Friday Night Breakaway Series
Hellyer Park Velodrome
San José, CA 1997
Northern California/Nevada Madison Championship
1 Nick Kelez/Derek Witte The Olympic Club 2 Larry Nolan/Jerry Malone USPS ( Red, White, Blue) 3 Glen Winkle/Kevin Metcalfe USPS (Orange, Black) 4 Russle Mead/Peter Armitage Stanford ( Masters) 5 Ma-Ne Rodriguez/James Lillard Stanford (Juniors) 6 Mark Richardson/Heather Thompson Valley Spokesmen 7 Lance Waltjen/John Cannon MERT
The only event on the schedule was the Madison Championship. The evening works like this. The opening event is a 60 lap Madison, after the opening Madison 1 rider from each team stays on the track and goes right into a 12 lap Pt a Lap. After the 12 lap Pt a lap the first rider from each team gets a rest and the 2nd rider from each team comes out to do a 10 lap Scratch race. After a short intermission both riders from each team comes out for a Miss and Out race and then a final 80 lap Madison.
The points earned and the laps gained/lost in all the races is combined together to determin the Madison championship. In the non-madison races the top 5 riders earn 7/5/3/2/1 points for their team total. In the Madisons the points earned in sprints are added to the total score.
For example if a team earns 20 points in the first Madison, gets 1st place in the Point a lap and 23 points in the second Madison the total team score would be 50 Pts.
Things got interesting right from the start. Ma-Ne Rodrigues found himself without a partner as the race was suppose to start. Jr rider James Lillard was in the stands and he happened to have his bike and riding clothes with him. At the last second ( James was called out of the spectator stands and asked if he wanted to ride. James said yes and ran out to the parking lot to get changed. The start of the race was held up for a couple of minutes to give James a chance to get dress but since James isn't a quick change artist the race started without James. This ment that Ma-Ne had to ride without a partner ( and stay in the race the whole time) untill James made it back to the track.
After about 10 laps James was dressed and ready to ride ( except he had ZERO warm-up time. Also James had never ridden a Madison in his young life, but luckly no one knew about this lack of Madison experience until after the race was over. It is very impressive that James and Ma-Ne were able to finish on even laps and during the second Madison were in the lead pack most of the time).
The next bit of excitement came about 1/2 way through the first 60 lap Madison. At the start of the home straight Larry Nolan and Peter Armitage got tangled up with both riders going down. Since Larry was blocking the sprinter lane the race was stopped unlit Larry could be moved. After about 2 minutes Larry was able to get up under his own power and he was ready to race again. The problem was Larry's front Spingery wheel was totally trashed ( he can now play ring toss with the rim and there wasn't much left of the spokes and hub).
After quickly getting a new front wheel Larry was back on the track and the race restarted. The next bit of excitement came when Kevin Metcalfe threw his chain coming out of turn 2. This ment that Glen Winkel had to ride by himself until Kevin could get his chain back on. Kevin looked in good cyclocross form as he ran back across the grass to get his tools and replace his chain.
The next bit of extra excitement came at the start of the 12 lap point a lap race. Derek Witte from the race leading Olympic club was going to take a flyer at the start of the race. The problem was one of Derek's feet came out of the pedals just as he started to accelerate. Luckly Derek's other foot also came out and Derek rode his toptube safely down to the track apron. Derek was able to get his feet back on the pedals and chase back into the back of the pack.
The top 5 teams ended up on even laps. With 3 sprints to go in the final 80 lap Madison only 1 point seperated the top two team ( The Olympic Club and the USPS Red, White and Blue team), with the 3rd place team about 10 points out of the lead. The Team of Rodrigues and Lillard really started to make a run at 4th place during the final few sprints and might have taken over 4th place from the Stanford masters team if the race had gone on for a couple of more sprints ( Going into the final 80 lap Madison Ma-Ne and James were about 17 points behind Mead and Armitage.
Overall there was a lot of exciting racing for the final night of the 1997 Friday Night Breakaway Series.