35 riders registered for racing Thursday night. A fall chill was in the air reminding riders that the season was drawing near to the end for 2008. The program featured the Salsa King of the Sprint, the 60-lap Penn Cycle Points Race and a County Cycles Women's Scratch Race.
 
The field for the Women's Scratch Race was 8 strong, with two from the Flanders Cycle/ MBRC team taking charge early. Shana Sturla and Linda Sone both took it in turns to attack the field and force the sprinters to chase them down. Heidi Dahlmann, Linsey Hamilton, Megan Lennon, and Melissa Dahlmann all worked hard to contain the efforts of the two Flanders women. Steph Thompson made numerous aggressive moves off the front as well. This took its toll on the early aggressors and in the end Melissa and Heidi Dahlmann sprinted home ahead of Linda Sone and Steph Thompson to round out one of the more exciting women's races of the season.
 
The Salsa King of the Sprint race was taken again by Chris Ferris who has dominated the series for most of the season. Two heats of four riders qualified 6 for the final 3-lap contest. In the final, Ferris edged out Brian Crosby with a new face, Peter Schweich, sprinting down to the wire for third.
 
The final event of the evening saw the category 3 riders join the category 1/2 field for the 60-lap Penn Cycle Points Race. The large field started to split up under the pressure of attacks which eventually saw Brian Crosby and Tim Mulrooney pick up 20 points by gaining a lap on the field. Crosby won the race over Mulrooney by virtue of consistent placing in the sprints with Ben Dubay and Chris Ferris rounding out the top four. 

View full results here...

Thursday September 11th, is "Fan Appreciation Night" and will be the final event of the 2008 track season at the velodrome. The schedule will feature a couple of novelty races with the category 3 riders doing a "Jokers Gamble" race and the category 1/2s warming up with a "Reverse Race". You won't want to miss our final Track Stand contest of the summer as well as our final Salsa King of the Sprint Keirin and Penn Cycle Points Race. We'll have drawings for T-shirts, posters and other goodies for fans too. County Cycles is planning a "wrong side of the track" party for their club members and riders and of course we have hot dogs, brats, and hamburgers for sale in the "Track Shack".

James Tainter, Ted Schmid and Dan Schueller competed at the Master's National Track Championships in San Jose, CA this past week. Tainter took 2nd place in the 1-kilometer time trial in the Men's 40 to 44 age group. He followed this up with a personal best time of 3:36 in the Individual Pursuit for another silver medal. He took 5th in the Match Sprint and 4th in the Team Pursuit to end up as "Best All Round Rider" for the 40 - 44 age division. Ted Schmid from St. Cloud, took a silver medal at his first attempt in the Team Sprint for men aged 30+. Schueller had his first taste of national level competition in track cycling and finished about mid-field in the Points Race, Match Sprints, and Kilo. Expect to see all three of these riders work on improving their respective places in future national competitions.

 

To read more detail on Tainter's National experience go to: http://nscsports.typepad.com/national_sports_center_bl/