Racer Ex 

Track Nats report from COS, if I get a moment I'll post some pics:

Left Reno Friday a 4:00am, arrive in Colorado Springs 11:00 PM. Next afternoon folks arrived and we went to check out the track. You had to go through an air lock to get in, the dome is partially inflatable. 333 track, concrete, pretty smooth. Banking is higher than our practice track and a bit wider. The elevation meant you were running big gears, at least 2-4" up depending on the event.

Points race, Saturday night: Bronze. Got points in every sprint, was second at one point, but ran into the guy who has won this event at worlds 5 times including a month ago, and a nats champ guy who was just a little faster. Inflatable dome note: when folks have both doors to the airlock open, the plastic dome deflate a bit and you can whack into it if you are up on the rail. Interesting at 30+ MPH.

The had the 45-49 women race with us, only 3 entries and one of them crashed out earlier in the day. They rode really well.

Team Pursuit, Sunday morning: Silver. We had the national (US event) record for 12 minutes. Then we ran into the current world champs and world record holders. We beat the reigning Nats champs and former nats record holders who rode their best time ever. Did not ride my best, allergies or my EIA acted up and my teammate noted he could hear me breathing one slot back. This event just keeps getting faster and faster.

Team Sprint: Bronze. Based on my breathing issues and the fact that my teammate rode a great TP, we swapped order and I rode the #2 slot. Had the second fastest leg for my slot, but we got beat by the guys who beat us at states and a team that has about 20 world titles. Pretty good ride technically, could have used a higher gear and maybe had the fast #2 time.

Left COS, stayed overnight in Rawlings WY, arrived home at 6 PM Monday night. 2200 miles round trip.

Smaller but incredibly quality fields. It's an honor to be in there with these folks. Great vibe, nothing but happy for the guys who beat us, I know and have raced multiple times against them all. Not a lot of "shoulda/coulda" anywhere in here. Long season, earned some time off.

What often gets lost in all the training and racing is a time to reflect on how the year went. Tough one for me in a lot of personal ways. But sure looks good on paper:

1 Nats Jersey
7 Nats medals
3 State Jerseys
4 State medals

Taking some time off then regrouping and figuring out next season. With track worlds in Carson it might be a good time to drop a lot of the road stuff and try to really hit the track training hard. No illusions about just how tough those fields are going to be, been racing against a lot of guys with rainbow stripes locally. Might be worth a shot though.

carleton

Great job! Sounds like a fun weekend of racing. It's pretty cool (and intense) when only the big dogs show up for an event.

Velocirapture

Nice going.

By how much, would you reckon, the air pressure inside is increased by the inflation of the place? Not ideal system for a velodrome, but in our world i guess you take what you get.

700wheel

According this VeloNews article the dome reduces altitude by 200 feet
Liveblog: Evelyn Stevens hour record | VeloNews.com

The velodrome is at an altitude of around 6,000 feet. The pressure difference inside to outside is around 0.010%

Racer Ex 

As @700wheel noted, VN says 200ft, and I've also been told by an engineer that looked into it that it's around 500ft.

Going through the airlock occasionally people brain farted and had both doors open and if you were in the tunnel it howled pretty good.

The other downside is that there was definitely some off-gassing going on with the dome, noticeable plastic odor. They had only had it up for a couple of days when we arrived so I would think this would dissipate over time.

VanceMac

Small even for track, given the circumstances, but it was almost 100% cream of the crop. Congrats! See you at WORLDS in 11 months.

Dalai

Nicely done RacerEx!

sarals 

Coach, terrific job!! Just fantastic!

JimiMimni

For what it's worth, that plastic scent never really goes away. I raced down there all winter and it was always around. I start to get a little giddy when I catch a whiff of plastic. "OOH IS IT RACE DAY?! Oh, no, just packing material."