UCSB stepped up and hosted the first collegiate track race on the west coast down at Encino. I've been training off and on at the Encino velodrome since Janurary. I couldn't miss a chance to knock some heads on the home turf! The event was smaller than most of the WCCC road events, but UCSB and Cal Poly came out in force across all categories. Even Colorado State sent two riders, and their woman held her own in the men's A/B field. Conspiciously absent were the Irvine track stars and the handful UCLA riders who said they would come...you guys missed out on a great day of laid-back racing. The teams had a blast mingling under easyups and trash-talking each other between the events.

Men A/B Omnium: 1st

15 km Points Race: 1st
Perfectly suited for me. Punch, recover, hide. I worked the pack and snagged two 2nds and two 1sts. , then attacked off the front and soloed 1.5 km to take the second to last batch of points.


2km Scratch Race: 2nd
Picked the wrong wheel (the CSU girl) and Nathan from UCSB rode off the front to snag the win.

4km Tempo: 1st
I was getting nervous; Nathan and I were neck and neck in the ominium standings. He attacked off the front on lap two. I followed and we were racing one-on-one until the end. My experience with the Encino track was a huge advantage. When Nathan lead it out, I usually came around him. When I lead it out, I rode up to the blue line, goaded him to attack, and slingshotted down the track to fly by him over the line. Blake Anton rode his P3 carbon and disc off the front to take the last three points and clinch my win.

4-man Chariot: 3rd
This was my first standing start event, ever. I put in a good 250m qualifier time trial but lacked the muscle coming off the start line in the four-man event. I will practice this.

Thank you to Evan Ching for graciously loaning me his track bike for the past few months.

Zach Scott took some great pictures