A couple weeks before Nationals, Allison, Kinley and myself decided it would be fun to do a TRT Team Pursuit at the Track National Championships in Milton. In order to compete we needed four riders, so we found Sara Mason from Ontario, who ended up fitting the bill perfectly. The race was on the first day of Nationals, which was also the first day the track was open... ever. There was so much dust on the track that we had to wipe our wheels down with vinegar, and wipe saw dust from our eyes at the end of each effort. We were lucky enough to have Kinley's coach direct us in our warm up and help us with a few practice efforts before the race that evening. Because the track is a lot longer and smoother than Burnaby's (what I am used to racing), the race unfolded a lot differently then anything I had practiced before. Our gear, for example, was eight inches bigger then what I would use at Burnaby, which is a pretty big jump. Thankfully, Allison, Kinley and Sara are all a part of the National track team and knew exactly how to run a smooth and cohesive team pursuit.
Kinley was our starter, practicing the position she will be for the World Cup she is about to attend in Columbia. Allison was our team captain, because not only can she (and Kinley) sit on the front for two laps at a time, she is also the most calm and level headed person I know. Sara was third, and I took up the rear.
We qualified second in the preliminaries with a time of 4:51 for 4km, which is just under 50km/hr. This put us in the gold medal round in the finals against team BC which had three of the main National team pursuiters. Although we knew that they would most likely beat us, we did post the fastest first kilo in our qualifiers, so our goal was to keep the other laps as close to that as possible. We ended up coming second in the finals, however we still beat our qualifiying time by two seconds.
Because this was a test event for the Pam American Games, everything was run in a very formal fashion. For the awards, we were escorted out onto the infield with dramatic music and our medals were carried on silver platters. Although we were holding in our laughter, it was still a pretty cool moment and we were all excited that we got to do it in TRT colours.
Thank you so much to everyone at TRT racing for helping us get to Milton, although I can't wait to get home because it's freezing and in the middle of nowhere. We wouldn't be able to race at this level if it wern't for the unwavering support of our sponsors, managers and teammates.