July 6 NSC Velo Newsletter

Mother Nature offered a beautiful summer evening for bike racing last Thursday. A stiff south wind made the home stretch challenging to riders, however. Racers worked hard to stay on each other's wheels and to avoid doing too much work in the wind. The Cat 1/2 field was joined this week by three sprinters from the Trinidad and Tobago national cycling team. They are training at the NSC Velodrome before competing in Central American and Caribbean Games this Summer.

Read the full results.

Read the full race report.

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Salsa King of the Sprints - Keirin

Six riders advanced from heats to contest the Salsa King of the Sprint Keirin Final. Adam Bergman (Texas Roadhouse) drew the pole position. The early laps featured world-class tactics as the Caribbean islanders jealously guarded their positions. Wide sweeps and backward glances insured that the Trinidadians preserved their selected spots in line. With 2½ laps to go Bergman took off from the front, a tactic his teammate Pat Lemieux used to get to the final. In the final, however, the other riders paid attention and kept Bergman in range. With a lap to go his effort was spent. At this point the three Caribbean visitors took the race in hand. They sprinted past Bergman and duked it out for the top three places. Chris Ferris (PJW Racing) joined them, but a clever move at the rear of the bunch sent Ferris high on the track and opened the sprinter's lane to Njisine Philip (T&T). Philip charged from third wheel to take the win, edging his two teammates, Adam Alexander and Haseem Melom, and a determined Ferris.

Penn Cycle Points Race

The last race of the evening was a 60-lap Penn Cycle Points Race. The event was dominated by Texas Roadhouse teammates Bergman and Lemieux who took 2/3 of the sprint points on offer. Dan Casper (Grandstay) tried to get away early, got a gap as big as 100 meters and took the first sprint, but it was all Bergman and Lemieux after that. Bergman attacked out of a lead group of 4 and took the 2nd sprint by 70 meters. Bergman's gap grew to 200 meters by the 3rd sprint. Lemieux attacked out of the field to collect 2nd place points in that sprint and kept it hot. Bergman held up, waiting for Lemieux. With 28 laps to go the teammates had an 80 meter gap on the field who were not inclined to chase. Bergman and Lemieux lapped the field with 25 laps to go. Lemieux then attacked the field at the bell for the 4th sprint and took 1st place points. Bergman joined him and the duo was off again. At the sprint with 10 laps to go the pair had a 100 meter gap. Casper, James Tainter (Silver Cycling), and Joe Lewis (Bianchi/GP) tried to bridge but Bergman and Lemieux held them off through the final sprint, lapping everyone but the chasing trio. Bergman took 1st in the race with 21 sprint points to Lemieux' 18 points.Everyone else was down a lap. Casper took 3rd by a point over Lewis.