Today was the event that I've been training for since January this year... The 3k Pursuit! Lots of unknowns... Minimal velodrome time, and having not ridden a pursuit for about 5 years, I really didn't know what to expect. Based on yesterday's results from the Kilo, and some research into results from the riders I was up against, and some input from Jeff, I decided to go with a 3:35 schedule. A faster time than I had seen by any of the other riders. The winner of yesterday's Kilo (Randy McLain) had done a 3:40 in qualifying for his eventual silver medal ride at the 2008 Master Worlds!

When I arrived at the velodrome, I saw that Nick Traggis had signed up the night before... He recently won the 30-34 Pursuit at the Colorado State Championships, and he was in my heat. I got to start on the home straight, he was on the back.

Before I had lined up, I had some discussion with Jeff and we decided to shoot for 3:40. If you go out too fast at altitude, it takes longer to get things back on track, so a conservative start was the way to go. Jeff was on the track side to indicate if I was up or down on the 3:40 schedule! Talk about awesome support! I think my first lap target was 28.9sec, and I made it around in about 28.7... right on the money. This put me at 4th place after the first 1km, but by the end of the 2nd km I had moved up and had the win in sight. I lost track of exactly what lap I was on thanks to not being able to see the lap counter that was off to the side... The next thing I knew it was the bell lap! It seemed early, but I just unleashed whatever I had left in my legs. I brought back a little time but not enough. Traggis got my by about 0.6second, which eventually pushed me into bronze medal position.

Final results had Randy McLain winning with a 3:40, Nick Traggis taking silver with a low 3:42, and me in bronze with a high 3:42. Talk about frustratingly close to being in silver, or even a national champion.

Not quite the result that I was expecting, but I guess taking home two bronze's from my first attempt at track nationals isn't a total failure. Bring on 2010!