By JP Partland

New York, NY December 8, 2004–Some speed merchants came early. Ken Harris, he of journal fame, wanted some extra warm-up time and a chance to stretch new tubulars onto his Zipp wheeled (disc rear, deep dish front) track bike, arrived with Aaron Wolfe and before the competition rollers. They availed themselves of the warm-up rollers while waiting. After the rollers arrived, so did the rest of the crowd. Racers, interested riders, and spectators made their way in.

After Harris’ slick setup, one rider brought a classic cruiser and another brought a classic road bike with twisted-spoke wheels. Soon enough, there were 12 competitors raring to go. The racers took turns warming up on the rollers, and Harris, ever the media-chaser, made waves by crashing off the rollers and rolling his tires (D’oh! no glue).

Everyone took their turn at a flying 500. Five hundred meters, one lap of the giant dial, once cranked up to speed. Harris (Merrill Lynch), he of the speedy set-up, clocked the fastest time at 17.24 seconds. Hot on his heels was Kissena’s Rob Panzera, at 17.33. Panzera was a surprise, as he rode a smaller gear than Harris, possessed no go-fast equipment and was astride his road bike. The next three riders were within .7 of a second of Harris.

Now it was time for the eliminations. The heats were 1,000 meters, or two laps of the dial, head-to-head, ala sprint tournament seeding. There were few surprises, as the favorites all advanced. There was some drama, as Panzera struggled to come from behind, and had to push himself off the wall to stay on the rollers and win his first heat.

In the second round, Panzera squared off against teammate Eric Ragot. Ragot, a category 1 trackie, was expected to win, though only the official seemed to know that Panzera had the faster qualifying time. Ragot held off Panzera, and made it look easy, though he later admitted he felt tapped out.

For the final, Harris raced Ragot. The giants looked evenly matched, but Ragot pulled away at the start and held it to the finish. While there was no official time, unofficially, the time ran about 33 seconds for the kilometer. In the race for third, Panzera came from behind to beat Kevin Molloy (crca/sakonnet).

Race notes–For the stats-minded, a cyclometer at the event recorded max speed of 54 mph and max cadence of 202. Not bad for a 53×15. Karl Rahn (crca/sakonnet) might have had the most powerful start; the screech coming off his rear wheel at the start of his heats seemed to indicate he was spinning out.

As always, thanks to Bike Works for use of the rollers.

Results

1. Eric Ragot, Kissena

2. Ken Harris, CRCA/Merrill Lynch

3. Rob Panzera, Kissena

4. Kevin Molloy, CRCA/Axis

5. J.P. Partland, Kissena

6. Aaron Wolfe, CRCA

Seeding times

1. Ken Harris (crca/merrill lynch) 17:24

2. Robert Panzera (kissena) 17:33

3. Eric Ragot (kissena) 17:39

4. Kevin Molloy (crca/axis) 17:48

5. J.P. Partland (kissena) 17:88

6. Karl Rahn (crca/axis) 18:72

7. Aaron Wolfe (crca) 20:34

8. Nathaniel Horne (kissena) 23:58