Masters State Track Championships-Lauren and Louise

Where: ADT Velodrome in Carson
What: Womens 500TT
Who: Lauren Jacobsen (Turbo Chicken)
Louise Keoghan (Shebiscuit)
Place: 1st and 5th

Lou and I got to the track this morning and we were warming up by 8AM.
Let me start this whole story by laying some ground work. Louise started training for the 500TT in about April...the end of April. She had never done a standing start, she had never sprinted 3/4 of a lap through the turns out of the saddle, in short, she knew nada about sprinting in this dicipline. We all know Lou, she is a true competitor and a real fighter. No start nor sprint was gonna stop her or even slow her down.

Antony has been training us together as our goal is to do the team sprint which goes off tomorrow afternoon. In Antony's ever "you gotta do it" style, Lou was signed up for the individual 500TT. Her first competition 500TT!

She had a straight start, dug in and did a tremendous ride today. She was beat by the World Champion, the State Champion and a couple of other women who have been sprinting for a long time. What a ride. She still does not get it that she was fifth in her very first 500 with that high caliber roster. Really wonderful work. Now if we can just get her to stay off her legs for more than 5 seconds and be like her wheels and ZEN before the race, I think we will all see her start landing on the podium very soon.

My race was great, my start was good and my legs felt great.
The starts for this race had no count down, it was literally
"rider ready, timer ready, go!". No time to set before the plank splitting first pedal stroke. So you better be on your game or the clock has run 2 seconds and your brain is still saying "did he just say go!!!"

This is my last year in this category, I am happy to have won 2007, 2008 and now 2009. I like to try and follow in Antony's footsteps with the "threepeat" concept.

Thank you to Ant for being there for us both.
Tomorrow, Lou and I go for the team sprint. This is where Lou won the nick name "Shebiscuit". Stay tuned.

Also Debbie Betts was out there today racing as well as Scott.I look forward to their race reports.

Chicken