America’s answer to Herne Hill’s Good Friday meeting from the Hellyer Velodrome, San Jose, California.
Report by Andreas Vogel with photos by Garrett Lau.
Day 1
This year’s American Velodrome Challenge (AVC) had the best of Northern California competing with the many of the best US track riders and international guests featuring World and National Champions and World Cup riders.
Hundreds of spectators came out to San Jose’s Hellyer Velodrome to watch and cheer making AVC 2009 one big party.
Montano Velo Men Keirin
Some very fast men lined up for the Men’s Keirin. US National Champion Jimmy Watkins, 2008 Ominum World Champion Hayden Godfrey, local power house Pete Billington qualified for the final. So did up-and-coming rider Daniel Walker, who sent Olympian Giddeon Massie to the reps.
Massie made the decisive move in the final and won the $1000 purse, local fast man Steve Pelaez was holding off Hayden Godfrey.
1 Giddeon MASSIE
2 Steve PELAEZ
3 Hayden GODFREY
4 Jimmy WATKINS
5 Daniel WALKER
6 Jason ALLEN
7 Pete BILLINGTON
8 Stephen McLAUGHRY
Veritas Women Keirin
Proman teammates finished 1st and 2nd in the Women’s Keirin with US National Champion Cari Higgins taking the win and US enduro track star Shelley Olds taking second. Jen Featheringill completed the podium.
1 Cari HIGGINS
2 Shelley OLDS
3 Jen FEATHERINGILL
4 Elisabeth WILLIAMS
5 Cristin WALKER
6 Andrea FISK
7 Laura McCAUGHEY
Concept Cyclery  Women Points
The Women’s Points Race came down to a battle between Aussie Scratch Champion Laura McCaughey and US National Champ Shelley Olds. It came all down to the final sprint which was neutralized due a crash involving Cari Higgins. The race was re-started with 5 laps to go and Laura McCaughey took the opportunity and sealed the deal. Cari Higgins was up and riding again after her bike was fixed.
1 Laura McCAUGHEY
2 Shelley OLDS
3 Cari HIGGINS
4 Jennifer TRIPLETT
5 Elizabeth NEWELL
6 Amara BOURSAW
Breakless Men Madison 20k (60k laps)
The Men’s Madison race was the last race of the night and certainly one of the high-lights. Very quickly it became clear that this would be a battle between the Garmin team of Dan Holloway and guest rider, Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes and the New Zealand Subway-Avanti team of the world champs Hayden Godfrey and Jason Allen. It all came down to one point which was battled out in the last sprint when the Kiwis took the victory.
1 GODFREY/ALLEN Subway 22
2 HOLLOWAY/JACQUES-MAYNES Garmin/Bissel 21
3 STANGELAND/SILVA Rock Racing 8
4 ATKINS/SCHILLER Athletes 1
5 PALEAZ/PETERSON Webcore 0
6 SABGA/LUTTRELL Black Dog 0
-1 Lap
7 LACKWELDER/BEARDSLEY Gentle Lovers 5
8 EVANS/ HERNANDEZ Montano 4
9 McCOOK Village Pedaler 4
10 FARINAH/SHAFFER SJBC 1
Men Miss & Out
The Men Miss ‘n’ Out saw a huge field of 35 racers. The pace was very high right from the gun. Many of the sprinters didn’t last for long and some of the big names got eliminated early. Pro-riders Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Roman Kilun (OUCH) and Iggy Silva (Rock Racing) nearly made it to the end. The final came down to Jame Carney, Dan Holloway and Dave McCook. But it was really Carney and Holloway who took the sprint to the line with Carney nosing out Holloway.
1 Jame CARNEY
2 Dan HOLLOWAY
3 David McCOOK
4 Benjamin JACQUES-MAYNES
5 Roman KILUN
6 Iggy SILVA
Nicerpage.com Masters Miss ‘n’ Out
The Master Miss ‘n’ Out turned into a local Hellyer affair with the final five all from Hellyer. Finally, Briggs and Peterson sprinted it out, with Briggs taking it by inches.
1 Patrick BRIGGS
2 Brian PETERSON
3 Michael HERNANDEZ
4 Doug HALL
5 Andrew NEVITT
Testarossa Master Scratch Race
Local Eliot Logan wa
s taking it long with four laps to go, creating a 100m gap but he was caught with 150 m to go by the charging field. Former Olympian Mark Whitehead crossed the lined first.
1 Mark WHITEHEAD
2 Patrick BRIGGS
3 Sean WATKINS
4 Brian PETERSON
5 Alden TANAKA
Day 2
Saturday started early in the morning with flying 200m sprint qualifications. The nine fastest in every field qualified for the sprint tournament.
Men 200m
US National Champion Jimmy Watkins set a new Hellyer Velodrome track record with 10.84 sec.
Jimmy WATKINS 10.84
Giddeon MASSIE 11.34
Karl ERICKSON 11.39
Peter BILLINGTON 11.42
Daniel WALKER 11.50
Giovanni REY 11.57
Kelyn AKUNA 11.61
Stephen McLAUGHRY 11.64
Allen VUGRINCIC 11.84
Michal ROHOŇ 11.85
Sam MILROY 11.90
Nicholas HARTER 11.95
Women 200m
Australian Scratch Champion Laura McCaughey set the fastest time for the women. US National Sprint Champion Cari Higgins did not start after her crash on Friday.
Laura McCAUGHEY 12.5
Jen FEATHERINGILL 12.8
Elisabeth WILLIAMS 12.86
Tela CRANE 12.95
Cristin WALKER 13.0
Elizabeth NEWELL 13.1
Annabell HOLLAND 13.2
Andrea FISK 13.4
Shelby REYNOLDS 13.5
Kendi THOMAS 13.7
Heather VanVALKENBURG 13.8
Jane CHATEAUBRIAND 14.1
Camille HOOK 14.3
Master 200m and San Jose Bicycle Club Master Sprint
The master men finalized their sprint tournament before lunch as they had Keirin racing coming up in the afternoon.
Stephen McLAUGHRY 11.6
Brian ABERS 11.9
Terry TENETTTE 12.2
Mark GODFREY 12.3
Pekka JASKE 12.5
Andreas VOGEL 12.5
Arden ARINDAENG 12.6
Mark RODAMAKER 12.6
John SIMMONS 12.7
Alex MILLAR 12.8
Tim MONTAGNE 12.9
Gavin SCHOLLE 13.0
Portland’s men swept the podium:
1 Stephen McLAUGHRY
2 Brian ABERS
3 Mark GODFREY
4 Pekka JASKE
5 Arden ARINDAENG
The afternoon session started with the men and women sprint finals.
Milroy Construction Men’s Sprints
Jimmy Watkins was clearly beating Olympian and Friday night’s Keirin winner Giddeon Massie. The race for bronze was much closer, but eventually up-and-coming Daniel Walker won 2:0 over Kelyn Akuna.
1 Jimmy WATKINS
2 Giddeon MASSIE
3 Daniel WALKER
4 Kelyn AKUNA
5 Peter BILLINGTON
Zin Surgical Women’s Sprints
The women’s sprint was a down-under affair. Australian Laura McCaughey was beating recovering Kiwi sprinter Liz Williams 2:0. Jen Featheringill took third.
1 Laura McCAUGHEY
3 Elisabeth WILLIAMS
2 Jen FEATHERINGILL
4 Tela CRANE
5 Cristin WALKER
Sport Velo Women’s Miss & Out
As in Friday night’s Point race, this was battle between home favorite and world Cup bronze medalist Shelley Olds and Australian Laura McCaughey and Laura prevailed again.
1 Laura McCAUGHEY
2 Shelley OLDS
3 Jennifer TRIPLETT
4 Cari HIGGINS
5 Beth NEWELL
6 Karla KINGSLEY
7 Kira PROKOPAKIS
8 Cristin WALKER
9 Liz WILLIAMS
10 Kendi THOMAS
Testarossa Men’s Scratch
Local Hellyer track star and World Cup bronze medalist Dan Holloway, escaped from the field early on and managed to gain a lap on the field. Hayden Godfrey won the field sprint for second.
1 Dan HOLLOWAY
2 Hayden GODFREY
3 Grant BOURSAW
4 Steven BEARDSLEY
5 Steve PELAEZ
6 Iggy SILVA
7 Ryan LUTTRELL
8 David  MCCOOK
9 Maurice MONGE
10 Giovanni REY
11 Brian PETERSON
12 Derek DIXON
Western Athletic Clubs Master Keirin
Hellyer’s Brian Peterson attacked right after the motor came off, took the lead and stayed in the front all the way ti the finish line.
1 Brian PETERSON
2 Stephen McLAUGHRY
3 Mark GODFREY
4 Brian ABERS
5 John SIMMONS
6 Mark RODAMAKER
7 Michael HERNANDEZ
Testarossa Women’s Scratch
This race was a great example of team tactics: while everyone was expecting another duel between Shelley Olds and Laura McCaughey, Shelley team mate Hanan Alves-Hyde went off with Julia Manley and Tela Crane, eventually outsprinting her two break-away companions.
1 Hanan ALVES-HYDE
2 Julia MANLEY
3 Tela CRANE
4 Laura McCAUGHEY
5 Shelley OLDS
6 Jennifer TRIPLETT
7 Cari HIGGINS
8 Andrea FISK
9 Jen FEATHERINGILL
10 Emily CHARBONNEAU
startcycling.com Master Points Race
This was a classic battle between sprinters and enduros. While 8 riders took points in the first two sprints, local pursuiter Michael Hutchison took off winning the other two sprints.
1 Michael HUTCHINSON
2 Pekka JASKE
3 Daryl HEMENWAY
4 James KEISER
5 Aaron HUNTER
6 John SIMMONS
7 Michael HERNANDEZ
8 Brandon CORREIA
9 Andrew NEVITT
John Peckham Memorial Men’s Points Race
Before the night’s last race was started, NCVA President Brian Peterson remembered friend and team member John Peckham.
James Stangeland won the first sprint and he could score 3 more times which was enough for a decisive win. Dan Holloway and Jame Carney battled out silver and bronze.
1 James STANGELAND
2 Dan HOLLOWAY
3 Jame CARNEY
4 Grant BOURSAW
5 Steve PELAEZ
6 Benjamin JACQUES-MAYNES
7 Iggy SILVA
8 Giddeon MASSIE
9 Jason ALLEN
10 Karl ERICKSON
11 Ryan LUTTRELL
Â
For more of Garrett Lau’s excellent photos, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/garrettlau/
