 30 to go.

I jump back in the race, and going into the 4th spring, we manage another 2nd place thansk to Brett’s good sprint.

At 17 to go the announcer stated the Silver team is in 1st with 17 points and we are in 2nd with 12. There are two sprints to go and we need to win both and have them place 3rd or lower in at least one of them.

13 laps to go I tell Brett to wait for me in turn 1. I pull for two laps, mostly at the front of the group and with 1 to go, I throw him in pretty hard. The silver team was exchanging about 15 meters ahead of us and Brett was able to close the gap fairly quickly (in Madisons 15 meters difference is significant going into a sprint lap) and come around the Silver team for the win in the sprint.

Score is now Silver team 19, White team (meaning us) 17. The pressure is on for us to take the win and have them place 3rd, ideally 4th.

Five laps to go, Silver team is on my wheel. They are basically sitting on us and would try to come around. I take a two lap pull and throw Brett in with about 2.5 laps to go. At this point I am looking to see were other teams are exchanging and trying to place the Silver team in a position of traffic were we could open a gap and hold it till the end. With 2 to go, Brett throws me in as a red team rider attacks as I was coming down onto Brett. Brett yell’s go and I latch onto the red team. Silver team was making their exchange about 25 meters ahead of were Brett and I were exchanging. I then attack the red team and just power away for the next lap and a half and threw Brett in.

Silver team was caught off guard and unable to close the gap, however the black team was closing in on Brett. If he came around, we would tie for 2nd place, however Brett sprinted through and got 1st on the final sprint, with black team in 2nd and silver team in 3rd. We had
taken the win by 1 point.

By the way, the silver team consisted of Shaun Wallace and Allen Richburg, a former masters national champion.

Felt great to obtain a result especially considering my form is just recently improving, I had a flat and we were able to come from behind to take the win.